PlayStation 5 to sell 6 million units at launch, analyst predicts

Japanese games analyst Hideki Yasuda sees the PS5 selling less than the PS4's launch in 2013.

Senior Gaming Editor

Published Feb 17, 2020 5:07 PM CST
Updated Nov 3, 2020 11:44 AM CST

5 minutes & 30 seconds read time

The PlayStation 5 will sell roughly 1.5 million less units than the PlayStation 4 at launch, Ace Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda predicts.

PlayStation 5 to sell 6 million units at launch, analyst predicts 9

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Ace Securities just published a letter to investors outlining PlayStation 5 hardware sales forecast from launch up until March 31, 2021. The firm expects the PS5 will sell 6 million units in that period, as opposed to the 7.5 million PS4s Sony sold at launch, representing a 20% decline.

This number is actually pretty high considering the relatively higher cost of the console's expected retail pricing (Sony is spending about $450 to make every PS5) and the availability of lower-cost PS4s on the next-gen system's launch.

Read more: PlayStation 6 spec rumor update: 3 x faster than PS5, lower power and cheaper than the PS5

"For the PS5, the forecast for the first year is 6 million units and the next year is 15 million units. The supply and demand of DRAM is expected to be tight, but there are no major problems at this time. However, with the sluggish sales of the PS4 becoming apparent, we expect that expectations for the PS5 will increase further in the future," the analyst said.

PlayStation 5 to sell 6 million units at launch, analyst predicts 45

The 15 million jump in FY2021 is more or less in line with the PlayStation 4's past performance, which spiked to 14.8 million consoles sold in its second year of availability. It's worth mentioning the PS4 didn't hit its peak until its fourth year on the market where it surged to 20 million unit sales.

Sony has apparently locked in the orders and pricing for all of the PlayStation 5's components, so the surge in NAND demand may not affect Sony's bottom line sales cut.

The console will release in Holiday 2020, and it may cost $499.

Check below for more info on everything we know about the PlayStation 5 so far:

PlayStation 5 specs and details:

Custom SoC with second-gen Navi GPU, Zen 2 CPU
8-Core, 16-thread Zen 2 CPU at 3.2GHz
Navi GPU at 2.0GHz with 36 Compute Units
Navi, Zen SoC uses new AMD RDNA 2.0 architecture
Ultra-fast SSD
Support for 4K 120 Hz TVs
Ray-tracing enabled
8K output support (for gaming)
Plays all PS4 games
Separate games that ship on BD-XL Blu-ray discs
New controller with extensive haptic and tactile feedback

PlayStation 5 to sell 6 million units at launch, analyst predicts

PlayStation 5 specs and details:

PlayStation 5 Coverage:

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