Sony's PlayStation 5 has hit another major sales milestone. The game console, which launched just over three years ago in November 2020, has now exceeded 50 million units sold worldwide.
Reuters reports that the PS5 has seen a big surge in sales during the holiday shopping period, with the story stating that the console had its biggest-ever Black Friday sales period since it launched. Sony also launched a redesigned and slimmer version of the console in early November, which may have also helped sales.
Eurogamer points out that sales of the older PlayStation 4 console hit that same 50 million milestone about a week earlier than PS5. However, PlayStation 5 sales were cut down in the early months after the launch due to supply chain issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reuters spoke to Eric Lempel, senior vice president for global marketing, sales, and business operations at Sony Interactive Entertainment. He stated:
Given the momentum we've had in November and a lot of what we're seeing in December, just in general we're feeling very good about sales overall.
Lempel added that he believed that the PS5 "will have a record-breaking year no matter where we end up."
Sales of the PS5 were also likely boosted by the October 20 release of the console-exclusive game Spider-Man 2, which sold 2.5 million copies in just its first 24 hours. In January, Sony plans to release a PS5 remastered version of The Last of Us Part 2. In late February 2024, the console will be a limited-time exclusive for Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
It hasn't been all wine and roses for the PlayStation division this year. Sony announced it delayed six of its planned 12 live service games indefinitely. Also, the Sony-owned Bungie announced mass layoffs and a delay in its next expansion for Destiny 2.
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