Sony sold 4.5 million PS5 consoles in 2020

This console is always very difficult to find in stores.

However, Sony has sold 4.5 million PlayStation 5s worldwide since its launch in mid-November, the Japanese company revealed when presenting its financial results for the October-December period.

This figure is similar to that of the launch of the PlayStation 4 in 2013. A feat in view of the health crisis and the difficulties encountered on the production lines.

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However, without prior reservation, getting a PS5 has been, and still is, a challenge.

The quantity of consoles on the market is less than the appetite of gamers.

In the distribution of stocks, Sony seems to have prioritized certain strategic markets, such as the United States where it is engaged in a pitched battle with Microsoft's Xbox Series.

According to the specialist site Ludostrie, the PS5 sold 107,000 copies in France during its first week of marketing, which gives an idea of ​​the volume allocated to this market by Sony.

Three million new consoles by the end of March

The launch of the PS5 also suffered from the phenomenon of "scalpers".

Aided by software that allows them to place orders online much faster than humans, these crooks have taken over many consoles and then resold them on sites like eBay at much higher prices.

The scarcity of the PS5 has also resulted in theft of packages and even warehouse hold-ups.

The number of scams on second-hand sites, where shoppers receive an empty box or a simple picture of the console, are also lost.

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Sony, however, hopes to bring an additional 3 million PS5s to market by the end of March.

But supply concerns should last a few more months.

A historic quarter for PlayStation

The Japanese company has admitted selling its PS5 at a loss.

However, this did not prevent its video games division from achieving its best historical financial performance over the October-December period.

Its turnover is 7 billion euros (+ 40% compared to the previous year) and its operating profit of 633 million euros (+ 50%).

These excellent figures reflect the good health of the digital activities of Sony PlayStation.

The video games branch now has 47 million subscribers to the PlayStation Plus service.

To this must be added the subscriptions to the PlayStation Now service (a “Netflix” of the video game) as well as the commissions that Sony takes on each of the transactions made on its online PlayStation Store.

In total, PlayStation's digital activities alone brought in 4 billion euros over the period October-December 2020. Half of this amount comes from commissions on “add-on contents”, that is to say the purchases of optional content in certain video games: extensions, new levels, or purchase of virtual currency to spend in

Fortnite,

Fifa 21

or

GTA Online.