57.1 Million PS4 Shipped by Sony as of December 2016; PlayStation Sales and Income Soar

Sony Corporation announced today its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, ended on December 31st. As you can see in the table below

[DashArrivals]

Sony is KING.

[DarkOcelet]

I wouldn't be surprised if they sold 70 million by the end of the year.

[affrogamer]

This will be their best year as far as first party exclusives go. That target is very reachable!

[SourtreeDing]

75mil!

[majiebeast]

See this is why Sony has nothing to fear from the other 2 its still breaking records left and right.

[Kingthrash360]

Agreed
I truly think it's weird to see articles that say "why the sony should be worried about ms/nintendo" when it's should be the other way around. They have double the games actual exclusives and a fair price.

[DashArrivals]

Plus all the exclusives they have lined up. A steady stream of greatness. PLUS, they are still working on many titles we don't even know about. Sony are so much more focused on PS4 than even PS3. Playstation is a massive cornerstone of their business now. They will continue to blow us away.

[Chevalier]

More like 75 million seems quite likely.

[Brugal]

That's insane and plausible.

[mikeslemonade]

Gonna overtake 3DS within the next 2 years.

[UCForce]

If this keep up, PlayStation will dominate this year.

[bouzebbal]

Gran Turismo will take care of that.
Great milestone.

[joab777]

Definitely. I actually think that they may end up dropping the price of the Pro at some point too. It's a good machine. But the exclusives are absurd right now!

[C-H-E-F]

That's very possible actually, especially with this year exclusives lord ham mercy.

[GtR35olution]

Wow, thats amazing. So theyll probably sell 70 million by november when scorpio is out and xbox one sales will be around 31 million. Ive seen a lot of fanat-X saying that when the scorpio is released it will be selling so well that xbox will outsell the ps4 which is just silly. Well deserved for sony because they've been releasing amazing exclusive games and i cant wait for horizon zero dawn in 3 weeks.

[hulk_bash1987]

Congrats to Sony and the Playstation brand, theyve been knocking out of the park this Gen. Heres to the future and what else is in store for us gamers. Cheer.

[FITgamer]

Looks like they will hit their 60 million target for fiscal year pretty easily.

[Sm3000]

I'm thinking more like 80mil

[TankCrossing]

Sony are absolutely bossing where it matters. Every time I close my eyes I wake up, and another quality PS4 game drops. Great start to 2017.

[stuna1]

Lol, instead of counting sheep, you're counting games.

[Major_Glitch]

This generation belongs to Sony.

[trooper_]

Man, this is INSANE. I wouldn't be surprised if they hit 70 million too.

[DashArrivals]

It's crazy. I'm just so excited for whats to come this year and in the next few years. Sony has a lot of goodies lined up for us to sample. :D

[Overload]

https://j.gifs.com/667WJn.g...

[Inzo]

@ONESHOTV2

Lol, yes, very high settings and nothing to show for it except tech demos and a constant referral to the snore fest that is Crysis.

[ONESHOTV2]

Inzo--- the only people that would say some thing like that are the misinformed (you) and the unsecured or even blind (you again ) come out of that tunnel your field of view might widen a bit.

[danny818]

lol

[Brisco]

King in losing money that's for sure.

[joeorc]

Brisco..no they are selling each ps4 at a slight profit ...even without a software sale...the system itself is infact sold at profit.

Actual rate is 1.36 to 1.68 per month shipped @ Rain..that's been that way per the last few years straight !

Surprised me that has been a sustained production metric.

[donthate]

Except it doesn't look like Sony is going to hit their conservative target of 20 million PS4 consoles sold this year. I suppose they could channel stuff, but they already got 3+ million consoles on shelves as we speak.

[rainslacker]

This puts them a few million short as of December 31, and they average 750-1 million a month, so for the fiscal year, which ends at the end of March, they're going to be pretty darn close.

I don't think it's considered channel stuffing when the items are selling pretty fast. Stuffing is done when retailers aren't ordering more, and the manufacturer gives incentives for retailers to buy more. So far, I haven't seen a single incentive from Sony to try and push sales to retailers in this manner beyond the typical price drops, which are different.

