PlayStation 4 console breaks sales records in 2016

Sony’s latest financial reports, while showing income loss in a number of divisions due to foreign exchange rates, showed that the company’s gaming segment had recorded very good results. Among other things, the report showed that the Playstation 4 had broken the sales record for number of consoles sold in one quarter, a record held by the Playstation 2 until now.

In Q4 2016, Sony shipped 9.7 million units, up from Q4 2015 when they shipped 8.4 million units. In Q2 2003 8.8 million units of the Playstation 2 were sold, which the Playstation 4 has been closing in on for the last year or so from looking at these numbers. In 2016 the number of consoles shipped were; Q1 – 3.5 M, Q2 – 3.9 M, Q3 – 9.7 M, and by the end of last year units shipped were 2.3 M, which Sony expects to see rise to 2.9 M by the end of Q4.

Attributing factors to these sales numbers are the new models of Playstation 4 consoles, launched late last year. The record breaking units shipped include the Playstation 4 Pro, a more powerful version of the Playstation 4 that includes 4K resolution, and the Playstation Slim, a cheaper slimline version of the console that’s much closer to the original. Playstation VR was also a strong driving factor in these numbers, as the hardware is already being set apart as one of the best, if not the best, VR gaming experience, for its price/quality ratio.

The total number of Playstation 4 consoles shipped is 57.1 million worldwide, which puts it on track for the target sales of 60 million by March this year. A number of highly anticipated games are already out or on their way to releasing for Playstation 4 before March, including Horizon: Zero Dawn, Gravity Rush 2, and Kingdom Hearts 2.8. Nioh also releases this month, and is already being hailed as a game worth buying a Playstation 4 in order to play.

While Sony has announced it will be re-thinking its pictures segment due to the recorded losses in the report, one things that won’t be seen as a struggling asset for the company is its gaming division, and its PlayStation 4 products.