PS5 sales figures: PS5 hits 17.3 million shipments, PS4 at 117.1m

Sony's latest Q3'21 earnings report delivers updated PS4 and PS5 shipment numbers...and they're not incredibly impressive.

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The worldwide semiconductor shortage is taking a big bite out of consumer hardware sales. Sony's video games consoles are being hit particularly hard by the scarcity, leading to constrained supply of its PlayStation 4 and newer PlayStation 5 consoles.

Choked supply lines have dropped overall sales of the PS5, which has not met the PS4's shipments during the same period. The PS5 has now shipped 17.3 million units worldwide in its first 13 months, as compared to the PS4's 20.2 million units sold during the same period (a 2.5 million difference).

Total PS4 shipments now sit at 117.1 million units as sell-in rapidly drops. In Q3'21, Sony delivered the lowest PS4 shipments for the second quarter in a row. PlayStation 4 shipments have fallen by a staggering -96% since Holiday 2019, which was the last strong period of PS4 shipments (6 million).

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Sony has said it has no plans to stop producing the PlayStation 4, however supply restrictions, market saturation, and tandem PlayStation 5 production will no-doubt continue the PS4's overall decline.

Sony had originally expected FY22, which ends in April 2023, to deliver the largest shipment of PlayStation consoles ever. Based on materials provided by Sony, we estimated that as many as 23 million PlayStation 5's could be delivered in FY22.

This plan has likely been adjusted to reflect the current chip shortage.