The PlayStation 4 has passed yet another milestone, and this time it’s the big one. Sony have now sold 100 million PlayStation 4 consoles, on the dot! making it the sixth console to do so. It’s now snapping at the heels of the original PlayStation (102.49 million) and Wii (101.63 million) in the all-time lists, and could easily be the fourth best by its sixth birthday.
Taking five years, seven month and fifteen days, it breaks the PlayStation 2’s home console record for hitting the 100 million mark by a month and a half! It doesn’t quite match the Nintendo DS, however, which pulled off the same feat in four years and four months.
The PS4 sailed past 90 million units at Christmas, riding high with off the back of some very popular first party games including God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man. That figure, however, only took into account the time up to Black Friday, meaning that December’s Christmas sales, and those of the first two quarters of 2019 (at 2.6 and 3.2 million, respectively) have pushed the console into nine figure sales.
Whether or not they can keep on blazing a trail and catch the Nintendo DS (154.02 million) and PlayStation 2 (155 million) will remain to be seen. This past quarter has remained flat compared to a year ago and Sony’s forecast for the 2019 financial year, which ends in March 2020, expects sales of 16 million units. This would be down on the 2018 financial year’s 17.8 million and 2017’s 19 million, and with Sony’s focus shifting to the next generation in 2020,
With more consoles in the wild and people to sell to, however, software sales are up for the quarter, at 43 million compared to 40.6 million, and the cut of those as digital downloads has also jumped up. It’s now at 53% digital downloads compared to 43% this time last year. This figure shifts up and down through the year – it’s easier to gift a boxed game, after all – but it’s a high water mark in the increasing shift from physical to digital sales.
Anyway, with 100 million PS4’s out in the wild, I’d say it’s a good time to celebrate with a slice of cake and a glass of bubbly, Sony. You deserve it!
Source: SIE
MrYd
I think you’re right and it’ll easily be 4th in 2 or 3 months time. And by the time the PS5 appears, it’ll quite comfortably be 3rd. And probably end up 30m or so behind the DS and PS2.
But that’s assuming the PS5 launch is normal. Which it might not be. If it ends up being at that expensive price Sony are desperately trying not to admit to. Could they launch an expensive PS5 and drop the PS4 price massively? Get even more people on board knowing they can upgrade to a PS5 later when it’s cheaper and keep all their games? Might be a chance to drag out the PS4 lifespan even more and hit that 150m.
camdaz
Great news for Sony.
Any news on the ratio between PS4/Pro sales?
Has anyone heard how the Xbox 1 X is doing? I know MS no longer publish numbers sold but I cannot remember hearing anything about how it’s doing compared to the S.
Stefan L
No word on what the Pro split is, and no figures from Microsoft about Xbox One since the early days of the generation. EA let slip in last year that Xbox One was at 30 million around the end of 2017, so estimates are that it’s around 40 million at the end of 2018.