Today Sony announced its financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021, which ended on June 30. First of all, we get an update on PS5 and PS4 units shipped during the latest quarter.
2.3 million PS5 and 500,000 PS4 units were purchased by retailers worldwide, which means that the grand total for PS4 as of June 30 is at 116.5 million units shipped. PS5 has shipped 10.1 million units in its lifetime. Incidentally, we also recently learned that the new console sold through to customers 10 million units by July 18 according to Sony’s estimates, so this is a good chance to compare shipments with sales estimates and get a confirmation that the consoles are basically flying off the shelves.
Below you can check out an overview of the performance of the Game & Network Services business (which includes both PlayStation and PlayStation Network), with all the relevant figures including software sales and more.
Sales for the segment were 615.8 billion yen sets a new record, increasing year-on-year by 9.7 billion yen (+2%) due to an increase of hardware and peripheral sales partly offset by a decrease in sales of third-party games and add-ons.
On the other hand, operating income was 83.3 billion yen, dropping year-on-year by 40.6 billion yen. This “significant” decrease in profits is due to the drop in sales of third-party games and add-ons mentioned above, the deterioration of operating results for hardware (due to selling PS5 at a loss and lower PS4 sales), and the growth of expenses for sales and administration.
That being said, the drop doesn’t tell the whole story, as it was still one of the highest operating income results in the company’s history. It simply didn’t match the exceptional performance recorded last year.
Additional documentation about the gaming business’ performance reveals that the PlayStation Plus subscriber total was at 46.3 million as of June 30. On the other hand, PlayStation Network had 104 million monthly active users.
Speaking of Sony as a whole, all income numbers are in the black and showing improvement year-on-year.
If you’d like to compare, you can read our dedicated article about the previous financial results announced in April.
