PS5 barely missed its sales target in latest earnings report, and Sony expects to sell even less by next year

As part of Sony’s financial earnings for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2024, it was confirmed PlayStation 5 sales were up compared to the previous year, with lifetime sales even crossing the 59 million mark. Yet the console still wound up failing to meet Sony’s targets, and it doesn’t seem they’re going to get any better.

Sony shared its earnings on May 14, revealing the PS5 sold 20.8 million units from last April to March. The year before, it managed 19.1 million units, so that is still an improvement. I personally find that pretty impressive, considering Sony hasn’t had any major first-party exclusives in the past year aside from Spider-Man 2 and the updated remaster of The Last of Us Part 2. In terms of games, it’s had to rely on third-party fare like Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, though Sony has Helldivers 2 to thank most of all. It’s easily been the company’s biggest success story in the last 12 months, even becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation game ever.

Despite improved hardware sales, Sony was hoping to push at least 21 million units this fiscal year, and even that was a revision of an initial target of 25 million (per Reuters). Sony also predicts hardware sales to drop even further by next March, saying during a webcast it’s set a new sales target of 18 million units (via Barrons). While such a drop sounds scary, the PS5 is nearly four years old now and in the latter half of its life-cycle, so declining sales are to be expected. Elsewhere in the results, Sony adds that reduced hardware sales should be partially off-set by “an expected increase in sales of non-first-party titles including add-on content.”

Given Sony’s first-party output is once again looking awfully scarce, it’s no wonder it’s reliant on third-party titles to help it out. There is chatter of Sony holding a summer showcase, which could be home to some major game announcements to excite the user-base. Sony president Hiroki Totoki may have even hinted at such a showcase, writing in a letter to employees, “Later this month you will learn more about the long-term vision for Sony Group and the essential role SIE plays in that vision.”

There are also rumours of a PS5 Pro, which is expected to be even more powerful than the current model, though how profitable that could be remains to be seen. I can’t imagine such a console would be particularly affordable, and may only appeal to a particular sub-section of PlayStation fans. Regardless, with the only first-party title scheduled for 2024 being Concord (via Shinobi602 on Twitter), which is yet another live-service game, I am very curious to see how things pan out for PlayStation in the coming months.