PlayStation 5 has been shipped 17.3 million since release, lags behind PS4

Sony has shipped 17.3 million units of the console since the release of the PlayStation 5. This puts the release of the PS5 behind that of the PS4, which had been shipped 20.2 million times at the same time after release.

In the last quarter of 2021, Sony shipped 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles, Sony writes in the quarterly figures. The number of deliveries is slightly more than the three months before, but more than half a million less than the 4.5 million consoles shipped in the quarter of launch.

In recent quarters, delivery of the new console has paralleled how the PlayStation 4 was shipped post-launch. However, in the fifth quarter of its release, PS4 shipments had nearly doubled to 6.4 million consoles. The deliveries of the PlayStation 5 have not grown that fast, so that the deliveries of the PlayStation 5 have fallen behind the deliveries of the PS4.

This has everything to do with the chip shortages, Sony says, which still prevent the company from meeting the demand for PlayStation 5 consoles. Those shortages are even worse than expected, according to the company, with the company saying it will sell fewer PS5 consoles than indicated in previous quarterly reports. Sony initially thought it could sell 22.6 million consoles by the end of March 2022, now it will probably be 19.3 million consoles.

As a result, the company says it also has to adjust the results for the financial year ending at the end of March 2022 downwards. Sony now expects an annual turnover of 21.1 billion euros from the Game & Network Services branch, where the company indicated in October that it expects an annual turnover of 22.4 billion euros. Operating income will therefore be higher, partly because the company is selling consoles at a loss. That income increases by 150 million euros to the equivalent of 2.67 billion euros.