Sony sold more than 4.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles in 2020; hopes for $9 billion annual revenue

Sony Interactive Entertainment has finally released the latest sales numbers around its latest video game console, PlayStation 5. Looking at the details, the company noted that it sold more than 4.5 million consoles in 2020. This means that the PS5 numbers matched the sale numbers for the PS4 during its launch quarter in 2013. In addition, Sony also sold about 1.4 million PS4 consoles pushing the total console revenue to about $8.4 billion. This made the last quarter of 2020 the most successful for Sony. Lets’ check everything that Sony shared during its earning call around PlayStation 5 here.

Sony PlayStation 5 sale numbers out, details

As part of the sales data, Sony also outlined that its profits were up by 50 percent to $763 million. The company admitted that this uptick in revenue is likely due to the increased popularity of gaming after COVID 19. In fact, it is hoping to earn about $9 billion (1 trillion Yen) as the annual operating income. Moving back to the Sony PlayStation 5, the company also revealed that it is selling the console at a loss. This is due to the “strategic price” of the console hardware that is lower than the manufacturing costs. Beyond this, the cost of launch also affected the gross profit.

Regardless of the loss in the console hardware, Sony is earning enough revenue through its software and PlayStation Network-related charges. Analyst Daniel Ahmad also noted that selling the console at a loss is not a new thing for Sony. In the past, the company sold the PS4 at a loss during the initial months after the launch. Sony took “a few months” to make any profit on the console. It is likely that the company could have improved on its numbers if it did not face any supply issues. However, the unprecedented nature of the pandemic was bound to impact the launch.

The information around the sale numbers comes just days after the company finally released the PlayStation 5 in India. As reported previously, the India launch comes almost three months after the global launch. The sale numbers could have been marginally better if the company ensured simultaneous launch across the globe.