Sony illustrates how important PlayStation is for the company

Sony's PlayStation division is incredibly important for the company's total yearly earnings, and contributes double-digit percentage revenues.

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Sony's latest 2020 Corporate Report is filled with all sorts of nifty tidbits. First there was confirmation that PS4 games will continue releasing on PC, then there was info on the PlayStation 5's custom data libraries. Now the company outlines just how important the PlayStation brand is for continued profits and revenues.

In less than 10 years' time, PlayStation has grown tremendously. The PS4 was the biggest driver for this expansion--the PS4 has sold 112.3 million units to date, and is the second best-selling PlayStation console of all time--thanks to massive console sales and even bigger game sales. Total PS4 game sales are now over 1.4 billion and Sony sold 91 million games in Q1'20, the biggest quarter ever.

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Historically, the PS4 era is a game-changer for Sony and the company outlines this growth in a simple chart.

In 2000, during the PS2's launch, gaming made 9% of yearly earnings. In 2010, years after the PS3 released, the PlayStation gaming segment made up 12% of Sony's yearly earnings.

In 2019, nine years later and six years into the PS4's lifecycle, that percentage share doubled to 24% (PlayStation made 24% of FY2019 earnings, or $18.1 billion).

For reference, Xbox made 9% ($11.57 billion) of Microsoft's total yearly earnings ($125.843 billion) in FY2020.

Considering how important PlayStation is for Sony, the company says it will continue doubling-down on first-party IP and game development for PlayStation as well as ensuring the PlayStation 5 platform not only carries the PS4 generation forward, but makes its own next-gen experiences possible with higher-end tech.

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