On July 18th, Sony Interactive Entertainment proudly announced that its PlayStation 5 console (available as a physical disc or all-digital version) has sold more than 10 million units globally since its November 2020 launch – accomplishing the feat in just 248 days. The sales pace puts the new system ahead of all previous PlayStation consoles at their respective points in the lifecycle, including the previous record holder, PS4, which took 20 extra days to reach the 10 million units milestone. That’s also faster than the red-hot Nintendo Switch, which took 284 days to hit 10 million sold.
The top software being purchased with new PS5s includes Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales from Insomniac Games, which has sold more than 6.5 million copies, and MLB The Show 21 from San Diego Studio, which has become the fastest-selling entry in franchise history with more than 2 million copies sold across all platforms.
Notably, it’s the first-ever PlayStation game that also was available at launch on Xbox and was included in the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Consequently, the baseball title reached more than 4 million players since its April release, which is a big win for Major League Baseball.
Gaming has soared during the pandemic, and people have been hungry for new consoles and games. Xbox Series X and Series S outsold both the PS5 and Nintendo Switch in terms of dollar sales, according to The NPD Group. The games business is at a point where it’s moving past the “console wars” and it’s no longer a zero-sum game, as the overall pie has been expanding.
Interpret’s New Media Measure® backs this notion, as half of PS5 owners in the US also own an Xbox One, and almost half also own a Nintendo Switch. Many consumers enjoy having access to multiple consoles and their respective exclusive libraries. For Sony, however, brand loyalty has been a strength for several generations, and that holds true for PS5 consumers, as 56% have a PS4, meaning that a bulk of early adopters have remained loyal to the PlayStation ecosystem fueled by popular IP like God of War, The Last of Us, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank, and more.
