PS5 shipments hit 17.3 million, 3.9 million of which shipped during the last quarter
Sony has posted its Q3 2021 financial results and the company says it will continue to "exert every effort" to meet demand for PS5.
Sony has reported its Q3 2021 results and in the Games and Network Services segment, which houses PlayStation, the company reported a year-over-year (yoy) decline in revenue to ¥813.3 billion ($7.1 billion) compared to ¥883.2 billion ($7.7 billion) during the same period last year.
Part of the decline was attributed to a decrease in hardware sales due to the shortage of semiconductors which impedes PS5 production.
For the Q3 quarter, PS5 shipped 3.9 million units, bringing lifetime shipments to 17.3 million compared to 20.2 million PS4 units sold during the same timeframe. The company originally estimated it would have shipped 22.6 million PS5 units by March 31,2022 but that figure has been revised.
Limitations on the supply of components are expected to continue going forward, Sony said it will continue to "exert every effort" to meet the strong demand for PS5.
As far as user engagement is concerned, the company noted a decline in user play time in December by 20% yoy. During Q3, which again ended on December 31, 2021, the company reported games sales of 92.7 million units. Of these, 11.3 million were first-party titles. Compared to the same quarter in 2020, that's an 11% decrease; however, this can be attributed to a quarter where few major titles were released, so Sony feels this is still a solid performance.
Digital game sales made up 62% of sales, which is up 9% compared to the same quarter the year prior.
For the current quarter, which ends on March 31, the company expects user engagement to increase further because major first-party titles Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7 will be released.
Moving on to PlayStation Plus, it now boasts 48 million subscribers which is up from the 47.4 million reported yoy. PlayStation Network as a whole saw 111 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs).