Sony's PS5 reaches 65 million units sold

Sony has passed 65 million units sold of its PS5 console, the company confirmed this week. Sony recently published its Q2 2024 quarterly financial results and it showed a decline in overall PS5 hardware sales, but a noticeable lift in PlayStation software sales with a surge of game purchases.

The PS5 started strong during its initial release but it would take a couple of years before it really started pushing beyond records in comparison to other Sony consoles. The number of PS5s that Sony has sold this quarter is down from the same time in 2023 when the company sold about 1.1 million more of the console. 2024 overall has seen a decline as well, with Sony reporting that by this time last year, it had sold 2 million more units in total.

Sony recently reported in September that it had surpassed 61.7 million PS5s sold worldwide. So the number sold in this week’s report is up by about 3.3 million units from that period.

Sony’s lower number of PS5 units sold was offset by strong game sales

While Sony’s PS5 hardware sales weren’t as strong as they were in Q2 2023, game sales for Q2 2024 were up by about 14.9 percent, helping to offset the lower hardware sales numbers. That percentage increase totals about 77.1 million games. Sony also mentions that PlayStation Plus subscribers haven’t increased but they also haven’t declined. The number of people subscribed to the service remains at 116 million.

This might come as a surprise considering that Sony increased the prices of PlayStation Plus when it introduced its trio of plan tiers. Since the price increase of those new plan tiers, however, Sony has continued to add value to the service. That obviously enticed subscribers to stick around.

Sony secures a $2.91 billion operating profit

Despite the lower console hardware sales, Sony’s operating profit had a big upswing thanks to games. Overall, the company saw an increase in revenue by 9 percent and an increase in operating profit by 73 percent. That resulted in a total operating profit of 445.1 billion yen, which is about $2.91 billion USD. As noted by Engadget, Sony’s first party game Astro Bot played a big part thanks to its strong sales. Black Myth: Wukong was another big reason for the success.

While the game is available on PC, PS5 is the only console where the game can be played. Across both platforms, the game has sold 18 million copies worldwide as of September according to analytics from Statista. Current sales are reportedly around 20 million according to Bloomberg.