PS5 sales hit 17.3m, but hampered by chip shortages

eurogamer.net:

Sony has now shipped 17.3m PS5 consoles, according to its latest earnings report.

That figure is per the end of 2021, with 3.9m consoles shipped in Q3 of its fiscal year.

However, these numbers are less than the PS5 sold in its equivalent quarter last year: 4.5m.

Sony has also dropped its full-year outlook of PS5 sales from 14.8m units to 11.5m units. This is due not to demand, but by the ongoing chip shortage that's affecting manufacturing.

Chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said these weaker PS5 sales were short-term and would not affect the company's long-term plan.

«The ongoing chip shortages and logistics confusion will keep affecting PlayStation 5 production, and especially the second half of next fiscal year is hard to foresee,» he said. «But I want to keep the previously-held goal of selling 22.6m units next year unchanged as cutting it now would lower the motivation of the team.»

Within its equivalent timeframe, the PS4 had sold 20.2m units in total. It means the PS5 has been outpaced by the PS4, despite high demand.

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/Nz60oElCyK

Sony also revealed that PlayStation Plus subscriptions have increased to 48 million at the end of 2021, compared with 47.4m during the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The PS5 was reported as the fastest selling console in UK history, but it seems sales are now slowing.

To combat PS5 supply issues, Sony will increase production of PS4 consoles by a million units this year.

Still, the PS5