Thanks to Christmas discounts, Sony has pushed PlayStation 5 sales past the 90 million mark in a bid to avoid shortages.
This year marks the sixth anniversary of the PlayStation 5 and under normal circumstances console sales would be on the decline as Sony begins to tease the release of the PlayStation 6.
But we don’t live in normal times. Despite becoming more expensive than it already was, PlayStation 5 sales actually increased last year compared to 2024, with total sales surpassing the 84 million mark.
Sonys latest financial data show that the PlayStation 5 also had a very strong Christmas, with a further eight million sales in the period from October to December, meaning it was a more popular choice than the Nintendo Switch 2 that quarter.
According to Nintendo’s own financial figures from earlier this week, the Switch 2 sold 7.01 million units during the same period. This is because Sony is offering very generous discounts on both the PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro over the Christmas period, compared to the newer Switch 2, which didn’t see any major price deals.
Still, it’s still less than the 9.5 million PlayStation 5s sold in the same quarter of 2024, so sales are still on a downward trend. However, game sales increased, with 97.2 million PlayStation 5 and 4 games sold in the last three months of 2025, compared to 95.9 million games in the same period in 2024.
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The number of active PlayStation players has also increased. This time last year there were 129 million and now there are 132 million. So with the PlayStation 5 still going strong, there’s growing credibility that Sony could delay its PlayStation 6 plans for the time being.
Over on ResetEraIt has been highlighted that the PlayStation 5 is keeping pace with the PlayStation 4 in terms of sales. At this point in its life, the PlayStation 4 had sold 94.4 million units, while the PlayStation 5 was just slightly behind at 92.2 million.
It’s still far too early to tell whether the PlayStation 5 will manage to overtake its older sibling’s lifetime sales of 102.49 million, although it has at least surpassed the PlayStation 3’s 87.4 million units.
Given the global memory shortage, which will impact all gaming hardware, there are concerns that this could lead to problems for all video game consoles.
During an investor presentation, Sony Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao assured shareholders that the company has taken steps to ensure there will be enough PlayStation 5 consoles to meet demand this year.
“In terms of securing a supply of memory, we are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity required to manage next financial year’s end-of-year sales season. [October to December 2026],’ said Tao (as transcribed by This week in video games).
“Going forward, we plan to negotiate further with various suppliers to secure sufficient supply to meet our customers’ demand.”
When pressed about the possibility of more price increases and delays in new hardware, Tao avoided saying anything specific but did acknowledge that “there will be some impact.”
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Sony admitted that it expects console sales to gradually decline, but Tao attributed that to the PlayStation 5 being “in the latter part of its life cycle.”
To minimize this, the plan is to prioritize monetization of the install base to date and aim to further expand our software and network services revenues, which will hopefully mean an increase in the number of console exclusives.
However, it is surprising that Sony is talking about a decline in hardware sales this year, while GTA 6 will undoubtedly push more units when it launches in November. Granted, there’s a good chance it’ll be delayed again, so maybe Sony is just hedging its bets.
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