Sony Interactive Entertainment has confirmed that it has now shipped an impressive 19.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide to date. But this is still short of where the company expected and wanted to be by now.
While the new-gen hardware's success certainly isn't to be sniffed at, with another 2 million units shipped during the last financial quarter, Sony is still 3.3 million consoles short of its target.
The company had originally intended to sell 14.8m PS5 consoles over the last financial year so as to match or outpace the number of PS4s sold at the same point in its lifecycle. It managed 11.5 million.
Sony has blamed the ongoing shortage in semiconductor components for the sales shortfall. As I'm sure you're all too aware, the new-gen consoles have been plagued by component shortages, the upshot being Sony has been unable to build as many consoles as it would like to sell. As we can see, this has had an impact on console sales.
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The company seems fairly optimistic about its improving fortunes, however, telling investors on an earnings call (via VGC) that it felt “very comfortable” it would be able to increase PS5 shipments to 18 million in the fiscal year ending March 2023.
As we've seen over the last year or so, the demand for the PS5 is certainly there, with plenty of gamers still desperate to get their hands on the console. Sony just needs to be able to build them.
Topics: PlayStation 5, Sony