According to a recent report, the PlayStation 5 sold somewhere between 2.1 and 2.5 million units worldwide on its two separate launch dates, which is a stunning statistic.
VGChartz, an external analytical website which records sales data in the industry, claims that the console sold between 1.3 million and 1.6 million units across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea on November 12th. The U.S. snaffled the largest slice of the pie, with around 1 million to 1.2 million units sold in this country, followed by Japan with 115,000 to 120,000 units sold over there, then Canada took the bronze medal with 95,000 to 110,000 units sold on that day.
Excellent numbers, absolutely, but the regional breakdown is expected, as Sony has a strong consumer base in most of North America and especially in Japan. On November 19th, the PS5 sold around 800,000 and 900,000 units across Europe and the rest of the world. 230,000 to 280,000 consoles were sold in the UK, 115,000 to 140,000 consoles were sold in Germany, and 105,000 and 125,000 consoles were sold in France. If it matters, the Xbox Series X and Series S pushed 1.1 million to 1.4 million units worldwide in its debut, which is a little less than the PlayStation 5.
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However, the two consoles are offering a very different package, and so appeal to very different consumers. Xbox Series X emphasises accessibility to a range of games, across all generations of the console, as well as the power of its 12 teraflop GPU which lets players swap between ongoing games instantly. On the other hand, the PlayStation 5's DualSense promotes immersion in the game with adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, and has a packed line-up of launch exclusives, like Demon's Souls, Bugsnax, and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
In another announcement, Sony expressed its gratitude for its fans in helping to secure "our biggest console launch ever" while contending with the challenges of the pandemic. SIE CEO Jim Ryan stated that the road to launch hasn't been a smooth one, and that the manufacturing preparation had to be completed using a remote camera because employees needed to be distant. In spite of the odds, the PlayStation 5 has seen serious success, and Ryan couldn't be prouder of the teams' efforts from beginning to end.
"Everything is sold. Absolutely everything is sold," he said in the interview with TASS. "I've spent much of the last year trying to be sure that we can generate enough demand for the product. And now in terms of my executive bandwidth I'm spending a lot more time on trying to increase supply to meet that demand." Indeed, the restrictions placed on the global economy has led to scarcer stocks than the company would have liked, and that comes with its own set of issues, like scalpers. In fact, one group in the UK claims to have snapped up more than 3,500 of the consoles since September. Oh, ever so cool.
Featured Image Credit: SonyTopics: PlayStation 5, News