[Muzikguy]

Funny seeing all the doom articles when things like this are happening. There must be 57 million disappointed fans according to what I read the other day lol. I'm so glad to see a company that's focused on the gaming community do so well. Probably be well over 70 million by year's end. Especially since they've been doing million each month (or more) follows by that surge in quarter 3. Should be looking at PS3 lifetime sales in no time.

[TGGJustin]

Yep last month when they announced they sold 53.4 million by Jan 1 I predicted that meant they likely shipped 56-57 million. Looks like I was right. Their goal by the end of March was to ship 60 million. With 3 whole months to ship 2.9 million it looks like they will hit their goal.

[UltraNova]

GT Sport alone will move more than 1million ps4s.

[yeahokwhatever]

from me alone

[BIGBOSS08]

That game will be massive in Europe. The ps4 sales in Europe on gt sport release will be like holiday level sales. People forget how big gran turismo is.

[FallenAngel1984]

3.7 million PS4s were on shelves waiting for consumers to buy them

[TGGJustin]

So? What's wrong with that? They are selling fast so they have to keep plenty of stock available.

[Abriael]

That's what happens when you have a product that sells quickly. The distribution channel is far from saturated, that's for sure.

[FallenAngel1984]

I didn't say anything was wrong with it. I'm just commenting on how many PS4s are readily available for consumers to purchase them and have a great time by comparing how much Sony said they sold and what they shipped, as was referred to in the actual article

[Destiny1080]

there probably selling a million+ a week during December

so to keep ahead of that, production obviously needs to be higher, its just the time of year that they produce so many

[ILostMyMind]

You said that seven hours ago. Probably now there are a hundred thousand less on the shelves.

[Christopher]

Not likely. Selling an average of 100 per hour is a more likely figure. We're out of the Holiday season.

[rainslacker]

When they sell about a million a month, that would be typical for a product that sells worldwide at a lot of different kinds of retailers. Plus, probably at least half of those are in distribution channels, not at the retailers themselves in anticipation of the next months sales.

@Abriel

From what I've seen, the distributors have a pretty steady stream of stock of systems. The one's that track stock in real time seem to fluctuate a lot from day to day. This tends to indicate that stuff is moving regularly. Other things that don't move as fast can sit at a single number for weeks, and then maybe get a higher number if someone orders enough to drop it below the reorder threshhold....assuming that they decide to order more for their clients.

Seems the bigger distributors are getting thousands in at a time for wholesale. I'd suppose that would be normal, and these kinds of shipments seem to happen about once every couple weeks or so....likely through freight shipments from the manufacturer....although I'm kind of making assumptions on how they handle their stock at distribution.

In any case, people complain when there are stock shortages, and I guess they claim that stuff is just sitting on shelves when there are enough to just go in and pick one up at the store.

[Malice-Flare]

congrats...

and, thanks for the games...

[ApocalypseShadow]

Good job Sony.

This is why I don't see Sony as being worried about what Nintendo and Microsoft are doing. Mindful. But not worried.

By the end of the year, Sony will be sitting somewhere around 70 million units shipped or sold. Developers who are looking to make potential money have to consider making games for PS4. Which also helps PS4 Pro. Which also helps PSVR. Sony being lead platform is guaranteed games, games and more games.

The negative part is that there is no time to play them all. But the positive thing is that there is such a huge variety to choose from that as a gamer, you're swimming in games
https://media.tenor.co/imag...
https://m.popkey.co/9811e6/...

But the battle will rage on
https://media.giphy.com/med...

[UltraNova]

Personally there's no way I'll manage to play all Sony exclusives I'm interested in this year let alone 3rd party must plays like Nioh, MassE etc...its overwelming!

1st world problems right?

[nitus10]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you since I have far too many games for the PS4 alone and I still have PS3 games I have not finished.

Yes, definitely a first world problem. 😉

[kenwonobi]

That's a huge number. Looking at over 70 million before this year is over.

[MasterCornholio]

Good job Sony.

[_-EDMIX-_]

DAMN!!!!!!!!

That's absolutely crazy. Still in shock that were in a generation where a console is outpacing the PlayStation 2!!!

Sony is not giving competition room to breathe lol

[S2Killinit]

They make games. They see entertainment as an end to itself. That's why they are successful.

