PlayStation 5 Statistics & Numbers
Since technology has constantly evolved with new technologies surfacing each year, we’ve seen awesome devices created to give us the very best entertainment. PlayStation is one of these devices. In the early 90s, there were gaming consoles like Sega and Nintendo that monopolized the majority of the video game industry which prompted Sony to launch its own video gaming console, PlayStation.
Since its launch, we’ve seen the gaming company take the video game industry by storm with its new releases that introduced new technologies to the gaming industry. In this article, I’ll be discussing the company’s latest release, The PS5, its statistics and numbers in 2022 so read on.
When Was PlayStation 5 Released?
PlayStation 5’s official release date was on November 12, 2020. Although a lot of people mistake the release date for early 2021, the official release date was early November in the previous year. Due to this, not a lot of people were able to purchase the console until mid-2021 when the news had circulated and a lot of people had their orders sent in.
This release date was the official worldwide and official PS5 release date in the United States. Since the console’s release, Sony has had issues with selling the console because immediately after its release it was sold out. However, this was majorly due to the COVID-19 and resellers because the console was entirely sold out on pre-release and there was little to no console that song could sell and circulate within the market.
The retailers hoarded the product after the console’s release until the price rose to a particular extent before they started releasing the product for sale. This delay was also a reason why most people thought the PS5 was released in 2021 instead of 2020 since the product didn’t exactly get into circulation immediately after its release.
This delay affected Sony as their product wasn’t bought by customers who wanted a PlayStation 5 but instead by retailers who deliberately wanted to hike the price to sell the product and make gains from their purchase. Particularly, the release date was also an issue because not many individuals knew the release date except a number of retailers who saw the opportunity as a method of distributing and hiking the price of the device.
How Many People Have A PlayStation?
According to the PlayStation Network, the network recorded on the 31st of November a total number of 111 million users within the network. Now this network launched in November 2006 after the launch of the PS2 so this means the users of PS1 and PS2 aren’t recorded in these statistics. So to have a more accurate number of how many people own at least a PlayStation, we will have to add up all of the sales of each console to give the total number of consoles sold as the total number of people that own at least one PlayStation console.
The PlayStation 1 sold a total of 102.5 million units since its release. The PlayStation 2, which is the highest-selling gaming console of all time, and the highest-selling PlayStation console of all time sold a total of 157.58 million units. The PlayStation 3 sold a total of 87.41 million units while the PlayStation 4 which is the second best-selling PlayStation console sold a total of 116.44 million units.
The PS5 sales have just hit 17.3 million units which means the total number of consoles sold amounts to a total of 481.23 million consoles. This means that an estimated 481.23 million users have at least one PlayStation console. Hence, the total number of people who own at least one PlayStation console is 481.23 million.
How Many PS5 Has Been Sold?
The PS5 console has now sold a total of 17.3 million units as of January 2022. This implies that Sony’s PlayStation sold a total of 3.9 million units during the 3rd quarter of the company’s 2021 fiscal year. Although the PS5 was perceived to be the fastest-selling PlayStation console of all time during its lifespan so far, the latest sales result do not prove this is the case any longer because, during the same timeframe of the last generation, Sony recorded the sale of 20.2 million PS4 consoles.
Compared to the previous fiscal year’s Q3 period, sales have been down because, in the previous fiscal year’s Q3, Sony moved a total of 4.5 million units of PS5 compared to the last fiscal year’s Q3 which recorded a total of 3.9 million units. The company has determined that the reason for this is due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage which has made the production of the console quite slower than usual.
Sony has announced that this issue is expected to continue but also mentions that the difference in sales will be made up over time with future quarters returning high sales numbers.
Due to this, Sony has reduced its overall forecast of PS5 shipments for the proposed fiscal year to an estimated amount of 11.5 million units from the formerly proposed amount of 14.8 million. The projection of the full-year revenue estimates of the company’s games and network services division has also been reduced to a total of $1.48 billion.
