Sony has high hopes for the PlayStation 5’s sales potential. But right now, the company gives rather conservative forecasts, especially when compared to its previous console’s lifetime figures.
Sony president and COO Hiroki Totoki opened up about the company’s expectations for the PlayStation 5 at the Morgan Stanely tech conference (spotted by TweakTown).
“I think we have a good chance to exceed 60 million units, and as you may know, we sold more than 100 million units in the era of the PS4,” he said, adding that the company managed to acquire a new audience with the launch of the PlayStation 5.
According to Totoki, 30% of PS5 users don’t have a PS4, which makes Sony believe in the great potential of its new console.
Sony’s long-term strategy is focused on increasing the number of monthly active users (MAUs). The Japanese company plans to achieve this goal by bringing more first-party titles to PC and mobile. “Complete with hardware sales, we can increase MAU. In that sense, rather than just hardware, MAUs are a very important KPI for now,” Totoki noted.
As of December 31, Sony has sold 32.1 million PlayStation 5s in its first nine quarters. This is less than the PlayStation 4’s 37.9 million units sold for the same period.
In total, PS4 lifetime sales reached 117.2 million units globally, making it the 5th best-selling video game console of all time. The leader is the PlayStation 2 with around 159 million units sold, followed by the Nintendo DS (154 million), Nintendo Switch (122.55 million), and Game Boy/Game Boy Color (118.69 million).
Speaking of other consoles manufactured by Sony, the first PlayStation has reached 102.49 million units sold globally, and lifetime sales of the PlayStation 3 were 87.4 million.
It is hard to say what place the PlayStation 5 will take at the end of its life cycle. The last fiscal quarter was the biggest for the PS5 in terms of sales since launch, so it is likely to cross the 60 million mark. But it is unclear whether it will be able to outsell the PS4.