Sony Shipped 4.5M PlayStation 5 Consoles In 2020, Gaming Revenue Up 40%

Sony Corporation SNE shipped 4.5 million units of its PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide in 2020, according to the latest earnings report for the quarter ended Dec. 31.

What Happened: Ahead of the launch of PlayStation 5 in November this year, the demand for the console’s predecessor — PlayStation 4 — fell significantly to 1.4 million units during the third quarter. In Q3 2019, Sony had shipped 6 million such consoles. 

Gaming business revenue was higher by JPY 251.1 billion ($2.39 billion) or almost 40%.

In Q3, gaming revenue stood at JPY 883.2 billion ($8.41 billion), while in Q3 2019 the figure was JPY 632.1 billion (6.02 billion).

Why It Matters: Sony’s operating income stood at JPY 359.2 billion ($3.42 billion) in Q3 compared with JPY 300.1 billion ($.2.86 billion) in the same period the previous year.

Between 2.1 million to 2.5 million PlayStation 5 units were sold globally in just two days of launch, according to VGChartz.

The overwhelming demand for Sony and Microsoft Corporation’s MSFT consoles caused Walmart Inc WMT and Best Buy Co Inc BBY websites to crash post-launch of the devices.

Microsoft, which announced second-quarter results last week, said its Xbox business grew 40% year-over-year. 

The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant reported a 20% jump in its Game Pass subscribers, now at 15 million strong.

Sony revealed that, as of Q3, it had 47.4 million PlayStation Plus subscribers and 114 million monthly active users on its PlayStation Network. The numbers constitute a 22.16% rise in PS Plus subscribers YoY.  

Price Action: Sony Shares closed nearly 0.7% higher at $99.24 on Tuesday and gained 0.77% in the after-hours session.