Sony’s video game division has experienced its best financial quarter since launching the PlayStation 5, boasting a huge increase in console sales and first-party software.
As revealed in Sony’s 2022 third-quarter financial results, the PS5 saw its best ever sales quarter with 7.1 million consoles sold during the three months ending December 31, 2022. That puts the console at 12.8 million sold during the 2022 financial year, and 32 million units shipped since launch. That’s a 34% increase year-on-year, a figure that demonstrates the supply issues that once plagued the console may well and truly be behind us.
The PS5’s success has seen Sony increase its annual sales target, from 18 to 19 million.
Sales revenue for the Game & Network Services Segment of Sony clocked in at ¥1246.5 billion, a 53% year-on-year increase, while operating profit came in at ¥116 billion, a 25% year-on-year increase. This makes for not just the best quarter of the year, but the best quarterly results of the PS5’s entire lifespan.
Sony has had similar good news beyond just console sales. It’s 86.5 million video game sales didn’t quite hit the highs of Q3 last year (92.7 million), but this year’s Q3 saw a substantial increase in first-party game sales; of the 86.5 million games sold, 20.8 million were first-party. 11 million of those alone were God of War Ragnarok.
PlayStation Plus saw a small increase in subscribers, up from 45.5m to 46.6m. That doesn’t bring it back up to its peak of 48 million users, but the service’s monthly active users has grown to 112 million. PS Plus revenue has also increased for a second consecutive quarter, probably thanks to subscribers of higher-tier PS Plus plans.
It’s been a strong quarter for PlayStation, then. But while it seems that supply issues will no longer hinder the console, it has certainly prevented it from attaining the same figures as its predecessor. By this same point in its lifecycle, the PlayStation 4 had shipped just under 38 million units.
For more from PlayStation, check out our stories about the new PS5 beta software update that adds Discord voice chat, as well as the PS Plus games for February and the end of the PS Plus Collection for PS5.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.