Sony Has Shipped 82 Million PS4s, on Track to Surpass Lifetime PS3 Sales by the End of the Year

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

Sony has just released its Q1 Financial Year 2018 financial results, revealing that it has shipped 82.2 million PS4s as of June 30. The PS4 is just months away from outselling its predecessor, given that the PS3 sold roughly 83.8 million units in its lifetime.

There were 3.2 million PS4 consoles shipped in the last quarter alone, and Sony reports a substantial increase in year-on-year revenue. This increase is attributed to growing PS4 software sales, as evidenced by the news earlier this year that God of War was the fastest selling PS4 exclusive ever.

It’s not all good news for Sony though, a the report shows a decrease in PS Plus subscribers, from 34.2 million down to 33.9 million. There’s also the fact that PS4 shipments this quarter have decreased by 100,000 units year-on-year, though this is to be expected of a product five years into its life cycle.

Looking ahead, Sony has increased its PS4 sales forecast from 16 million units to 17 million units by March 2019, citing the following reasons:

Sales are expected to be significantly higher than the April forecast primarily due to higher-than-expected PlayStation 4 (“PS4”) software sales including sales through the network, the impact of foreign exchange rates, as well as an expected increase in PS4 hardware unit sales. The forecast for operating income is expected to be significantly higher than the April forecast primarily due to the impact of the above-mentioned increase in sales.

It all culminates in a stellar quarter for Sony, definitely putting to bed those “console gaming is dead” comments which cropped up earlier in the generation. You can read the full report here.