[Fishy Fingers]

They have the history, the experience, the studios/relationships and most importantly the drive as PS is largely propping the company up.

They're more motivated than ever to push the brand and there is no doubt it's working.

[stuna1]

All aboard the PS4 Express!

[Obelisk92]

Sony made a lot of right choices on the marketing side within this generation, and those are the results. Awesome job on keeping the quality games too.

I just hope Nintendo and Microsoft will gain some space with the upcoming consoles, since competition has always been a good thing for gamers.

Anyway, as a PS4 owner, I'm glad I have the opportunity to enjoy this moment!

[Mr_Luke]

Wow, it seems they're going to reach their goal (60milion by March) and probably even more than that!! All the exclusives that come out in these days/months will help for sure.

P.S. I know it's SHIPPED and not SOLD, but they're not going to stay a lot on the shelves... and the "shipped" becomes "sold", then the next shipment arrives etc ;)

[stuna1]

As some like to put it shipped is as good as sold! Or is that only when they need to prop up sales figures? The difference here is no filler is needed. The PS4 is performing phenomenally and the gap between it competitors will not be a easy feat to overcome with the consoles on the market now or in the near future.

Personally I think it's going to take years for any competitors to erode away the lead that Sony has on them, and by that time the PS5 and a new generation will be starting. That's if it happens at all.

[ILostMyMind]

Nintendo and Microsoft are already starting the new generation but this is only important when Sony says it started.

[rainslacker]

This gen has gone to Sony. I can't see any scenario that would allow either competitor to catch up, even if Switch sells like the Wii as Nintendo seems to believe it will. Scorpio isn't going to sell anywhere near enough if it's being marketed as a premium product, and the X1 currently can't match Sony's momentum, and isn't likely too without some drastic measures, and even if it gains that momentum, it doesn't mean that it will cause Sony to slow down.

It will take a new generation to reset the numbers.

[fllysurfer]

I wonder how close they will get to the Playstation 2 (Sony) – 157.68 Million? There's no doubt PS4 sales will not even come close but it should reach close to Wii numbers by the end of its console life (Wii (Nintendo) – 101.18 Million).

[stuna1]

Truthfully I think if Sony see's the PS4 maintaining the momentum it has, I see them keeping the PS4 on the market longer, and possibly holding off releasing another next generation console any time soon to more likely beef up specs for when they do release one.

[fllysurfer]

I guess that really comes down to how well the Scorpio will steal the limelight.

That being said, unless they come out guns blazing at E3 with a plethora of game for it, that would happen. The fact that the console will be more powerful than PS4 Pro, if it has a poor roster of games, the uptake to the Scorpio will only last shortly.

[yeahright2]

2/3 of the way there would be my guess.

[rainslacker]

Think it depends on how long they sell the PS4 on the market. PS2 sold for close to 15 years before it was discontinued, and a good chunk of the sales for it came after the PS3 came out.

I think beating Wii is already a done deal. At it's current pace, it should do that by the middle of 2018, and we're coming to a point in the gen, where the casuals start picking up systems....after the likely price drop for 2017 holiday season.

There's also the consideration that the PS4P could essentially extend the shelf life of this generation for Sony. Going to be messy for fan boys who try to discern the mix between OGPS4 and PS4P sales.

[Movefasta1993]

By 2020 they'll hit 120 if they carry releasing big exclusives

[Elda]

Of course! Sony PS is king!!

[trooper_]

Sony domination.

[Herbalistic]

Sony have made the right moves to ensure PS4's success

[game4funz]

53million sold and 57 shipped.

[Money-Mike]

Now show us those VR numbers....

[Ron_Danger]

They just had a big restock in the US so we probably will see sales numbers (either shipped or sell through) soon. I just got a PSVR from GameStop online last Wednesday.

[ILostMyMind]

I think they will show it when production is normalized. By then they will have sold just over a million units. Sales of no VR devices are good at the moment but they will improve when new games releases.

[Relientk77]

Bosslike

[WickedLester]

I think a lot of credit needs to go to Kaz Harai and his staff for doing such a remarkable job of turning Sony around. He made the tough choices, cut the dead weight where necessary, and now they're in the black again. I knew Sony made the right choice when they appointed Kaz CEO. The way he handled the PS3 fiasco and turned that "sow's ear" into a silk purse was no easy task.

