Sony Says PlayStation 5 Generation Is Its Most Profitable Console Generation to Date

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The PlayStation 5 generation is officially the most profitable Sony console generation to date, according to new data shared by the company.


This comes from the company's Game & Network Services Business Segment meeting slides and presentation, which were shared today following the company's earnings report two weeks ago. In the presentation, Sony revealed that the PS5 generation has brought in $106 billion in sales since launch, outpacing every past console at the same point in its generation.


Let's stick some asterisks on that figure really quick, though. First off, Sony reports that the PS4 generation brought in a total of $107 billion in sales, which is obviously more than $106 billion. But the PS4 generation is taken as whole, from fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2019, and includes three more years than the PS5 generation (which spans from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2023). Four years into the PS4's lifecycle, it was still well behind where the PS5 is now, and the PS5 is on pace to easily pass the PS4 generation's total sales sometime this year.

It's also worth noting that these dollar amounts are total sales over the course of a console generation, not a reflection of specific hardware or game sales. The "PS5 generation" encompasses not just the PS5 itself, but everything the business is doing during this generation, including PS4 sales and game releases during this period. So take it all with the grain of salt it merits.


But it's not shocking that the PS5 generation has been so lucrative for Sony. Even with all the asterisks above, the PS5 has sold 56 million units to date. Though the PS4 has outsold it significantly (117 million at last count), the PS5 was more expensive at launch than the PS4. And continued software spend throughout the shared lifecycle of both has helped Sony's current console generation only grow in dollar sales even if console adoption is a little slow; Sony reports both the PS4 and the PS5 currently boast 49 million active consoles per month.

The presentation also points out that even with half the unit sales, PS5 life-to-date spend is significantly higher than life-to-date spend on PS4. DLC content, services, and peripheral spend is up, but full-game content spend is down a little on PS5 compared to the PS4.

All this is to say, if there was any doubt at all, the PlayStation 5 is doing pretty well. Unit sales are a helpful way to gauge player interest, but they don't tell the full story of how a company measures a console's success. Amid ongoing rumors that a PS5 Pro may be on the horizon, we may not be far off from seeing Sony attempt to capitalize on its current generation in yet another new, more expensive way.


Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].