Sony has released its latest earnings reports for its fiscal year, ending on March 31st. In it, the company reveals that it hit a record for the financial year and nears a milestone for PlayStation 5 sales.
According to the earnings reports, Sony shipped 6.3 million PlayStation 5 units in the past quarter. That is more than triple the PlayStation 5 consoles last quarter than the same quarter in the previous two years. The company states that the total number of PlayStation 5 units sold is now 38.4 million. The company is shy of a staggering 40 million since its November 2020 launch.
Sony was forecasting to ship 18 million units earlier during the 2022 fiscal year. However, with the success of the last quarter, that total amount reached 19.1 million. The company also forecasted operating profits of 1.18 trillion yen and 11.5 trillion yen in revenue, according to CNBC. Though, yet again, Sony’s forecast was beaten with 1.21 trillion yen in operating profit, marking a record for the company.
Looking into the current fiscal year, Sony aims to sell 25 million PlayStation 5 units. If achieved, this would be a record for the console. It also marks a trajectory to exceed 50 million units sold in total. With the introduction of PlayStation VR2 this year, Sony hopes it may boost hardware sales. However, Sony has yet to release sales figures for its new VR headset.
Looking at software, Sony’s financial results were mixed for the most part. As reported by Bloomberg, Sony reports that software revenue was up this past quarter. However, units shipped took a dip from 70.5 million in Q4 2021 to 68 million in Q4 2022. Sony notes that monthly active users on PlayStation Network increased from 106 million to 108 million. However, despite the support of the new PlayStation Plus tiers, subscribers remain at a stagnant 47.4 million users. The mixed results from software could be a reflection of Sony’s output of first-party titles.
Looking at the horizon of 2023, Sony has a number of premiere titles to launch. In June, the PlayStation 5 exclusive Final Fantasy XVI arrives. Later this year, the highly anticipated Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is due to launch.
