Sony recently released its financial report for the quarter spanning from April to June 2024. While the PlayStation 5 achieved impressive lifetime sales of 61.7 million units after selling 2.4 million consoles during the quarter, this represents a decline compared to the previous year. Despite this, Sony’s Game & Network Services division saw a 12% year-over-year increase in revenue. This growth is attributed to the strong performance of digital game sales, with over 80% of the 53.6 million PlayStation games sold during the quarter being digital. The PlayStation Network also saw an increase in monthly active users, reaching 116 million compared to 108 million in the same period last year.
The shift towards digital game sales is a significant trend, as boxed physical game sales continue to decline. This trend bodes well for Sony’s digital future, as it aligns with the growing popularity of digital platforms like the PlayStation Store and Steam.
However, it’s important to note that Sony isn’t alone in experiencing lagging console sales. Nintendo and Microsoft are also facing similar downturns in hardware sales. This trend even affects AMD’s Radeon and graphics division, as the company supplies both the CPU and GPU hardware for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The 2.7 million PlayStation 5 consoles sold during the quarter represent an 18% decline compared to last year’s 3.3 million.
The future of PlayStation 5 sales remains uncertain. The holiday period is crucial for console sales, but Sony has a limited lineup of high-profile PlayStation 5 exclusive games slated for release in 2024. Games like the hero shooter Concord, which performed poorly during its beta periods, the fun-looking Astro Bot, and the Silent Hill 2 Remake are expected to be released. There’s also speculation about the potential release of a rumored PlayStation 5 Pro console later this year. Whether this speculation materializes remains to be seen.
