Things as they are: PlayStation has been unusually quiet throughout the events of 2022. Mind you, the new year has just begun to kick off and, taking advantage of the CES 2023 conference from Sony, Jim Ryan has drawn numbers: they have already been sold over 30 million PS5 Worldwide. The new generation has definitely taken off.
For perspective, the unstoppable Nintendo Switch achieved that milestone in one year and nine months (more specifically in January 2019), although to be fair the circumstances were very different: we did not have to deal with the same production and distribution problems. In any case, and taking into account the rise in the price of the console, those 30 million consoles sold they are outrageous.
Comparing what anyone does with Nintendo, which always works in a different way, is difficult. So the most correct thing is to compare the reception of PS5 with the two previous desktops:
- PS4 took exactly two years to break the 30 million consoles sold barrier: it came out in November 2013 and achieved that milestone in November 2015.
- PS3 had a very difficult start: it took 38 months to surpass 30 million. Nothing less than three years and two months.
The biggest obstacle for PS3 was not availability, but the enormous price, and despite the fact that launching a new generation PlayStation today is more expensive than when it was launched, it continues to have a difficult demand to supply. In any case, PS5 sales are on the right track. Now it’s time to correspond to all those players with a powerful catalog.
2023, a key year for PlayStation
Sony has taken very little to release the figures, but it is very clear that he has known very well when to do it. The added momentum of Black Friday and Christmas (although in Europe we are still waiting for their Majesties from the East) has shielded the PS5 project at a key moment: PlayStation VR 2 will soon go on sale and have a good user base is paramount.
In fact, Jim Ryan assured that the past months were decisive for the sales of the consoles and assured that from this point it will be much easier to get a PS5 console.
It will be interesting to see how far the sales figures go for a console that is doing very well despite pandemics, component shortages, and a distribution with ample room for improvement, so to speak. But what we are clear about is that what makes sense of all this is what is already on the table, with God of War Ragnarök leading the catalogue, and what is to come: Spider-Man 2, Final fantasy XVI, Wolverine , and even a new multiplayer project related to The Last of Us.
In any case, the expansion of PlayStation is not limited to consoles: there are already two essential PS5 games that we know will come to PC (Returnal and The Last of Us: part I) and the landing of their licenses beyond video games is imminent with The Last of Us for HBO and the announced projects of God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn for Amazon and Netflix respectively.
An expansion beyond consoles that, for all intents and purposes, they will end up driving those 30 million PS5 much more with which today Jim Ryan gets muscle.
