On its 5th birthday, PS5 sales remain virtually neck-and-neck with PS4

As PlayStation 5 celebrates its fifth anniversary, Sony reported that the console has cleared 84.2 million units in its latest financial results, ended September 30, 2025.

PS5 sold some 3.9 million units during the three-month period. That means PS5 remains virtually neck-and-neck with its predecessor, PlayStation 4 (86m), despite initial stock shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a significant price difference (PS5 increased in price this year to $550, while PS4 retailed for $300 at this stage).

In its current fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, Sony expects to sell around 15 million PS5 consoles, which would see PS4 pull ahead, since it managed 17.8 million units during the same period. However, PS5 is expected to benefit from the release of GTA 6 in its next business year.

PlayStation 4 went on to sell 117 million units, which is Sony’s second-best-selling console behind PlayStation 2 (160 million).

“I believe Sony has already begun preparing for the launch of its next-generation console, but at the same time, the PS5 appears to have a longer-than-expected lifespan,” Morningstar research director Kazunori Ito told Bloomberg. “Despite the lack of major software releases in the first half of the fiscal year, hardware sales have remained roughly on par with the previous year.”

In software, Ghost of Yotei has surpassed 3.3 million units sold, as of November 2. That puts it roughly in line with its predecessor, which sold 2.4 million units in its first three days, and 5 million in four months, though it was released later in PS4’s lifecycle when it had a larger installed base.

Live service games, like Helldivers 2 and MLB The Show 25, accounted for more than 40% of PlayStation‘s first-party software revenue during its latest reporting period, Sony said, which is similar to the previous quarter. Sony specifically mentioned Helldivers 2, which it said was doing “extremely well” following its release on Xbox in August, with sales up “significantly” year on year.

However, it noted that Bungie’s Destiny 2 continues to underperform relative to its initial expectations.

“Regarding Destiny 2, partially due to the changes in the competitive environment, the level of sales and user engagement have not reached the expectation we had at the time of the acquisition of Bungie,” it said. “While we will continue to make improvements, we downwardly revised the business projection for the time being and recorded an impairment loss against a portion of the assets at Bungie.”

Sony’s chief financial officer has said she expects Bungie’s delayed live service shooter, Marathon, to release by the end of March 2026.

Sony reported that sales for its Game and Network Services division were up 4% year-on-year, but operating income decreased 13%, which it said was partly due to the recording of impairment losses against a portion of Bungie.

Sony said its monthly active gaming users for the three months ended September 30 were 119 million, which is the third consecutive decline, but still up from 116 million a year ago.