[AmUnRa]

Kaz shure, but the most kudos are for Mark Cerny, the engineer of the hardware in the PS4 and the PS4, he is a genius👍

[WickedLester]

It's funny you posted that because I was just getting ready to come back and edit my post to include Mark Cerny. The PS4 is a tremendous console. I cannot wait to see what they design for the PS5.

[2-bit_hustler]

If Mark Cerny is a genius, then Ken Kutaragi is a “true genius” [1]; because the x86/GCN-based APUs [2] that Mark & co. used for the PS4/PS4 Pro are variants of the heterogeneous [3] logically integrated PowerPC/SPU+RSX-based APU [4][5][6] inside of the PS3.

Development of the PS4 was largely finished back in 2006, kudos to Ken Kutaragi. http://abload.de/img/0351_4...

[1] play 37:14 - 37:26 https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[2] see slides 22 & 23 http://www-05.ibm.com/hu/ne...

[3] play 8:30 – 8:42 https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[4] see slides 26 & 27 http://www.graphicshardware...

[5] see slides 2, 107 & 118 http://www.jonolick.com/upl...

[6] https://twitter.com/postgoo...

[solideagle]

Don't forget Yoshida san for getting all these exclusive and giving 1st party creative freedom...

[fxa5209]

PS4 turn around yes, but Sony as a company no. He is planning to sell TV, Mobile, and Movie business, Sony will end up like Nintendo , a gaming company only which is really not a good thing because one failure is a generation (i.e. PS3), means the company may go out of business.

[Nyxus]

Failure? The PS3? But it sold more than the Xbox 360.

[Dark_Knightmare2]

You just spewed a whole bunch of bull crap that it makes me sick. They are not selling off their movie or tv business hell they just reiterated that their committed to their move business during their financial report. The PS3 was far from a failure so it's funny you would try to say that especially since it sold more than the 360 which def wasn't a failure

[joeorc]

I do not know where you are getting your info , but CES this year , that was debunked... They are not selling any of those Subsidiaries...

[yeahright2]

Kaz started out in gaming with Sony. Makes sense he knew to bet the farm on Playstation.

[2-bit_hustler]

The credit should go to Ken Kutaragi for establishing the brand that is filling Sony’s coffers with cash; and for architecting the PS3 [1][2] in such a way that the PS4 [3][4] was able to immediately benefit and gain a performance advantage over its direct competitor.

Kaz didn’t turn a “sow’s ear into a silk purse”. It was the acquisition of SN Systems that Ken authorized in 2005 [5] to improve the PS3’s development environment [6][7], along with the implementation of his two-year plan to reduce the costs of PS3 hardware [8] -- which contributed to the hardware turning a profit by 2010 [9] -- that set the conditions for the PS3’s success.

That sow's ear was always a silk purse, because the PS4 came out of it. Oink, oink. http://abload.de/img/0351_4...

[1] see slides 2, 107 & 118 http://www.jonolick.com/upl...

[2] http://cdn4.dualshockers.co...

[3] http://www.gamechup.com/ps4...

[4] see entry [0070] regarding the program code 1103; also see entries [0012], [0013] and the list of inventors http://www.google.com/paten...

[5] https://www.sie.com/content...

[6] see 3rd & 4th paragraphs http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9...

[7] http://www.gamesindustry.bi...

[8] see 4th paragraph http://www.eetimes.com/docu...

[9] see 3rd paragraph http://www.ign.com/articles...

[WickedLester]

"That sow's ear was always a silk purse."

Uh, no it wasnt. When PS3 launched it was terribly expensive and selling at a tremendous financial loss. It's foreign architecture was a nightmare for developers, resulting in less than favorable ports of multi console titles. Sony's online infrastructure was woefully behind Xbox Live and it didn't even have a true digital store built into the UI (it used to have to take you to a separate website). Online was inferior as well. Then there was the great PSN hack that caused the online to go down. Don't attempt to rewrite history and pretend the PS3 wasn't in serious trouble in the early days. It was a dumpster fire and all of the profits from the PS2's success were completely spent from the PS3's terrible mishandling from concept to execution.

