PlayStation 5 sales rose last quarter despite Sony's price hike, boosted by Ghost of Yōtei

[midian182]

In brief: On the fifth anniversary of the PlayStation 5's release, Sony has revealed that the console's lifetime global sales have climbed to 84.2 million units. Slightly more PS5s were sold in the last quarter compared to a year earlier despite the $50 price hike, and Ghost of Yōtei likely had a lot to do with it.

Sony reported that it sold 3.9 million PS5 consoles during the three months ending September 30, beating the 3.8 million that were sold in the same quarter a year earlier.

The figures were especially impressive when you consider Sony hiked the price of all PS5 models in the US by up to $50 in August, following a similar move across other regions earlier in the year. The company blamed a challenging economic environment for the increase as it looked to offset Trump's tariffs.

Some of the credit for the console's higher sales can go to its first-party title Ghost of Yōtei -- the follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima. Since launching on October 2, the PlayStation 5 exclusive has sold 3.3 million copies.

Overall software sales for both the PS4 and PS5 reached 80.3 million for the quarter, up 2.6 million compared to the same period during the previous fiscal year.

Sony also revealed that the PS5's lifetime sales since its November 2020 launch have reached 84.2 million units. It was reported last month that the console has now sold more units than the PlayStation 3.

The PS5 also sold more than the PS4 on a "time-aligned basis" for the quarter, but the older console's overall sales were slightly ahead at the same point during its lifecycle.

More good news for Sony was found in the number of monthly active PlayStation Network users. That figure was up to 119 million, over 3 million more than the same period in 2024.

Highlighting the reason why companies are so obsessed with live-service games, it was this genre, which includes Helldivers 2 and MLB The Show 25, that accounted for more than 40% of PlayStation's first-party software revenue during the period. Sony said Helldivers 2 was doing "extremely well" following its Xbox release in August. However, Destiny 2 is underperforming.

"Regarding Destiny 2, partially due to the changes in the competitive environment, the level of sales and user engagement have not reached the expectation we had at the time of the acquisition of Bungie," it said. "While we will continue to make improvements, we downwardly revised the business projection for the time being and recorded an impairment loss against a portion of the assets at Bungie."

It was also revealed that Marathon, Bungie's delayed live service shooter, is expected to release by the end of March 2026.

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PlayStation 5 sales rose last quarter despite Sony's price hike, boosted by Ghost of Yōtei

 

[godrilla]

Ghost of Tushima sold over 13 million copies. From what I am hearing Yotei is a failure in comparison.

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

Ghost of Tushima sold over 13 million copies. From what I am hearing Yotei is a failure in comparison.

Ghost of Tsushima has been out longer; unfortunately I can't find apple to apple sales comparison, but apparently Tsushima hit 5 million in sales in just under 4 months. Yotei hitting 3.3 million in a single month gives it a good chance of getting pretty close sales wise.

 

[m4a4]

Ghost of Tsushima has been out longer; unfortunately I can't find apple to apple sales comparison, but apparently Tsushima hit 5 million in sales in just under 4 months. Yotei hitting 3.3 million in a single month gives it a good chance of getting pretty close sales wise.

if comparing to Tsushima (lower profile yet still cleared 2.2mil sales in 3 days), that is looking like a failure for Yotei.
As a high-profile sequel, it should've blown past it by now like other great sequels, but it seems like sales fell off pretty quickly.

 

[toooooot]

Ghost of Tsushima has been out longer; unfortunately I can't find apple to apple sales comparison, but apparently Tsushima hit 5 million in sales in just under 4 months. Yotei hitting 3.3 million in a single month gives it a good chance of getting pretty close sales wise.

GoT was release a month later after tlou2. GoY did not have the same rival. That is a logical explanation for faster selling. Good games do not come out very often lately.
But I am still curious to see which game will get more sales. I am sure first was better. But due to the growing player market and lack of good games, yotei can get more sales. Although, making over 10 million in sales in today's industry is a rare thing.

 

[dangh]

I really enjoyed GoT and Yotei is a really great continuation. The only problem with this game is that it came too early. I was hoping Sucker Punch would come up with some other IP meanwhile to not oversaturate the same topic.

 

[bviktor]

if comparing to Tsushima (lower profile yet still cleared 2.2mil sales in 3 days), that is looking like a failure for Yotei.
As a high-profile sequel, it should've blown past it by now like other great sequels, but it seems like sales fell off pretty quickly.

No, a "high profile" sequel won't turn into a failure with the same sales numbers.

 

[Billybobjoey]

GoT was release a month later after tlou2. GoY did not have the same rival. That is a logical explanation for faster selling. Good games do not come out very often lately.
But I am still curious to see which game will get more sales. I am sure first was better. But due to the growing player market and lack of good games, yotei can get more sales. Although, making over 10 million in sales in today's industry is a rare thing.

Sequels pretty much never get as many sales as the original. I wasn't a big fan of the original, if I wanted to play a Ubisoft open world game I'd have played a Ubisoft open world game. I'll probably still get this one eventually on sale just to give it a fair shake, but considering it shares a very similar structure to AC: Shadows I'm giving it some time.

 

[JohnGoogle]

Well even if yotei does worse sales wise, those that bought it say its a much better experience with a better story as well. Remember, popularity does not equal quality.
Xbox does worse sales wise compared to sony, does that mean the ps5 is better than the series x?

 

[JohnGoogle]

if I wanted to play a Ubisoft open world game I'd have played a Ubisoft open world game. I'll probably still get this one eventually on sale just to give it a fair shake, but considering it shares a very similar structure to AC: Shadows I'm giving it some time.

Was ubisoft involved in either? They seem way too high quality to have ubisofts name on them.

 

[Liranan]

Yotei is an abysmal failure, selling half of what Tsushima sold in a longer time period. Sucker Punch have sucker punched themselves in the face with that delicious DEI money.

 

[Billybobjoey]

Was ubisoft involved in either? They seem way too high quality to have ubisofts name on them.

No, but from what I played of the first game they were very much designed like Ubisoft open world games. Lots of collectibles to find on the map, couple of missions to go do at a time.

 

[godrilla]

Sequels selling less copies than the prequels is more of a current trend and doesn't reflect the average sequel normally sells significantly better. Borderlands 4 is another failure. I believe the Witcher 4 will be another Sequel that will sell significantly less than the Witcher 3. If Ghost of Yotei was such a success why didn't they disclose the 3 day numbers like the original?