Sony Interactive Entertainment: a new record year, but the PS5 is still difficult to find
If the PS5 has sold 17.3 million copies, including 3.9 million PS5s between October and last December, worldwide since its launch, this is still relatively less than the 20.2 million PS4s at this same period. Victim of its success, Sony's latest console saw its sales slow down because of the inevitable shortage that still prevails. The targets are therefore lower. Instead of aiming for 22.6 million PS5s by March 2023, the Japanese giant is instead expecting a total of 19.3 million. As for the PS4, the end is approaching with 200,000 units distributed against 1.4 million last year. A price reduction would be welcome to try a final breakthrough before stopping production.
The semiconductor crisis prevents the PS5 from catching up with the sales of the PS4 for the second time in an affiliate.
If the PS5 has sold 17.3 million copies, including 3.9 million PS5s between October and last December, worldwide since its launch, this is still relatively less than the 20.2 million PS4s at this same period. Victim of its success, Sony's latest console saw its sales slow down because of the inevitable shortage that still prevails. The targets are therefore lower. Instead of aiming for 22.6 million PS5s by March 2023, the Japanese giant is instead expecting a total of 19.3 million. As for the PS4, the end is approaching with 200,000 units distributed against 1.4 million last year. A price reduction would be welcome to try a final breakthrough before stopping production.
Sony Interactive Entertainment is nevertheless pleased to achieve a record turnover of 22 billion euros for the whole of 2021 despite an operating profit which fell by 21%. Conversely, the turnover of the last quarter of the year is down (6.2 billion euros), whereas that of profits is up (718.3 million euros). It is even the largest operating profit ever recorded by the PlayStation brand between October and December. Finally, although SIE is forced to revise its turnover downwards for the entire fiscal year, it will remain the largest in its history (21.8 billion euros). The annual operating profit is revised upwards (2.6 billion euros) thanks to a reduction in selling, general and administrative expenses.
Financial report of Sony Interactive Entertainment, an update on the various figures
- 92.7 million PS5 and PS4 games sold between October and December 2021 compared to 104.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier
- 11.3 million first-party games sold over the period compared to 19 million a year earlier
- 62% of games sold in the last quarter were downloaded, compared to 53% a year earlier
- 48 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, a new record and an increase of 600,000 subscribers compared to last year
- 294.1 million PlayStation games sold, including 95.6 million boxed and 198.5 million downloaded, for the whole of 2021
- 37.3 million first-party games sold over the whole of 2021