Sony has revealed in its latest financial year report that the company has sold 79 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide since its release in November 2013.
The company shipped 19 million units between 2017 and 2018, which was one million less than the previous year. Therefore, Sony is lowering its forecast over the next year for PS4 sales and predicts that the console will sell 16 million by the next financial year report in 2019.
After five years on the market, it’s typical for a console’s sales to start decreasing over time. PlayStation Pro versions of the system have surely helped sell more units over the past few years, but not everyone will purchase the console if they don’t own a 4K TV.
This news also means that the PS4 is the best selling console over the last financial year. Nintendo revealed that it sold 17.79 million Switch units worldwide a few days ago, which is over one million less than what the PS4 has achieved.
Even with hardware sales decreasing, however, software sales were a lot more positive for the company. Sony revealed that software sales saw an 18 percent increase year-on-year, as well as a large jump in players signing up for PlayStation Plus, Sony’s online service that provides free games every month and access to multiplayer gaming.
The PS4 is now roughly five million consoles away from beating the PS3’s lifetime sales of 84 million. The PS3 hit its milestone after 10 years on the market before it was discontinued in 2016.
H/T IGN
