PS4 sales have reached 63.3 million units shipped, according to a press release cited by DualShockers. These numbers arrive as a part of Sony Interactive’s first quarter fiscal results for the 2017 calendar year. It’s a record of all sales taking place between April 1 and June 30 of this year. In total, the hardware maker was able to ship 3.3 million consoles during that timespan.
While those numbers further assert the PS4 as the undisputed champion of the console race, it’s a pretty significant dip from the record-setting 9.7 million units shipped during Q3. Also, due to hardware price cuts and a lack of exclusive games, the operating income of Sony Interactive Entertainment dropped from 26.3 billion yen to 17.7 billion yen year-on-year. A small mitigating factor that softened those numbers was the 5.4 percent increase in physical and digital software sales.
There’s a lot to take in for those who want to number crunch, but the simplified version of this story is that, despite a small dip in trajectory, the PS4 and its related products are still doing extremely well. While no company wants to report a decrease in income, the reasons provided in the press release make sense. Earlier in the year, exclusive games like Horizon: Zero Dawn likely pushed hardware sales a bit higher than they would otherwise be. Save for Knack II and Gran Turismo Sport later in the year, that software situation doesn’t change much heading into the fall.
With its new sales numbers, the PS4 has surpassed the lifetime shipments of Nintendo’s NES and the next goal is to pass 3DS shipments by March of next year. By then, Sony projects a total shipment of 78 million units. Those numbers will likely be pushed by holiday shoppers and the release of games like God Of War in early 2018. The PS4 has still managed to dominate NPD sales charts despite the fervent popularity of Nintendo Switch.
What do you think of SIE’s latest earnings report? Can the PS4 meet its sales goals by next March? Tell us in the comments section!
