PlayStation 5 Celebrates Fifth Anniversary With 84.2 Million Units Sold

Sony’s PlayStation 5 has reached a defining milestone as the console turns five years old. The company’s latest quarterly report confirms that PS5 sales have now surpassed 84.2 million units worldwide since its debut in November 2020. Over the three months ending September 30, 2025, Sony shipped 3.9 million consoles, slightly above the same period last year. For a platform deep into its lifecycle, the hardware’s momentum remains solid.

The numbers put the PS5 ahead of both its predecessors in comparable timeframes. Its performance now exceeds the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 3 and has overtaken the PlayStation 4 when measured on a time-aligned basis. This growth marks a strong showing as the platform approaches what many expect to be the latter half of its generation.

Much of that success comes from the strength of recent releases. Ghost of Yōtei, one of Sony’s headline exclusives of the year, sold 3.3 million copies in its first month, significantly outpacing last year’s Astro Bot launch. Software demand continues to rise across both PS5 and PS4 systems, with 80.3 million games sold during the quarter—an increase of 2.6 million from the previous fiscal year. Of that total, 6.3 million were first-party titles, up by one million from the same period last year.

Digital distribution continues to dominate the platform. Only 28 percent of all software sold during the quarter was physical, underscoring the shift toward digital ownership that has become consistent for Sony’s business. The preference for online purchases mirrors the growth in PlayStation Network engagement, which recorded 119 million monthly active users as of September 30—three million more than the previous year.

Part of that uptick may stem from Sony’s recent adjustments to the PlayStation Plus subscription tiers and a growing appetite for online multiplayer ahead of upcoming releases like Arc Raiders, Battlefield 6, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Those numbers also precede the broader rollout of updates to the PS Portal, which introduced cloud streaming features and renewed interest in Sony’s hardware ecosystem.

The previous year was PlayStation's 30th Anniversary.

Earlier this year, Sony announced that the PS5 reached 80.3 million units sold by June 2025, with Q1 sales totaling 2.5 million consoles. That figure itself represented a minor but steady increase from Q1 2024, when 2.4 million units were sold. Software performance had already been trending upward at that point, with 65.9 million copies of PS4 and PS5 games sold in the first quarter, compared to 53.6 million a year earlier.

These consistent gains underline the platform’s enduring pull amid economic uncertainty and its recovery from early supply chain constraints that hampered launch-year availability. Add-on content sales have also edged higher, climbing to nearly 293 billion yen in Q1 2025 from 291 billion yen the year before. The numbers paint a picture of stable, broad-based growth across hardware, software, and online services—a steady rhythm that suggests Sony has managed to balance its portfolio effectively five years into the PS5’s life.

While the company has yet to release details about a potential PS5 Pro revision, the existing console line has already sustained an unusually strong sales curve. With digital adoption entrenched, network activity expanding, and new first-party titles maintaining a steady cadence, Sony’s hardware strategy appears cohesive even as it moves toward the generation’s late stage.

Five years after its launch, the PlayStation 5 remains the centerpiece of Sony’s entertainment business. The hardware’s longevity, paired with a deep software library and consistent network engagement, has placed the console in a commanding position within the market.

Read also, Sony recently declared the PlayStation 5 era its most successful console generation ever, with $136 billion in revenue since 2020. CEO Hideaki Nishino confirmed the figure during Tokyo Game Show, noting that the PS5’s Game & Network Services division has now surpassed all prior PlayStation eras in total earnings.