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Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units globally in 2020, as revealed by information released alongside the company’s latest earnings report. This figure underlines Sony’s current ability to mass-produce the console, which has been extremely difficult to buy since its launch in November.
Demand for the PlayStation 4 has fallen dramatically year-over-year, with 1.4 million units shipped in the October-December quarter, down 77% from the previous year. last year. Sony actually managed to sell fewer PS4s during the holiday quarter than from July to September.
Overall, Sony’s gaming business performed much better than a year ago, with analyst Daniel Ahmad noting that it was actually the best quarter in PlayStation history. Revenue rose 40% to 883.2 billion yen ($ 8.4 billion), in part thanks to sales of PS5. Operating profit rose 50% to 80.2 billion yen ($ 763.3 million) due to higher sales of games, PlayStation Plus subscriptions and better margins on PS4 hardware.
Sony does note, however, that the expenses related to the launch of the PS5 offset some of its profit gains and also confirms that the PS5 hardware itself is sold for less than it costs to make. A loss was incurred due to “strategic prices for PS5 hardware that were lower than manufacturing costs,” the company said.
There’s not much to read in the PS5’s sales numbers until people who want to buy one are actually able to do so. But at the very least, the console’s launch appears to be broadly comparable in size to that of the PS4; the PS4 also shipped 4.5 million units during its launch quarter.
Microsoft did not release specific sales figures for the Xbox Series X or Series S with its earnings report last week, but the company said Xbox hardware revenue was up 86% year on year. on the other.
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