Improved PS5 availability gives Sony its best sales quarter yet

pocket-lint.com:

The PlayStation 5 has now reached the milestone of 32 million consoles, a number boosted by the 7.1 million consoles sold during the 2022 Christmas quarter.

Sony says that the three months that ended on 31 December 2022 saw more than seven million PlayStation consoles sold — a number that makes it the PS5's best quarter for sales to date. The news comes as the company continues to reiterate that stock availability issues are over.

The availability of PS5 consoles — or lack of it — has severely hampered sales since the console first went on sale in late 2020. Launching in the middle of a global pandemic meant that sourcing the parts needed to build a state-of-the-art console was a difficult endeavour. Buying a PS5 was almost impossible for a long time, something that meant Sony's launch wasn't as explosive as it might otherwise have been.

Sony wasn't the only company impacted, however. Microsoft launched the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X around the same time, with the latter in particular becoming instantly difficult to find in stock. The Xbox Series S fared better, however.

But all of that is behind us now. And people now seem to be buying the PS5 consoles that some have waited more than two years for.

Considering the supply constraints the 32-million-console number is an impressive one. For context, VGC notes that the PS4 managed to ship just under 38 million units in the same period of time. The difference is notable, but to be expected.

Sony has also confirmed the most recent user numbers for the PlayStation Plus service. The active PlayStation Plus user count increased for the three months leading up to 2023, although the total number of users is down to 48 million — a reduction on the 45.5 million from the