Sony has released its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, providing a glimpse into the current state of its gaming division.
The company reported a 12% year-over-year increase in revenue, with operating profit up by an impressive 33%. This growth was largely driven by increased sales of games and services, particularly PlayStation Plus (PS+). However, hardware sales have weakened.
Earlier this year, the Japanese company revised its sales forecast for the PlayStation 5, acknowledging a decline in demand since last year. In the most recent quarter, Sony sold 2.4 million PS5 units, a decrease from the 3.3 million units sold during the same period last year. Overall, the PlayStation 5 has sold 61.7 million units to date.
VGChartzprovided context by comparing the performance of the PS5 to its predecessor, the PS4. According to their data, 59.3 million PS5s have been sold over 44 months on the market. In contrast, the PS4 sold 61.3 million units in the same time frame, a difference of 2 million units in favor of the PS4. Ultimately, the previous generation, PS4, went on to sell nearly double that amount, reaching 117.2 million units.
The PlayStation 4’s sales were boosted in the latter half of its life cycle by the release of the more powerful PlayStation 4 Pro. Similarly, a new and improved version of the PlayStation 5 is expected to be released this fall. However, whether it will achieve the same level of success as its predecessor remains to be seen.
Last week, Nintendo also released its financial results, revealing that the company sold an additional 2.1 million Switch consoles in the last three months. This brings the total number of Switch units sold over more than seven years to 143.4 million. In historical rankings, the Switch now sits behind the Nintendo DS (154 million) and PlayStation 2 (158.7 million).
