Playstation consoles are recognizable, no matter what generation. From the PS1’s grey palette to the signature all black shade that donned by the PS2, Ps3, and PS4, these video game consoles are part of the reason why gaming has become part of our lives at some point.
And the Sony Playstation consoles are big contributors to the video games industry, but how many units have Sony sold over the last two decades? Which of the Playstation generations is the most popular?
We’ll answer those questions and more as we look into some interesting Playstation stats on revenue, units sold, and demographics.
Key Playstation Statistics
- The Playstation 1 was released almost 28 years ago. Sony was supposed to be partnered with Nintendo, but the latter backed out of the deal. [2].
- The Playstation 1 sold more than 100 million units and was the first console in the industry to ever hit this milestone [3].
- It’s estimated that the Sony Playstation 5 sold more than 2.1 million units during its first 30 days [6].
- The revenue for console market in 2021 was $84 billion for the United States alone [8].
- Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and Playstation 5 bagged $5 billion in revenue worldwide for the year 2020 [12].
- The video game and network services are the biggest revenue generator for Sony, earning $24.4 billion in revenue for 2021. The Pictures and Music services follow in second and third place with $11.03 and $9.5 billion in revenue for the same year [11].
- Sony’s Playstation 2 is currently the top-selling video game console in the video game industry in terms of lifetime sales. The console has sold more than 158 million units since its release [14].
- Approximately 41% of Sony Playstation owners are female [21], [22].
Playstation Facts and Overview
Playstation as created by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which is a division of Sony Corporation. The first Playstation was released in December of 1994 in Japan, followed by a global release the following year [1].
Since then, Sony has developed four more generations of consoles namely the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and the current generation Playstation 5. Then there are two handheld consoles under the Playstation umbrella namely the Playstation Portable (PSP) and the Playstation vita (PS Vita).
Each generation boasts of more than a few million units sold, insuring their spot in the video game industry as the go-to consoles for their generation.
Let’s continue on with some amazing Playstation statistics and facts.
- The Playstation 1 is 28 years old to this writing, but it originally started out as Sony’s Nintendo Project. However, Nintendo cancelled their deal because Sony wanted the rights to all titles released on their platform [2].
- The first Playstation console (Playstation 1) has more than 100 million units sold, becoming the first console ever to reach the milestone [3].
- The first Playstation console’s competitor, the Nintendo 64, only had 30 million units sold before they got discontinued by Nintendo [3].
- The Playstation 5 was released on November 12th 2020 in Canada, US, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. The current generation Playstation console had more than 1.6 million units sold in a single day. The following week, more than 600,000 units were sold in Europe and several thousands more sold in other continents [4].
- It’s estimated that the Playstation 5’s global sale for its first month hovered at about 2.1 million units sold [4].
- The best-selling game right now on Playstation 4 is Grand Theft Auto V with more than 20 million copies sold [5].
- Playstation currently dominates close to 90% market share in India as of 2022 [6].
- More than 80% of countries prefer the Playstation 5 over its competitor, Xbox Series X [7].
- In Japan, it’s no surprise that 98.94% of their gamers are more willing to search for a PS5 than an Xbox Series X [7].
Playstation Revenue Statistics
- In 2021, the revenue for video game consoles in the United States was $8.4 billion [8].
- In Europe, revenue for video game consoles or home consoles was $14.3 billion in 2021. It’s projected to reach $18 billion by 2026 [9].
- In the United Kingdom, revenue generated by video game consoles was almost $3 billion (approximately $2.91 billion). The industry is projected to hit $3.1 billion in revenue by 2025 [10].
- The game and network services are the highest revenue generator for Sony. The segment earned $24.4 billion in revenue for 2021. The game and network services are followed by Music and Pictures services. These segments generated $9.95 billion and $11.03 billion in revenue respectively for the same year [11].
- The Playstation Consoles series 3,4, and 5 (or the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and Playstation 5) generated $5 billion in revenue globally for 2020 [12].
Playstation Sales Numbers and Statistics
- 4.3 million units of Playstation 5 were sold in the United States alone for 2021 [13].
- The Playstation 2 remains as one of the best-selling video game consoles in the industry. As of 2022, the console has generated more than 158 million units sold worldwide.[14].
