Just how well is PlayStation 5 doing in the UK? Well, it’s hard to get a read on the next-gen format’s fortunes due to it being perpetually sold out, but a Twitter post from GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring puts matters into perspective: in right around five months, the system has outsold cult consoles the PS Vita, the Nintendo Wii U, and the SEGA Dreamcast in Britain. To clarify, that’s a few months of supply constrained PS5 versus the entire lifecycle of those products.
Stock has improved somewhat of late in the UK, but demand is still massively exceeding supply, which means units disappear almost as soon as they become available. For the console to be selling this well, during a pandemic, when you can’t even readily buy the thing – well, it surely suggests that PlayStation has another runaway hit on its hands, doesn’t it?
[source twitter.com]
Comments 56
That puts into perspective what they are doing with PS Vita. Support a much popular console vs a fledgling one in a cash-limited company.
Fun fact:
I can easily buy the other consoles on that list as they have more stock.
I kid, or do I?
Yeah I do, or do I?
I will let myself out.
Here in Greece all you can find is about 10 units with 700-800 price tags..i believe sony is supplying 100 units per month. yeah that bad.
@Arugula Haha, fixed! Thanks!
@Arugula shhh, they’re just trying to trick the scalpers into selling off their stock cheaply
Noo, not the dreamcast..
CONFIRMED: Not a flop
I own all but the PS5, and all bought new. This makes me sad for all those consoles as they were all amazing and as it stands right now have way better games on them compared to PS5 exclusives. The main reason for me to own a PS5 in the near future is faster load times on my PS4 games as that is where the consoles amazing game library sits at the minute.
PS5 has finally outsold consoles that flopped.
Congrats?!
I know that sounds like a diss on the PS5, it's not. Just...well..those aren't exactly consoles one wants to be compared to by sales standards (especially the Wii U). But, it is a pandemic and there is still a shortage, so I guess this is still good news.
It's a shame the Dreamcast's popularity sky-rocketed AFTER SEGA pulled the plug. Brilliant system that deserved a longer lifespan.
You forgot to mention it sold more than the Virtual boy, the 64DD and the PS7 combined
@GamingFan4Lyf well not "finally". It outsold them in 5 months.
This is what happens when you're such a hard hitting news publication, you decide to report the facts and only the facts, even when the facts are utterly unremarkable
Funnily enough I was playing on the Vita last night. Such a shame the Store for it is closing down soon
@Voltan I guess the headline is just...lacklustre. But, again, this whole pandemic has just sucked.
Like, I remember reading that the Switch was outpacing the Wii and PS4 in sales - now those are headlines! But, there was no shortage, no pandemic, none of that.
Outselling Wii U? I think toasters sell more in a month than the Wii U did it's entire lifetime.
Again, it's not a diss on the PS5 - just that during this whole pandemic and the stock shortage we have THIS headline instead. It's just...sad.
Considering those 3 consoles are "flops" this doesn't surprise me
@GamingFan4Lyf I think the key metric here is that it did it in five months when you can't even readily buy the thing.
Obviously no one is saying this is some wild amazing feat, but it's still noteworthy.
Not sure I understand who manages to buy it other than scalpers with some automation tools. It's not there on any "official" site since last October, and when a tiny stock does appear, it goes away after literally seconds. Practically, the console wasn't really launched yet
Great system. So not surprised. They just need to make more.
I have 5 co-workers that have been trying to get one since Christmas here in the US. It is a bit crazy.
If you care about access to the most top games, You get a PS first each generation. It is that simple.
Wow! It’s managed to outsell consoles considered to be commercial failures in sales terms, congratulations....
BREAKING: The sequel to the massively successful PS4 managed to outsell a bunch of platforms that were deemed commercial failures
@get2sammyb you can't win with this lot.
@RubyCarbuncle It would only be a shame if developers were still making games worth buying. Vita sadly never had it's Peace Walker, a game you had to play and could only own it on that machine.
@Nin10dood no, stay
@Agramonte I'm in the US and I haven't been trying yet b/c I don't see a need to own one until Ratchet & Clank, which I really wasn't worried abut since it doesn't release until June, but I have to say, I'm starting to get worried now 2 months out. Stupid boat stuck in the stupid canal got me thinking.
I'm still hopeful I can buy a PS5 June 11th, or there abouts, but I think it's going to be more work than I would have liked. Two months and no chips. ugh
@zebric21 you guys get units? In Cyprus it hasn't even launched yet...
@get2sammyb Still doesn't change the fact it's sad: highly anticipated console release tainted by global pandemic causing shortages across the board. This is one for the gaming history books, that's for sure!
