PlayStation 5 sales fall behind PS4’s pace due to semiconductor shortage
Sony shipped 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles during its fiscal Q3. That brings the company’s total to 17.3 million PS5s shipped as of the end of 2021. While that is another strong number for one of the fastest-selling consoles ever, it is down from the 4.5 million Sony shipped during the same period last year. Sony told investors that this shortcoming is due to supply-chain disruptions and component shortages. The company also expects these issues to continue.
An easy way to understand the detrimental effects of the shortage is to compare the PS5 to the PS4. By most measures, demand for the PS5 is equal to or greater than that of the PS4 at this same time in its life cycle. But Sony had managed to ship 20.2 million PS4s through this same timeframe. Again, this has nothing to do with an inability to sell the PS5s and has everything to do with an inability to source key components to make PS5s.
During Q4 of 2014, Sony sold 6.4 million PS4s. A handy chart from Neko Partners gaming analyst Daniel Ahmad shows how the PS5 missed out on its potential due entirely to supply issues.
<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>The PlayStation 5 has sold in 17.3 million units as of December 31, 2021 according to Sony. This compares to 20.2 million for PlayStation 4 in the same timeframe, when launch aligned PS5 has faced significant supply issues. It has been unable to keep up with PS4 despite demand pic.twitter.com/Nz60oElCyKSupply for the PS5 is so limited that Sony is actually revising its outlook for what it calls its “games and network services” division. Here’s how the company put it in its earnings report:
Three top investment pros open up about what it takes to get your video game funded.
“Sales are expected to be lower than the
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