Despite the incredible success of Sony’s newest console, many have still been unable to obtain a PlayStation 5. With the holiday season fast approaching, Sony is trying to find a way to sate the ongoing PS5 shortage in time.
The PS5 will celebrate its second birthday in November. High demand alongside ongoing global supply chain issues have muddied the console’s brief legacy, and the latest numbers show that PS5 sales have largely stagnated over the past three months. From March to June, Sony shipped 2.4 million consoles, showing just a tiny increase on the 2.3 million it sold last year during the same period. 21.7 million PS5 units have been sold worldwide.
During Sony’s forecast for 2022, the company had predicted that it would sell 18 million consoles. This means that over the next three quarters, Sony needs to move 15.7 million PS5s to meet its ambitious goal. That may be difficult to do when producing the console has been difficult in the first place, but luckily, lockdowns recently ended in Shanghai, which is a major production center for PS5 components. This could mean that snagging a PS5 during the holidays won’t be as big of a headache as many had anticipated.
In the latest earnings results review, Sony noted that software sales are down.
“Taking this situation into account, we intend to take action to increase user engagement in the second half of the fiscal year, during which major titles including first-party software are scheduled to be released, primarily by increasing the supply of PS5 hardware and promoting the new PlayStation Plus service,” the company explained. Fans worry that the cost of the PlayStation 5 may rise, though Sony has not responded to these rumors.
While the company has seen a slowdown in PS5 sales, the same can’t be said for its new-and-improved PlayStation Plus service. As of June 31, 47.3 million users are using the subscription service, marking an increase of 1 million subscribers since the same time last year. It’s unclear how many subscribers are taking advantage of Sony’s pricier new Extra and Premium tiers.
During the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022, 79 percent of software sales on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were digital downloads. This is a marked increase when compared to 71 percent last year.
