Sony misses PS5 sales goal by 3 million consoles

metro.co.uk:

The PS5 has shipped almost 20 million consoles since launch but it’s falling behind Sony’s targets because of a lack of stock.

Despite launching in the middle of a pandemic the PlayStation 5 has now shipped (but not necessarily sold) 19.3 million consoles worldwide, but Sony isn’t as happy with that figure as you’d imagine.

It only shipped 2 million consoles during the last three months, for a total of 11.5 million in the financial year ended March 31, and that’s 3.3 million off its original target.

That’s not because people don’t want a PlayStation 5 but because Sony can’t make them quick enough to meet demand, with supply chain issues still causing problems.

Sony had already warned investors that this might happen, so it’s not a surprise, but it does make it clear that manufacturing and stock issues are still a major problem and unlikely to be anything close to normal for at least a year.

Microsoft has refused to release any sales figures for its consoles since the Xbox One era, but unofficial estimates give the Xbox Series X and S a lifetime total of around 14 million.

Previously, the PlayStation 5 was thought to be outselling the Xbox Series X/S by a factor of 2:1 but this year Microsoft has been able to increase production and so the consoles is now much easier to get hold of than before – leading to months where the Xbox Series X/S has outsold the PlayStation 5 in both the US and UK.

Sony has nothing to worry about in terms of demand – software sales were up a massive 84% during the last three months – but the more people buy the Xbox Series X/S simply because it’s the only next gen console available the more Microsoft benefits from Sony’s stock issues.

Also revealed in the report is that during the last three months of