I know what I am saying is negative, but I am really just pointing how topsy-turvy this particular generation's consoles release has been.
We are comparing PS5 sales to the the freaking Wii U - when we should be comparing it against PS4 sales progression!
It just feels so...surreal - and kind of depressing.
@naruball yes Greece was day one supply tier..
I’m still annoyed that Sony didn’t support the Vita like it should have. If there had been a day 1 PS4/Vita bundle that really focused on the Vita’s remote play abilities, it would have breathed a whole new life into the handheld.
And people say the ps5 is not worth getting yet and its an underwhelming console...and while those consoles mentioned in this article may very well be classed as "commercial failures" the ps5 has surpassed their lifetime sales in just what..5 months? Not too shabby when its rare as rocking horse caca..
I don't get why people don't think this is impressive. It's only been out since November and it's harder than a coffin nail to get hold of one.
I'm pretty sure a couple of commenters haven't realised that this is lifetime sales. Either that or they've got absurdly high expectations for new consoles.
The Vita sold 16 million units worldwide. That's 25% of the PS3's lifetime sales. To beat the Vitas lifetime sales in a country within half a year of launching is an impressive feat.
Dreamcast was still is amazing, deserved so much more. But back on topic PS5 is a beast as well. So much more to come.
Bunch of smartarses today, aren't we?
But how many are in the hands of scalpers and how many are actually opened and in use?
That Wii U did poorly in UK is no surprise, as Nintendo have never done well there, but I’m surprised that the Vita has been outsold already. That being said, I’ve been on the lookout for a Vita in stores in Scandinavia for 5+ years and have never seen one, so perhaps the situation is the same in the UK.
Was SEGA already done in the UK when the Dreamcast launched?
@rjejr Well I read a bit back that it shoud get better by Mid 2021. Seems some companies just clogged everything up by double booking.
Everyone looking for a gaming graphic card on the PC side is in the same boat. There is just not much of anything right now.
Biden Administration is looking into the chip shortages and INTEL is opening their Fabs in the US/EU/IS to 3rd parties.
TSMC cant be all we have.
What’s to celebrate when you look at that lineup? 🤷🏾♂️
I’m joking! 😂
Well that's a low bar to clear...
@Sinton "That Wii U did poorly in UK is no surprise, as Nintendo have never done well there"
What about handhelds, Wii and ... Switch?
There's a electronic chip shortage for many devices from the COVID-19 rush for laptops and tablets last year. This will affect many products for most of this year.
I've got one, thankfully. But I have several friends who have tried for months to get a PS5. It's going to be a slog before they're widely available.
@naruball @God_of_Nowt Regarding Nintendo: The Wii did well everywhere because it wasn’t a conventional game console. I wasn’t considering handhelds (or the Switch, which we all know is its own phenomenon), but at least it’s no surprise to me that Sony’s newest flagship console outsold Nintendo’s worst home console, and I’m pretty sure it will soon surpass the NES, SNES, N64 and Gamecube as well.
As far as I can tell, SEGA always did well in the UK. But I’m having trouble understanding the Dreamcast numbers if what you say, God_of_Nowt, is true - how could it do so well in the UK, and yet PS5 have already outsold it with limited stock? If the Gamecube or Nintendo 64 sold more in the UK than the Dreamcast, I would say it did poorly.
(75 percent of every console activated are terrible numbers in my opinion for a new product that «everybody» wants, though my comment in that regard was more aimed at the hopeless situation with scalpers - I’m sure all stock would’ve been sold out regardless.)
I was actually surprised by this news considering how hard it is to get a hold of one.I am hoping supplies are better when I am looking to get my ps5 in April 2022😁😳.
lol really most of these are sitting in a room gathering dust. if you see the connected online ps5 consoles wont be half thats sold , sony wants subscriptions, i bet theres still more ps4 than ps5 on at the mo. hell will freeze over before il pay for one of a scalper. a bag of rice ,concrete block or a picture of it will be the outcome 😂
@uptownsoul Well given that the Switch is a Nintendo product and Nintendo totally flopped with the Wii U, I feel it's positive new for Nintendo - Nintendo had comeback from the stumble that was the Wii U (I actually liked the Wii U, but I know it was a commercial failure). And that comparison was GLOBAL sales of the Wii U being out-paced, not a single country.
We are talking about Wii U sales in the UK-only. It took a whole year of release before the Wii U reached 150K sales in UK and it probably didn't grow much more after that.
