Sony have announced via their consolidated financial earnings report that Playstation 4 shipments have exceeded 60 million units worldwide.
The “Games and Network Services” division which the Playstation brand falls under has seen a significant increase in sales with over 20 million Playstation 4 consoles shipped last year. The division also reported profits of 136 billion yen ($1.2bn / R15.94bn), its highest since 1998. The report also stated that:
Sales increased 6.3% year-on-year (a 16% increase on a constant currency basis) to 1,649.8 billion yen (14,730 million U.S. dollars). This increase was primarily due to an increase in PlayStation®4 (“PS4”) software sales, including sales through the network, as well as an increase in PS4 hardware sales, partially offset by the impact of foreign exchange rates and the impact of a price reduction for PS4 hardware.
Video games industry analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted the following graph which indicates that the Playstation 4 is currently on a course to overtake the PS2 in terms of units shipped worldwide.
PS4 still tracking alongside PS2 when launch aligned.
Should be ahead of PS2 12 months from now too if targets are achieved. pic.twitter.com/IaojJanYRc
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 28, 2017
Sony expects to ship an additional 18 million PS4 units during the 2017 financial year and while hardware sales continue to rack up, the company’s digital sales and cost reductions are becoming increasingly important to their bottom line.
Operating income increased 46.9 billion yen year-on-year to 135.6 billion yen (1,210 million U.S. dollars). This significant increase was primarily due to PS4 hardware cost reductions and the above-mentioned increase in PS4 software sales, partially offset by the impact of the price reduction for PS4 hardware and a decrease in PlayStation®3 software sales
The full financial report can be viewed on Sony’s website here.