Sony has announced that the PS5 has enjoyed its best quarter yet in terms of sales, bringing total lifetime unit shipments past a major milestone.
In its latest financial report (which covers the fiscal year's third quarter), Sony reveals that it sold 9.5 million PS5 units during the quarter, bringing the console's total lifetime sales over the 75 million mark.
The quarter stands as the PS5's best yet, beating the same period in 2023 by 1.3 million sales despite the fact that the third quarter of 2023 offered up a major hit in the form of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
There's one thing that's worth bearing in mind here, and that's the fact that Sony is counting PS5 Pro sales as part of its overall console hardware numbers.
This means two things. First off, we don't know how well the PS5 Pro has done in isolation; we only know that it's contributed in some way to the 9.5 million number. Second, We don't know what proportion of that 9.5 million consoles represents PS5 Pro sales.
While it's more than likely Sony's hardware business got a boost from the PS5 Pro, the console does boast what is arguably a rather prohibitive price point for a general gaming audience, so whether it's sold the kind of numbers that would significantly boost the console's totals is hard to say.
Still, it'll likely provide a confidence boost for Sony, especially after a year that offered up what is probably one of the company's biggest gaming embarrassments in history in the form of the launch and swift cancellation of hero shooter Concord.
The company sold 95.9 million software units during the quarter, of which 11.6 million were first-party games, although it doesn't provide a breakdown of which games contributed the most to that total.
Sony also reports an increase in PlayStation Plus users, which will likely come as a relief since subscriber numbers remained static throughout the first two quarters of the year.
As for the future, Sony held a State of Play showcase yesterday during which it showed off upcoming PS5 games like Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, and Days Gone Remastered. You can check out our recap of that showcase here.