Look, I am not discrediting the PS5 at all. I have one, I love it. It's just that the global pandemic has really hurt and this article proves it. This is an article that probably would have been written in like 1.5 months of the release (to surpass total Wii U sales in the UK) and not 5 months - if at all because Dreamcast, Wii U, and Vita are all dead and buried. We would be talking about pacing with the PS4 instead.
@Agramonte And books. I know that's not related but my wife is in publishing and all of the major publishers - she's at a minor niche one - slowed down so much for a couple of months last year when the pandemic started then they all came back strong so it's hard to get a book manufactured on the usual notice.
So while Intel can open up a few more plants knowing driverless cars are coming, so we'll all need more chips, not less, nobody is looking to open up more book manufacturing plants while Kindle is still a thing. So basically all of her books are releasing a month or 2 later than planned. With no end in sight.
With all the tech coming in the future - driverless cars and AR Google glass type stuff and who knows what else - you'd think chip manufacturing would be a growing business. So hopefully if we can't get a PS5 easily in May at least maybe if I spam F5 on a few websites. Two months though, it's getting close. 🤞
@jgrangervikings1 If support was the decisive factor the PS5 wouldn’t of just out sold the Vita when the only games that are out are the pack in and a remake of a game from two generations ago.
The Pushsquare crowd is a tough one. If a similar article was on NintendoLife about what the Switch was outselling, the fans would be loving it!
Separately, I still don’t understand how the Dreamcast did so poorly. They even sponsored a football team jersey for several seasons, admittedly it was Arsenal, but still...
Not exactly hard to be fair.
Ahh Vita what could have been.
@uptownsoul I’m not saying this is not worth reporting, and I haven’t fired up the good ol’ Google engine, but did every major gaming site report when the Switch surpassed the Wii U’s sales number in the UK?? Even if (as other have mentioned in this comment section) Nintendo have done well with handhelds, Nintendo usually have done poorly in the UK when it comes to home consoles (compared to their other markets).
I would like to know how the worldwide sales of the PS5 compares to other recent succesful consoles in the same time frame (the PS4 and Switch comes to mind), but with covid, scalping and shortage it’s hard to tell what the numbers actually mean.
A lot of really bad takes in the comments. I think it was reported that PS5 is outpacing the PS4 and even the Switch sales being aligned.
This is an interesting milestone achieved in a short time considering the supply and I don't even care much about sales.
@rjejr Oh wow, I did not know that was happening. The Mrs got into "Book of the Month" at the start of Pandemic. I did not even know it still existed. I just supply from her backlog - They have some cool book covers.
We saw "Pretent it's a city" and went to get some of her books, but they were hard to find - but I think that is because she has not written anything in years.
Yeah, lots of things can happen in 2 months. So hopefully it will clear up by that point.
@JJ2 It certainly seems impressive but I think the figures are a little moot to be honest.
I mean, can you really 'seasonally adjust' the sales figures for the PS5? It's either sold some units or it hasn't.
I believe it was on target for beating the PS4 but then it didn't as the number of units has (understandably) been restricted whereas the PS4 was hard to come by at launch but not to the same extent. And how many PS5s have been sold to scalpers and are now sitting in a warehouse waiting to be resold?
@Ruby Carbuncle "closing down soon" is one thing to address, but it seems like some games have been getting SILENTLY delisted far in advance. Dungeon Travelers 2, for instance, has been on my wishlist for ages, so I marked it as one of the top priority "July at latest if no May sale happens" purchases in the farewell Vita spree... and now I hear that it got quietly taken down this very week, not even far into April? Alongside Utawarerumono, Conception 2, Lost Dimension... If PS Store embraces this trend on top of the rest, I might just run out of stuff to buy by the time I have the designated summer budget for it.🙄
Not gonna lie, the aforesaid DT2 example in itself miffs me to the point that an eyepatch-wearing part of me already kneejerked back with an unapologetic of investing said summer budget into a spare used Vita to CFW instead, spending the rest on first party (the rest I could still honestly go for legal ownership of if the affected titles were to reincarnate on Switch later). But even the latter footnote naturally applies on the assumption that Sony won't start getting funny ideas about its first-party Vita stuff before July either.😳
Seriously, all the Super Mario 3D All-Stars mourners out there, what do you even KNOW about FOMO...😆
In all fairness, it wouldn't be so hard to outsell any of them in the UK.
OMG@ anyone saying it is not a feat to surpass lifetime sales for any console in 5 months, during a pandemic and without being available 99% of the time >_<
No, it hasn't.
Goodness the media is a joke. The last reported Vita numbers are nowhere near the actual estimated sales. Sony stopped reporting Vita sales ages ago, estimates on VG have Vita at 15 million. Goofy f****** reporting ffs.
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