PlayStation 5 sales top 17 million units, but chip shortage is still causing headaches

Sales have dipped in Sony's video game division due to a decrease in both hardware and software sales.

According to the company's fiscal report for the three months ended December 31, 2021, sales in the Game & Network Services (G&NS) segment fell by 8 percent year-on-year to 813.3 billion yen ($7.1 billion).

Operating income, however, rose to 92.9 billion yen from 80.8 billion yen over the same period, with Sony attributing that upswing to a decrease in the loss resulting from PlayStation 5 sales and a reduction in selling, general, and administrative expenses.

Breaking those numbers down, Sony revealed that Playstation 5 sales totalled 3.9 million units during the third quarter, meaning the console has sold 17.3 million units to-date. The PlayStation 4, meanwhile, sold 200,000 units over the same period.

Glancing at software sales, the company noted that combined sales of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 titles hit 92.7 million units over the last quarter, including 11.3 million first-party sales. Notably, 62 percent of those sales were digital downloads.

The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers remained fairly steady at 48 million -- compared to 47.4 million in Q3 FY20 -- although monthly active users declined year-on-year to 111 million from 114 million.

Looking ahead, the Japanese console maker noted that full-year sales in the G&NS division are expected to be lower than the October 2021 forecast due to an "expected decrease" in PlayStation 5 hardware unit sales, largely due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage.

As a result, Sony is now forecasting sales of 2.7 trillion yen and operating income of 345 billion yen within its G&NS division for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022.