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Sony’s latest sales numbers for the PlayStation 4 bring the console up to 60 million units shipped worldwide, the company announced today.
The figure of 60 million consoles represents PS4 shipments to retailers — not sales through to customers — from the console’s launch in November 2013 through March 2017, the end of Sony’s 2016 fiscal year. That includes 2.9 million PS4s shipped during the fourth fiscal quarter (January to March 2017), which was up 26 percent over the 2.3 million consoles shipped during the same period a year ago.
The fourth-quarter tally makes for a total of 20 million PS4s shipped during the 2016 fiscal year, which is exactly on target with Sony’s forecast from May 2016. That number is up 13 percent over the 17.7 million units that Sony shipped in fiscal 2015, which represented a 19.6 percent increase over the 14.8 million PS4s shipped in fiscal 2016.
However, Sony is forecasting a downturn for the current fiscal year: The company expects to ship 18 million PS4s by April 2018, which would be a 10 percent drop. It would also bring the console to 78 million units shipped worldwide — ever closer to the PlayStation 3, which has lifetime global shipments of more than 80 million.
Despite the predicted decrease in hardware sales, Sony said in its earnings release that sales and operating income for the PlayStation division “are both expected to increase significantly year-on-year primarily due to an increase in network sales.” The company’s fiscal 2017 forecast calls for sales to hit 1.89 trillion yen ($16.88 billion), which would be up 14.6 percent year-over-year, and for operating income to rise 25.4 percent to $1.52 billion.
Kenichiro Yoshida, the company’s chief financial officer, said during a briefing regarding the financial results that “some major software titles are scheduled to be launched” during the 2017 fiscal year. That includes first-party games like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Gran Turismo Sport, as well as third-party titles such as Destiny 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2. While Sony doesn’t break out PS4 Pro sales separately, Yoshida said that “PS VR and PS4 Pro [...] both continue to sell well.”
