PS5 Is Sony's Most Profitable Console Generation to Date

Image: Push Square

There’s a growing sentiment among the gaming enthusiast circles, not necessarily always backed up by fact, that console gaming is collapsing. While it’s true the market is facing issues of spiralling costs and slowing growth, it’s a concern not always rooted in reality. Case in point: Sony’s just announced PS5 is its most profitable generation to date.

That’s perhaps a surprising revelation considering alarmist stories that have circulated recently, like the fact many people are still playing on PS4. The reality, however, is that the PS5 is selling roughly at pace with its predecessor – and is even ahead in the United States, as proven by Circana data. Meanwhile, service games are bigger than ever, hardware prices have remained abnormally high, and subscription revenue is up enormously.

Image: Sony

In the four years PS5 has been on the market, it’s amassed $10 billion in operating income, more than the $9 billion PS4 managed between 2013 to 2019. For the sake of comparison, PS1 managed $3 billion, PS2 just $2 billion, and PS3 ultimately lost $4 billion. Revenue is also through the roof for PS5, matching that of PS4 in significantly less time.

So why the doom and gloom, then? Well, as the above graph shows, profits have declined sharply over the past two years due to rising costs in the pandemic’s aftermath. This is the enormous problem Sony needs to solve: PlayStation is selling better than it ever has, but the company as a whole is spending outrageous sums of money to maintain its position. If it can streamline its outgoings, then the business will be healthier than it’s ever been.

[source sony.com]