- The PS5 sold 8 million units in Q3 FY25, outselling the Nintendo Switch 2 by 1 million
- The console also surpassed 92.2 million units sold worldwide and officially surpassed the PS3.
- sony says Yotei Ghost among other live service games, contributed to PS5 sales in the third quarter
Despite launching more than five years ago, the PlayStation 5 managed to outsell the Nintendo Switch 2 in the second half of 2025 by 1 million units.
According to Sony’s latest financial results, during the third quarter of FY25, which begins on October 1 and ends on December 31, the PS5 sold 8 million units compared to 7 million for the Switch 2, officially surpassing 92.2 million units sold globally.
This comes after Nintendo informed investors that Western hardware sales for the Nintendo Switch 2 were not as strong as they expected by the end of 2025.
The 8 million milestone is a decline from the 9.5 million Sony managed to sell during the same period in 2024, and the PS5 still lags in lifetime sales compared to the PS4’s 94.4 million. However, the PS5 has officially surpassed the PS3, the latter with 87.4 million sales as of March 31, 2027.
During the webcast (via IGN), Sony CFO Lin Tao credited Sucker Punch’s success Yotei Ghostas well as other live service titles such as helldivers 2 and MLB the showto the increase in PS5 sales during the third quarter.
“In the studio business, Yotei Ghosta featured title that we launched in October, surpassed the sales of the previous title in the same time period and contributed significantly to the quarter’s financial results,” Tao said.
“Our live service titles established as helldivers 2 and MLB the show also contributed to stable recurring revenue.”
Tao went on to say that Q3FY25 sales were down 4% year-on-year, “mainly due to lower sales of hardware units,” but operating income was up 19% year-on-year, which Tao explained was due to “the positive impact of foreign exchange rates and the impact of increased sales and network services and proprietary software, setting a record for the third quarter in this segment.”
“We revised upward our FY25 sales forecast by 4% from the previous forecast to 4.630 billion yen, and our operating income forecast by 2% to 510 billion yen,” the CFO added. “User engagement trended well during the quarter, with the number of monthly active users across PlayStation in December increasing 2% compared to last December to a record 132 million accounts. And total play time for the quarter increased 0.4% year over year.
“Although conditions in the console hardware market during the year-end sales season were more challenging than expected, we were able to steadily expand our PS5 install base in line with our original plan and exceeded 92 million units in cumulative sales.”
The PS5 launched in November 2020, and Tao explained that while PS5 hardware unit sales declined moderately in the second half of the console’s lifecycle, PSN games, third-party titles, and PS Plus contributed heavily to overall software revenue.
“While PS5 hardware unit sales have declined moderately in the second half of the console cycle, PlayStation Store software revenue hit a record high during the quarter, driven primarily by the contribution of major third-party franchise titles and successful new releases,” Tao said. “PlayStation Plus contributed significantly to the quarter’s results as the shift to higher levels of the service continued.”
In terms of future software, Tao mentioned Bungie. Marathonwhich will be released next month and is expected to be “enjoyed by many users thanks to Bungie having strengthened the gaming experience”, as well as its own titles. saros and Marvel Wolverine.
Tao said both are scheduled for release “next fiscal year” and that Sony intends to “improve our effort to increase revenue from our studio business.”
It looks like the PS5 is doing well and may even surpass the PS4 in lifetime sales before the end of its life cycle if it continues. 8 million units in just three months is impressive, especially considering the price increase that was introduced in August last year.
However, it appears that Sony has no intention of raising the console’s price any time soon, even amid the AI ​​generative wave and tariff increases, and Tao confirms that the company intends to negotiate with several suppliers to ensure sufficient supply to meet customer demand.
“Given the stage of our console cycle, our hardware sales strategy can be flexibly adjusted and we intend to minimize the impact of rising memory costs on this segment in the future by prioritizing monetization of the installed base to date and striving to further expand our software and network services revenue,” Tao said.
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