The PS5 Stock has been at a premium for over 18 months now with hopes of the situation improving although it doesn’t look like the situation may improve and push the stock to a higher valuation. At least it’s recorded that immediately units of the console hit a physical store shelf or online store, it is sold. Sony capitalizes on this as a measure to aid the sales records in the coming quarters of the fiscal year.
PS4 vs PS5 Sales Comparison
Presently, PS5 has moved more than 17 million units worldwide but currently isn’t selling as fast as PS4 due to Sony missing production targets which were said to be due to the unavailability of production material.
PS5 had a record-breaking launch in November 2020 which made the launch sales rise above that of PS4. But despite the record-breaking launch, PS5 sales figures are now presently behind PS4 due to the low production rate experienced by Sony, leading to the company not meeting up with high demand. By the end of March 2021, PS5 had moved 7.8 million units worldwide compared to PS4 which had a sales record of 7.6 million units during the same period in its lifecycle.
Sony believed it could maintain the record-breaking sales momentum, but due to the global semiconductor shortages, the company’s production has been slowed down leading to a reduction in the company’s sales unit for the PS5. This has caused Sony to not be able to meet up with high demands.
Now that semiconductor manufacturers, including companies like Intel and Toshiba, expect the parts shortage to continue till 2023, it’s safe to assume that the PS5 sales will fall north of the PS4 sales when comparing respective points of their lifecycle.
Sony expects a bounce-back in the sales number once the semiconductors are fully available and anticipate that we may see a huge increase in the sales number in the coming quarters of the fiscal year to beat the PS4 sales.
PS5 vs Other PlayStation Consoles
In terms of total sales, the best-selling PlayStation console is the PS2 with over 157.68 million sales recorded. Although we cannot compare this number with PS5’s numbers because they both haven’t lived the same lifespan, the sales records show that PS2 remains the best-selling PlayStation console in the market. According to PlayStation sales stats, throughout the PS2 console’s lifetime, people bought 102.4 million PS1s, 157.68 million units of PS2s, and 87.4 million PS3s.
Presently, the PS5 console has sold over 17.3 million units while PS4 has sold 116.44 million units within its lifecycle. Although the PS4 is still this generation’s best-selling console, the PS2 beats it to be the overall best-selling gaming console in the world. It is predicted that in the coming fiscal years, the PS4 and PS5 could potentially break the record to be the best-selling console in the world with the PS4 having more upper hand.
PS5 is currently experiencing a shortage in supply due to the shortage in semiconductors which Sony has announced to continue till at least 2023 hence, the PS5 will be recording a pullback in its sales numbers. The PS5 had a record-breaking launch to be the highest sold gaming console at launch compared to other PlayStation consoles. This means, if not for the semiconductor shortage, the PS5 sales numbers may presently be over the roof as the total sales number of the console before the semiconductor shortage hit was more significant than the PS4 at their respective lifecycles.
Does The PS5 Have A Lot Of Problems?
After the initial release of the PS5, users reported a lot of issues with which Sony worked on newly released updates for the console. Now after over 1 year since its release, the gaming console is said to be very solid and stable presently. Some of the reported issues are detailed below:
Data Transfer from PS4 to PS5 Using USB Or LAN
When you get your PS5, it’s quite tempting to want to connect straight to your PS4 to move everything you have on the console to your new system in one move. It’s said that you can do this by connecting your PS4 via USB or LAN to the PS5, just as the system prompts you to when you turn on your device.
However, a lot of users reported that they experienced system crashes, connection errors, and other additional problems when attempting to do this. Sony fixed this by releasing updates that fixed the bugs that caused the system crashes. Now you can transfer your files from your PS4 to your PS5 with no hassle, and if you ever experience any issues, you can reach out to PlayStation’s support and get them fixed instantly.
Rest Mode Crashes Console
It was reported that the PS5’s rest mode seemed to give users problems with crashes and errors that resulted in last-ditch database rebuilding. Overall, this problem seems to have been solved but there are tendencies that you may experience if you have a new device. There are a lot of rumors about the rest mode crashes on forums like Quora and Reddit but there’s still no report about it being a result of the PS5 firmware, game, or user error situation.