[rainslacker]

A lot of the new tech within modern CPU's and GPU's is directly adopted from CELL technology. Particularly GPU's, where RSX and SPE technolgy is kind of par for the course now.

Kind of funny how the thing that was so hard to figure out last gen, became the standard for graphics pipelines. Biggest difference now though is the underlying architecture, which uses more common instruction sets which are easier to work with than process specific tasks which had to be discretely programmed last gen, plus the API's work better to keep the workflow more streamlined. The programmer had to give up some flexibility, but the gains from more time for optimization more than made up for it.

[wutang4ever]

Sony Has no Competition with MS slacking. Isn't that worrisome ?

[Bathyj]

No. Why? We're getting great games just like we did with every PlayStation, including the PS2 when they dominated even more than now.

The old competition is good, dominating is bad is a fallacy. PlayStation always delivers. Always. Face it, gaming is great with Sony on top. They are a worthy king.

[badz149]

worrisome? LOL

so what did Sony do when they are clearly almost 30mil units ahead of the Xbone? do they decide they are just gonna sit back and rake in the money OR...have you seen their lineup for this year?? if their domination is gonna bring exclusives one after another like this year, why the hell NOT...BRING IT ON!

on top of great lineups already this early in the year with GR2, Yakuza 0, KH2.8, Nioh and Horizon ZD - all EXCLUSIVES btw, they are ramping up on PS+ goodness too! This Chinese new Year alone, in Asia, they gave PS+ subscribers Tales of Zesteria and Gow3 Remastered on top on the January PS+ offerings. and to to start February, we just got Let it Die for FREE too on top of LBP3! all I can say is...HOLY MOTHER OF GAMES!

[wutang4ever]

those games have been in production for the past few years. At this point Sony can just cruise this generation. I don't want them cruising, I want them stepping on the GAS full throttle. MS needs to stay competitive, to keep Sony on their toes.

Not sure why people don't understand this. Competition is Great for ALL GAMERS.

Screw fanboys.

[Big_Game_Hunters]

Considering Sony's track record of getting too cocky and making something way too expensive like PS3 and VITA i would say it definitely raises concerns. I guess we just wait and see.

[tyasia0]

Oh you mean like the initial release/cost of the Xbone?

[Big_Game_Hunters]

@tyasia0 yeah just like that, this isn't about MS though.

[rainslacker]

Why be concerned about something that's a ways off, without a single rumor about what Sony might do with their future hardware.

The hardware has little bearing on the software front, so why be concerned about something when we know the PS5 isn't for a while.

If Sony gets cocky, any concern won't matter. Our concern about the rumors of MS DRM policies didn't matter before hand, it was our actions aftewards that did. Sony will be in the same boat if that time comes.

Nothing suggests that Sony made the PS3 the way they did because of lack of competition. I think they really wanted to make a powerful and fully featured system and get new technologies out there, and competition had little to do with it. The end result was an expensive console, and the only arrogance was believing they had a solid enough place in the market that they could pass it off on the market. But due to the changes in the market, they had a hard time.

I'm not sure why you brought up the Vita, because during it's release, Sony had pretty stout competition in the console space, and Nintendo was reigning supreme in the handheld space.

I also question why you consider something expensive as being cocky? PS3 was an amazing console. It was misplaced for it's time, and Sony misjudged the market, but that's not really arrogance. Vita is an amazing handheld, and the price itself was applauded. Its' the memory cards which were the problem, and that wasn't cockiness on Sony's part, that was way too much concern with preventing piracy, that made them go for a proprietary memory format, which itself would cost more to make since they wouldn't be making as many as they would if it had been a standard format.

So you're concerns are misplaced.

[BIGBOSS08]

No because sony have more games than they've ever had before and MS isn't even slacking.. Sony have simply ripped them apart and they know there's no coming back.

[rainslacker]

Not really. PS1 did fine when Nintendo slacked. PS2 did fine when MS couldn't get anything done, and Nintendo was practically irrelevant....which thankfully Nintendo fixed somewhat.

Most people think Sony slacked off with the PS3, but they really didn't. They overshot, and thought people would just accept their hardware, but they made a rather powerful system....they just misjudged the market, and the competition.

PS4 was just them returning to form, and since Sony is riding an all time high in terms of 1st party quality and quantity, without much competition at all, why should we start worrying now?