- As of July 2022, the Playstation 3 has sold more than 87.41 million units worldwide, with 30 million units accounted for in Europe alone [15].
- As of July 2022, Playstation 4 sold more than 116.4 million units around the world, with 46 million sold in Europe alone [16] .
- For the current generation consoles, Playstation 5 is one of the top-grossing consoles for the year 2021 with 12.6 million units sold. The Nintendo Switch bags the top spot with more than 25 million units sold for that time period. [17].
- The Playstati9n 2 remains at the top selling game consoles of all time in terms of lifetime sales with 157.78 million units sold worldwide. Nintendo DS comes in second place with 154 million units sold [18].
- The Playstation Vita, the next generation handheld console under the Playstation umbrella, only sold about 14 million units as of July 2022 [19].
- The Playstation Portable or PSP sold more than 80 million units as of July 2022.[20].
The Console Wars was the term that gamers referred to Sega and Nintendo’s rivalry back in the 1990s. Now, the console wars are between Playstation and Xbox platforms as these giants have products up to four generations of consoles under them.
Playstation Demographics
The number of female gamers owning consoles have increased, starting from the days of the original Playstation. Sony noted that 41% of Playstation 5 and Playstation 4 owners are women, compared to the 18% of women who owned a PS1 console before [21], [22].
How Many Playstation Users Are There?
- The Playstation Network, or PSN, has consistently increased in users over the last few years. In 2020, they hit an all-time high of 144 million users. But that number has drastically gone down to 104 million users as of 2021 [23].
- In contrast, the number of Xbox Live users also showed a dramatic increase in users until 2019 when they hit the 65 million mark. When the Pandemic hit in 2020, that number grew to 100 million by the end of the year [23]
- Playstation Plus has about 47.7 million subscribers as of March 2021 [24].
- In 2018, PS Plus members received $1,500 worth of free video games. However, these figures declined in 2019 with less than $900 worth of video games given that year and $789 for 2020 [24].
Wrap Up!
The Playstation statistics have shown us just how big these game consoles are. Playstation gamers continue to support the console giant and the video games released on there.
Console gaming will probably still be dominated by the big 3, namely Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. It goes without saying that PC gaming might be bigger than all three combined given that some exclusive games from these other consoles are porting over to the PC side.
What’s next for the gaming giant? Well, one thing’s for sure. A more powerful version of Sony’s Playstation 5 would be on the horizons for its next generation lineup. Though as a fan of the gaming console, I’ll remain hopeful for a third generation Playstation handheld console.
Reference
[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/PlayStation
[2] https://www.giantbomb.com/playstation/3045-22/
[3] https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2018/12/top-10-best-selling-videogame-consoles-551938
[4] https://www.gamesradar.com/ps5-sold-between-21-and-25-million-units-worldwide-on-day-one-report-claims/
[5] https://www.thegamer.com/playstation-4-best-selling-all-time/
[6] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/console/india
[7] https://www.finder.com.au/in-demand-consoles
[8] https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1196083/revenue-video-game-consoles-united-states
[9] https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1196066/revenue-video-game-consoles-europe
[10] https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1196072/revenue-video-game-consoles-united-kingdom
[11] https://www.statista.com/statistics/297533/sony-sales-worldwide-by-business-segment/
[12] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1260245/sony-gaming-hardware-revenue-global/
[13] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1029302/sales-playstation-gaming-devices-in-the-united-states/
[14] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1101876/unit-sales-playstation-2-region/
[15] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1101879/unit-sales-playstation-3-region/
[16] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1101880/unit-sales-playstation-4-region/
[17] https://www.statista.com/statistics/276768/global-unit-sales-of-video-game-consoles/
[18] https://www.statista.com/statistics/268966/total-number-of-game-consoles-sold-worldwide-by-console-type/
[19] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1029044/worldwide-sony-playstation-vita-unit-sales/
[20] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1101911/unit-sales-psp-region/
[21] https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/05/almost_half_of_playstation_gamers_are_women
[22] https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/irday/pdf/2021/GNS_E.pdf
[23] https://www.statista.com/statistics/531063/xbox-live-mau-number/
[24] https://www.statista.com/statistics/532431/playstation-plus-subscribers-global/