Sony’s video game division had its best financial quarter since the launch of the PlayStation 5, boasting huge growth in console sales and first-party software.
as revealed in Sony’s third quarter 2022 financial results, the PS5 saw its best quarter of sales in the three months ending December 31, 2022, with 7.1 million consoles sold. That puts the console on track for 12.8 million sales in fiscal 2022, and 32 million units sold since launch. That’s a 34% year-over-year increase, a figure that may well and truly put the supply issues that once plagued the console behind it.
The success of the PS5 has raised Sony’s annual sales target from 18 million to 19 million.
Sony’s Game and Network Services Segment saw sales revenue of ¥1,246.5 billion, up 53% year-on-year, and operating profit of ¥116 billion, up 25% year-on-year. This makes for not just the best quarter of the year, but the best quarterly results of the PS5’s entire lifetime.
Sony has similar good news outside of console sales. That 86.5 million video game sales fell short of last year’s third-quarter high (92.7 million), but this year’s third quarter saw significant growth in first-party game sales; of the 86.5 million games sold, 20.8 million were first-party. 11 million of them alone were God of War Ragnarok.
The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers increased from 45.5 million to 46.6 million. That doesn’t make it past its peak of 48 million users, but the service’s monthly active users have reached 112 million. PS Plus revenue also increased for the second quarter in a row, likely thanks to subscribers to higher-end PS Plus plans.
It was a strong quarter for PlayStation then. But while it looks like supply issues won’t hold back the console any longer, it certainly prevented it from reaching the same numbers as its predecessor. By the same point in its lifecycle, the PlayStation 4 had shipped just under 38 million.
For more from PlayStation, check out our stories about the new PS5 beta software update that adds Discord voice chat, as well as PS Plus games for February and the end of the PS Plus Collection for PS5.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.