Based on the company’s recently released financial report, Sony has a lot to be happy about with the PlayStation 4. The man revealed that PS4 sales are close to reaching 100 million units.
As of the end of the 2018 fiscal year on March 31, PS4 has sold 96.8 million units since its launch. The console sold 17.8 million units during 2018 alone, with 2.6 million coming from the fourth quarter.
The console’s sales for 2018 surpassed Sony’s projections by 0.03 million. However, it actually represents a 1.2 million unit decline year-over-year. In 2017, Sony sold 19 million PS4s. This decline continues with Sony’s projections for 2019. The company expects to sell 16 million PlayStation 4 systems by March 31, 2020.
The decline is to be expected considering the PS4’s age. That said, it is still the best selling console of this generation. While Microsoft stopped divulging console sales figures, research firm IHS Markit estimated that the XBox One had sold around 39.1 million units by March 2018. Even an additional year isn’t enough to catch up to Sony’s lead. The Nintendo Switch on the other hand sits at around 34.7 million units sold.
Compared to other PlayStation consoles, the PS4 ranks third ahead of the PS3, but behind the original PlayStation and PS2. The PlayStation 3 sold only around 87 million units over its lifetime. On the opposite end, the PS2 counts as the best selling console of all time having sold over 155 million units.
Things get interesting when the PS4’s sales are compared to that of the original PS1. The latter sold around 106 million units. If Sony’s projections are correct, then the PS4 will overtake the original to be Sony’s second best selling home console this year.
In addition to console sales, Sony also reported numbers for games and PS Plus subscribers. Revenues from game sales are actually up by 19% with the company making $20.7 billion from software. 45% of this coming from digital sales. PS Plus subscribers totaled 36.4 million, up by 2.2 million from last year.
Overall, Sony made $78.1 billion last year, an increase of 1% from 2017. For this year however, they’re expecting a decline as they prepare for the PS5.
