- The PS5 sold 8 million units in FY25 Q3, outselling the Nintendo Switch 2 by 1 million
- The console has also surpassed 92.2 million global units sold and officially outsold the PS3
- says Sony Ghost of Yotei among other live service games, contributed to PS5 sales in Q3
Despite launching over five years ago, the PlayStation 5 managed to outsell the Nintendo Switch 2 by 1 million units in the latter half of 2025.
According to Sony’s latest financial results, during FY25 Q3, which begins on October 1 and ends on December 31, the PS5 sold 8 million units compared to the Switch 2’s 7 million, and has officially surpassed 92.2 million global units sold.
This comes after Nintendo informed investors that Western hardware sales for the Nintendo Switch 2 were not as strong as they expected by the end of 2025.
The 8 million feat is down from the 9.5 million Sony managed to sell in the same period in 2024, and the PS5 still lags in lifetime sales compared to the PS4’s 94.4 million. However, the PS5 has now officially outsold the PS3, the latter of which sold 87.4 million lifetime sales per year. 31 March 2027.
During the webcast (via IGN ), Sony CFO Lin Tao attributed Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yoteias well as other live service titles such as Helldivers 2 and MLB The Showto the increase in PS5 sales in Q3.
“In the study industry, Ghost of Yoteia tentpole title we released in October exceeded sales of the previous title in the same period and contributed significantly to the quarter’s financial results,” Tao said.
“Our established live service titles are suffering Helldivers 2 and MLB The Show also contributed to stable recurring revenue.”
Tao went on to say FY25 Q3 sales fell 4% year-over-year, “primarily due to lower hardware unit sales,” but operating income increased 19% year-over-year, which Tao explained was “due to the positive impact of foreign exchange rates and the impact of increased sales and network services and first-party software, which set a third-quarter record in this segment.”
“We revised up our FY25 sales forecast 4% from the previous forecast to 4,630 billion yen, and our operating income forecast 2% to 510 billion yen,” the CFO added. “User engagement progressed well during the quarter, with the number of monthly active users across all of PlayStation in December increasing 2% compared to last December to a record high of 132 million accounts. And total play time for the quarter was up 0.4% year-on-year.
“Although conditions in the console hardware market at the end of the sales season were more challenging than expected, we were able to steadily expand our PS5 install base in line with our original plan, surpassing 92 million units on a cumulative sales basis.”
The PS5 launched in November 2020, and Tao explained that while sales of PS5 hardware units declined moderately in the latter half of the console’s lifecycle, games across PSN, third-party titles and PS Plus contributed strongly to software revenue overall.
“While sales of PS5 hardware units have declined moderately in the latter half of the console cycle, software revenue from the PlayStation Store reached a record high during the quarter, driven primarily by the contribution of major third-party franchise titles and hit new releases,” Tao said. “PlayStation Plus contributed significantly to the quarter’s results as the shift to higher tiers of the service continued.”
Regarding future software, Tao mentioned Bungie Marathonwhich launches next month, and is expected to be “enjoyed by many users thanks to Bungie’s enhancements to the gaming experience”, as well as first-party titles Saros and Marvel’s Wolverine.
Tao said they are both scheduled for release “next fiscal year” and Sony intends to “reinforce our efforts to increase the revenue of our studio business.”
It looks like the PS5 is doing well and might even be able to beat the PS4 in lifetime sales before the end of its life cycle if it continues. 8 million units in just three months is impressive, especially considering the price increase introduced last August.
However, it appears that Sony has no intention of raising the console’s price anytime soon, even amid the generative AI wave and increased tariffs, with Tao confirming that the company intends to negotiate with various suppliers to ensure enough supply to meet customer demand.
“Given the stage of our console cycle, our hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly, and we intend to minimize the impact of increased memory costs on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the install base to date and striving to further expand our software and network services revenues,” Tao said.
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