This is just absolutely incredible: the PlayStation 4 has now sold 50 million units globally. That number represents those consoles sold directly to consumers, and not just shipped to retail outlets. The figure is accurate as of 6th December, meaning that the system has achieved the dizzying statistic just a little over three years after its release. Unbelievable stuff.
The milestone was aided by what Sony is heralding as the "best Black Friday week" in the history of the brand. Now, it's perhaps worth noting that this is no indication Sony won November's all-important NPD report in the United States, as the offers were actually better across Europe. Globally, though, it seems like the system absolutely smashed it.
Of course, console sales are meaningless without software statistics to back it up, and fortunately lots of people are purchasing games for their PS4 – both physically and digitally. As of 4th December, a whopping 369.6 million games have been sold for the system across both retail and the PlayStation Store. That's quite phenomenal stuff.
"With tremendous support from our fans and partners across the globe, this year we were able to deliver an unprecedented lineup of hardware such as the new slimmer PS4, PS4 Pro, and PlayStation VR," beamed boss Andrew House. "We will continue to provide the best gaming experiences available through our ground-breaking software lineup and network services."
Incredible.
[source sie.com]
Comments 18
@JoeBlogs My understanding is that it's similar pace to the PS2, but I'll try and find some statistics.
Yeah, PS2 hit 50 million in just under three years. PS4 is selling faster than PSone and PS3, though.
Between the 50 million mark and the recent PS Experience, Sony is really on a roll.
So nice to see all those great first party games coming...this is how you ďo it.
Unsurprising. Best overall console this gen with the most diverse, overall best game library with steller pricing and marketing. Sony couldn't have pulled it off much better honestly.
Congrats
It's incredible that PS4 is selling at almost the same pace as the PS2 when the PS2 was basically unopposed for a long time in that generation.
@get2sammyb Well I finally bought one so you know it's selling well.
I'm really quite impressed. After the poor start the PS3 got off too, and the rise of mobile, I thought we'd never see PS2 type numbers in the home console space again. It does feel like Sony has some sort of historical gravitas on it's side. They blew the PS3 launch with that $600 price tag, so $400 looked great in comparison. And even better next to the totally mis-managed XboxOneEighty $500 console and the $300 Wii U failure. I don't know what X1 is up to in global sales since MS want tell us, but it feels like Sony is out in front. 260 million consoles sold last gen - 100 Wii, 80 each PS3 and 360 - so far this gen we probably haven't hit 100 yet - 50 PS4, maybe 30 X1, 13 Wii U - so there's still room to grow. Don't know what mid-gen Switch will do, but PS4 is on a roll right now, with God of War and TLoU2 still to come. And who knows, 2 years from now we could get $400 Slim-PSVR bundles if Sony starts feeling desperate to push VR. PS4 could top 100 mil. That's impressive.
Nice, although I don't think they'll hit the 60million mark by the end of march 2017 as they first predicted.
I reckon combined lifetime sales of PS4+Pro will exceed 100million units by the end of their lifecycle.
If things play out, I might join the fray tomorrow myself. First home console I'll have in ten years, too (and the previous ones - except an official but mostly comatose used SNES my father got once and tried to reanimate for a while - were bootleg clones, so make this the first licensed home console I'll own to boot XD). Again, bless Vita and Remote Play for a sizeable chunk of this decision, but I have a generally positive impression of the hardware itself - especially with how it foregoes the "stunning graphics ghetto" in favour of being an encompassing gaming platform. It's inexplicably reassuring to see titles like Final Fantasy XV and VVVVVV in the same console library. So cheers for the good sales and may they inspire more continuous support for PS4. Including a growing library of PS2 titles if possible, please. And maybe even a PS4 Super Mega Pro in a few years that will emulate PS3 games as well (yes, I'm that shameless XD).
And yes, I'll be buying Switch next year as well. And yes, console wars and rivalry can go to Tartarus. It's all more games at the end of the day.
@johncalmc Japan is also a non-factor now, which means they've grown the brand since PS2 in new regions to make up the deficit.
@johncalmc PS2 actually had 1 more console to compete against than PS4 so far. PS2 launched a year after Dreamcast, which it summarily destroyed, and faced GameCube and Xbox. It destroyed them all, but they were all out there competing. To me it actually feels like PS4 has had much less competition as Wii U was already faltering by the time PS4 launched and X1 was nearly still born after all of MS's bad PR. MS had to quickly cut $50 from the price, then drop Kinet and drop another $50, and only w/ S has it turned things around.
Still don't know what Switch will bring, but knowing Nintendo they won't make the effort to put up a fight. This gen was handed to Sony, and they've run with it. I don't think they even needed the Pro, old and Slim are just fine. PS2 had to work harder, so Sony did.
Wii U was irrelevant, MS got stupid at the start of this gen and Sony showed it learned from somes mistakes made in the early PS3 days by providing a system that was as easy to develop for as the competition and released it for $100 less despite being a bit more capable in terms of performance. Not surprised to see Sony doing well. Now the question is, can it keep the momentum despite two new pieces of hardware coming from the competition? Looking at its future lineup, there's no question PS4 has the games, we'll see if that's enough to overcome what Nintendo and MS have planned.
@rjejr There were more consoles around in that generation, but because of the release dates of each console, PS2 spent a stretch of it unopposed as I recall. Dreamcast was abandoned quickly after PS2 launched, and then Xbox and Gamecube didn't come around for another year, I think, leaving PS2 as the only game in town.
Not only that, but the PS2 had an absolute tonne of third party exclusives, with studios reluctant to do the same for the competition thanks to the gargantuan install base PS2 had.
By contrast, PS4 released two weeks apart from Xbox One, a console that has practically the same games line-up, and since they axed Kinect, has a price advantage too most of the time.
It's pretty impressive.
@get2sammyb Yeah, Europe must be picking up Japan's slack, and then some. Sounds believable though given some of the crazy market share figures we've heard from continental Europe.
Maybe they will releasee a special edition Pro to commemorate this. Be pretty interesting to see the look of it from the design stand point. May be named it the 50 millionth edition.
I believe I said this mark would be achieved a few months ago when the Pro launched. I know it was a predictable comment based on how close they were at the time but I am not surprised its reached that milestone now. I am only surprised its come as late as December...
@WebHead why is it unsurprising?
@wittypixel read the rest of the post. ps4 is a hot product that sony execited very well. plus the other two goofed up badly on their home consoles.
Sony didn't have to do much to achieve dominance this gen based on the screw ups made by Nintendo and MS. That being said, they did make the right moves when they needed to in order to keep people buying. Honestly i'd say a lot of people bought PS4s on black friday once they realized Nintendo has basically backed out of the console race. I didn't see a single Wii U deal anywhere, very few games on sale, and no switch until march? Yikes.
@johncalmc the cynical PS fanboy in me could suggest that the PS4 in this generation has also been unopposed
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