PlayStation 5 “most profitable generation to date”, Sony says

Sony has called the PlayStation 5 its “most profitable generation to date”.

During this morning’s business segment meeting and investor presentation, the company revealed its PS5 generation had hit $106bn in sales. It is close to catching up with its predecessor the PS4, which generated a total of $107bn sales for the company.

Operating income for the PlayStation 5 generation, meanwhile, has surpassed that of the PS4, having now reached $10bn. To compare, the PS4 is sitting at $9bn.

Further in the presentation, Sony shared some statistics from its consoles’ user base.

It noted the PS5 had “established a significant install base” four years into its cycle, and currently makes up half of its monthly active console users. The PS5 and PS4 both have 49 million users per month, as of 30th April.

Engagement on PlayStation 5 in terms of gameplay hours is higher with Sony’s most recent console, however. Of the 3.8bn hours played, 2.4bn of those were on PS5.

Meanwhile, PS5 users are spending 176 percent more on add-on content, 57 percent more on services and 34 percent more on peripherals than the previous generation of console did in the first four years of its cycle.

PS5 users are also spending 12 percent less on full game content than those on PS4 did.

Earlier this month, PlayStation announced Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino were to replace Jim Ryan as the company’s new CEOs. Ryan left PlayStation in March, soon after the exec announced company-wide layoffs equating to eight percent of its workforce.

Next, Sony is hosting its State of Play broadcast. Scheduled for later today, the show is set to run for around 30 minutes, and will cover updates on PS5 and PS VR2 titles, as well as a look at PlayStation Studios games arriving later this year.