Sony can safely chalk up the PlayStation 4 as a hit. The company started moving units swiftly after the console was launched in November last year. Over the past few months it has regularly provided updates about the numbers of units that have been sold around the world. At Gamescom today in Germany Sony confirmed that it has sold over 10 million units of the PlayStation 4, a milestone that its console has achieved in less than one year since its launch.
I should point out here that Sony is talking about the number of units that it has sold to consumers, not number of units shipped to retailers. The latter would probably be a bit higher than the 10 million figure, that’s the number of units which have been sold to the consumers, they’re not just sitting on a shelf in some store.
Back in May Sony CEO Kaz Hirai said that the company expects to sell 10 million units of the PlayStation 4 in the ongoing fiscal year. This means that these units have to be sold between April 2014 and April 2015. In its last fiscal quarter alone Sony sold three million units and the lucrative holiday shopping season is up ahead. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if Sony meets this target easily.
To put things in perspective the PlayStation 3 required three years before it became profitable for the company. PlayStation 4 smashed past that goal within six months after its launch. On the other hand its unclear how many Xbox One units Microsoft has sold though a recent report indicated that PS4 was outselling the Xbox One 3 to 1 in the most recent quarter.
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