Sales for the PS5 are still ahead of the Xbox Series X, but the gap is narrowing, as the PS Plus revamp actually lowers the number of users.
It’s financial reporting season right now, for big companies, and Microsoft already had theirs, announcing that fourth quarter sales were down 7% from last year, due to lower console and game sales. And now it has been revealed that Sony has had similar problems, but even more serious.
That’s no surprise, because while the Xbox Series X is more or less constantly in stock now (at least during this quiet time of the year), the PlayStation 5 isn’t. Sony has also not released a first party game since Gran Turismo 7 in March.
Still, they still had a disappointing last three months, with game sales dropping from 63.6 million in 2021 to just 47.1 million at the same time this year. Despite the revamp of PlayStation Plus, the total number of users has also fallen slightly, from 47.4 million to 47.3 million.
PlayStation Network’s total monthly active users also fell, from 105 million in 2021 to 102 million this year – the lowest since they began reporting numbers in 2020.
Finally, the Game & Network Service division reports that sales are down 11% from the previous year, which it attributes to a decline in the number of first and third party new games, as well as a decline in DLC sales. .
That’s all totally understandable given what a calm (and hot) summer it’s been, but Xbox has still weathered the storm better and is catching up in console sales.
Microsoft won’t disclose its console numbers, as they were embarrassingly low during the Xbox One era, but the official lifetime total for the PlayStation 5 is now 21.7 million, compared to an estimated 16 million for the Xbox Series X/S.
That’s still a comfortable lead for Sony, but far less than the 2:1 advantage they used to have, and with no indication of when the PlayStation 5 might become more readily available.
However, the 37% profit is not necessarily a problem, because that is not only due to the R&D costs of the expensive PlayStation VR2, but also the cost of Buy Bungie and what is described as ‘increased game development costs’.
Obviously Sony has a lot more games in development than the small handful currently announced, but the particularly low profile they’ve maintained since spring means there’s no official indication of what they are or when they’ll be announced. or released.
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