If you’re unsure about this being fixed on your console and would rather avoid experiencing this, go to your settings menu and navigate to your system settings then select power savings. Select the time you want until the PS5 enters Rest Mode and then change it to “Don’t Put In Rest Mode”.
External Hard Drive Corruption
Sony has always advertised the use of external hard drives as one of PS5’s most useful features saying you can store your PS4 games on the external hard drive so you can have plenty of extra space in addition to what the PS5 came with. However, there have been reports about problems with transferring data from their PS4 system over to the PS5 with an external hard drive.
Users explain that they are seeing corrupted data following the transfer process, while some users say that they have lost data previously available on the hard drive to the process.
Sony hasn’t announced a fix for this yet, but some tips suggest leaving your PS5 on rest mode with the USB storage attached to it to solve the issue and if you chose to let the PS5 “fix” the USB drive, the error should only come up once except there’s a deeper issue involved.
Error Code CE-108262-9
Users reported experiencing system crashes, failures, and error code CE-108262-9 which caused their console to experience system deterioration and faulty hardware that will require a call to the PlayStation tech support.
This type of error isn’t one you wait for a firmware fix. Once you experience this problem concurrently, or even just a few times, make sure to reach out to PlayStation’s support for a potential resolution.
PlayStation 5 Average Selling Price
The current PS5 price in the USA is $500, $749.99 in Australia, and £449.99 in the UK. The PS5 comes in two different types— one with the disc drive and the other without the disc drive, so if you don’t want the version with the disc drive and would rather have access to digital games, you may need to consider the PS5 without the disc drive which costs $399.99 in the USA, £359.99 in the UK, and $599.99 in Australia.
Both versions of the consoles do not come at a cheap price, however, we all expected a higher price before Sony finally confirmed them. Due to the immense popularity and scarcity, the price may remain the same for now and in the near future. In other words, we may not experience a price drop for the next few years.
It doesn’t matter which choice of the console you choose, both consoles are of great value depending on your choice as the price fits both choices. If we compare a PS5 price with a standard gaming laptop, it’s respectively cheaper than the latter because it’s not news that the graphics card is quite expensive so if we’re to write out the price of each part of the PS5 it’ll relatively be higher than the PS5’s price.
PlayStation 5 Guinness Record
The PS5 holds the Guinness world record for the largest video game console ever produced. In prior years, the original Xbox and the launch version of the PS3 have long been known to have a reputation as the bulkiest pieces of video game hardware ever. Now with the release of the PS5, both gaming consoles have been dwarfed.
The PS5 has a dimension of approximately 390 X 260 X 104mm which makes it hold the record for the largest gaming console of all time. However, in terms of weight, it hasn’t beaten the PS3 as the heaviest console of all time hence the PS3 still holds that record.
Sony holds a lot of Guinness records with which amongst these records including the award for the best-selling home video console brand ever which was awarded to Sony just in time for the PlayStation’s 25th anniversary.
In terms of sales, the PS5 currently holds the record for the best-selling game console during launch as the gaming console beats its former, the PS2 which currently holds the company’s record for the best selling gaming console in the last generation. In this generation, the PS4 currently holds the position for the best-selling game console with expectations from Sony indicating that the PS5 beats this record in the near future.
Male vs Female PS5 Statistics
With the release of the PS5, there’s been an influx of women getting involved in PlayStation gaming, judging by the new statistics released by PlayStation in 2021. Since technology has grown and become more diverse and human-inclusive, it’s evident that the gaming industry has also grown in the direction of that diversification.
Although a lot will pretend like it’s inexistent, gaming is no more a male-dominated space in terms of game development and consumption because now we have female game developers and consumers.
While it appears to be false, statistically, this theory is true and is gradually seeing more increase. Presently, PlayStation records that we’re getting closer than ever to 50% of all gamers being female. Sony revealed this as part of its investor presentation that shows off how close we are to that 50:50 ratio of men and women.
