PS5 Is Selling Slower Than PS4 As Sony Fails To Meet Targets

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Despite its record-breaking launch in November 2020, PS5 sales figures are now behind PS4 due to Sony's inability to meet high demand. PS5 broke home console sales records at launch in multiple territories, including the United States, Japan, and the UK. By the end of March 2021, the system had moved 7.8 million units worldwide; in comparison, PS4 sold 7.6 million units during the same period in its lifecycle.

For a time, Sony believed it could maintain the impressive sales momentum, even after taking the global semiconductor shortages into consideration. The Japanese tech giant divulged as much during its quarterly financial report in August 2021, with CFO Hiroki Totoki telling listeners of the earnings webcast that Sony managed to secure enough chips to achieve its production targets for the year. These lofty expectations came tumbling down in October when PS5 sales began falling short of PS4. Since several semiconductor manufacturers, including the likes of Intel and Toshiba, expect the parts shortage to persist well into 2022, it's safe to say that sales of the newer consoles will continue to frustrate the pent-up demand.

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According to Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad, Sony's Q3 earnings report for fiscal year 2021 reveals that PS5 sales had topped 17.3 million as of December 31, 2021. It's an impressive feat no doubt but doesn't quite reach the heights of PS4, which managed to move 20.2 million units during a similar time period at the start of last generation. Ahmad added that Sony's initial hardware sales projections had PS5 shipping 22.6 million consoles by March 31 of this year. Unsurprisingly, ongoing supply constraints have forced