Sony can worry about the competition. So long as they deliver a capable and affordable system, and keep delivering quality games, I'm good, and the competition won't affect my enjoyment of their products at all. In the mean time, the competition can do something to get me interested if they want. Switch is on my plate right now when more games come, and Xbox I'm kind of disillusioned with based on how MS has handled it and it's software.

[StormLegend]

70-75 million before this year ends.

[ILostMyMind]

First, congratulations Sony! PlayStation is a great brand and made it worthy.

But let's take advantage of this good moment of the platform and improve some features of the OS, Sony? PS4 needs some fixes and additions to features.

[YAO-BLING]

bow down to the king

[corroios]

What this means is more games and more deals for sony.

[rlow1]

Well no doubt their PlayStation division is doing well but the company as a whole lost a nice chunk of change. It seems that the PlayStation is keeping them afloat.

[joeorc]

Actual financial data by Subsidiaries that Sony owns , would you believe that PlayStation is not even their top money making subsidiary of their company...its the 4th largest...shocking I know...Sony restructuring efforts have been working Quite well..and all subsidiary companies are now going into Profit for files now...

So no it is just not PlayStation Subsidiary that's keeping Sony afloat..not by a long shot.

[danny818]

Sony is pretty much staying them afloat. The Motion Pictured division lost them 995 million.

[Phantom68]

Imagine what they could do if the PS4 Pro did not have shortage issues

[jokerisalive]

70 million plus by the end of this year.

[Phoenix76]

If Sony can keep these kind of numbers up (approx 1.58mil per month) then having shipped 70mil by the end of this year would be incredibly impressive

[Jayszen]

What a wonderful time to be a Playstation gamer - there are just so many games and not enough time to play them all! This is why the PS4 reigns supreme - there are so many games and most of them are good, some are really good and a quite a few are excellent (Yakuza 0, right now).

[PlatinumGX]

PS4 uses the Xbox One as a toilet, and the Wii U as toilet paper.

[sdplisken]

Nothing new here just more Sony Playstation domination!

[Sm3000]

The other part of this story that wasn't mentioned is that profits are way down. All of their other divisions aren't doing well. As a huge sony fan that's a bummer

[Dark_Knightmare2]

Maybe because this is gaming news and nobody cares on a gaming site what their movie or tv business is doing

[saimcheeda]

I got mine last month. So my sale will be there in the next quarter's report!

[2pacalypsenow]

100 million seems very possible

[Dan_scruggs]

Wouldn't throw a party just yet.

Sony Profits Down 54% Despite Strong PlayStation Performance
http://www.gamespot.com/art...

[JMyers]

Wonder how many monthly active users they have? ;)

[leoms]

Lol, sarcasm is dying these days.

[Hendog1981]

So glad Sony has PlayStation, I would be really concerned about their future otherwise. Their movie studio is haemorrhaging money.

[DillyDilly]

Lets see the VR numbers

[King_Lothric]

They said VR is doing according to their expectations.

[DillyDilly]

So badly since they are not posting the numbers

[dlocsta]

I am not a Sony (video game) person (never have been, which is funny because I used to work for them) but props to them. It is nice to see console gaming going strong.

[Donnie81]

I'd be interested in seeing how many pro units they shipped. The ps4 is a great system and will be the highest selling console ever. So much for console gaming dying off

[lunatic0001]

i can see ps4 selling well over 100 million...maybe not ps2 levels but pretty close...that's awesome....hopefully ms and nintendo can be as successful too so all three companies can strive to be better thus the more competition there is, the better products these companies will strive to make and we all benefit no matter what console you prefer

[TheColbertinator]

Vita support? No? Lame.

[feraldrgn]

I love my Vita too, but let's not dismiss Sony's PS4 glory.

[joeorc]

Well with their over a million per month shipping..looks like Sony will infact make their projection of shipping near or over 60 million by the end of their fiscally ending 2016 year..by March 31st...wow impressive.

[MagicBeanz]

Damn! Congrats Sony well deserved.

[loverlink]

holy moly macaroni that is a lot.

[About30Ninjas]

Nintendo & M$ might as well team up cause when it comes to the PS4 they isn't much competition