According to the stats, only 18% of PS1 consoles were owned by women. The increase in this number has been visible true the number of females that purchased the latter Releases of PlayStation consoles. Now that we’re in the PS4/PS5 era, Sony reports that female gamers make up 41% of PlayStation console owners, signaling a huge increase between the female owners of the PS1 and the PS5.
PlayStation 5 Active Users
The PlayStation network had 114 million active users in December 2020. In recent months, this number has reduced as in April 2021, the number reduced to 109 million monthly active users. The active users present in the PlayStation network monthly reduced to 104 million during the third quarter of 2021. Over the months, players have accumulated a total of 61 billion hours of gaming which is approximately 7 million years of gaming.
On average, PS5 players spend a total of 51.5 hours playing their games monthly which is quite high compared to the amount of time spent by PS4 players. Comparing the engagements of players from November to March after the PS5’s release, users on PS5 are said to be more active than PS4 users, peaking at 7.1 million monthly active users compared to PS5’s 8.6 million monthly active users. This means, comparing the PS5 active users to PS4, there’s been a significant difference of over 1 million active users.
PlayStation Plus Service Subscribers
The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers worldwide as of December 2021, is 48 million subscribers which is a huge increase from the 8 million subscribers on the network in 2014. PlayStation plus enables gamers to play with their friends online, and also offers several other perks.
PS Plus members get early access to upcoming games and are also given discounts on PlayStation store items, giving the members an upper hand compared to ordinary users who use PlayStation.
One of the notable perks is the gift of 2 PlayStation 4 and one PlayStation 5 game every month to users. These instant game collection games have ranged from popular blockbuster games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for PS4, and A Plague Tale: Innocence for PS5, to smaller games like knowledge is power, limousine driving game, Roundabout, and a local quiz game with the multiplayer function. PlayStation Plus subscribers were offered a total of 1,464 USD worth of free video games in 2021.
PlayStation Plus subscribers get a lot of perks for being subscribers. PlayStation is focused on making sure that the community grows with an increase in the subscribers on the network, hence, the company provides tons of perks to retain the subscribers within the community.
How Many Games Does The PS5 Have?
PlayStation is notable for hosting various games on their gaming network to the point where users assume that it’s impossible to know the number of games for the PlayStation 5 but according to PlayStation itself, 478 games can be played on the PS5. These games include huge, blockbuster games and small, quiz games that can be played on the console.
Physical games are sold on Ultra HD Blu-ray and digital games can be purchased via the PlayStation digital store. The total number of 478 games includes all the games released exclusively for PlayStation 5, however, since you can play PlayStation 4 games on PS5, then the list is longer than this. You can play all but 6 PS4 games on your PS5 console.
It’s also important to know that, your PS5 console has dedicated storage so, you basically can’t have all the 478 games on your PS5 to play. The PS5’s highest drive pace is about 1TB but the 500GB drive can take up to 10 to 15 different games. So you need to choose which games you want to have installed on your game and then install them based on your preference.
Best Selling Game On PlayStation 5
The best-selling game on the PS5 since its release is Spider-Man: Miles Morales with over 6.5 million copies sold. The game is an action-adventure game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game was released on the 12th of November, 2020.
The next best-selling game on the PS5 is MLB The Show 21 with over 2 million copies sold. The game was released on 20th April 2021 and is said to be hosted in the sports genre. The game was developed by San Diego Developers and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
How Many Frames Does The PS5 Have?
The PlayStation 5 supports 120 frames per second. This is a relatively high frame rate and is the best amongst all PlayStation consoles released. If you want to get this high PS5 frame rate, you need a TV that supports 120 FPS and 4K resolution.
In other words, this means that your TV should support 120hz to get the optimal PS5 refresh rate for the maximum 120 FPS.
PlayStation 5 colors
Sony has announced that it will launch 5 colors of plates for the PS5. The plate cover will change the look of your device by covering your console. The initial color of the console is a mixture of white, blue, and black but if you want a color change, you can purchase the new plates.