Sony PlayStation 5 sold every 2 seconds since launch

The PlayStation 5 is Sony’s fastest selling console, something that was expected given that most of the world wasn’t able to get its hands on the PlayStation for the first couple of years after its launch. However, in the years since, production has stabilised, and it has become much easier to grab a PS5 for yourself. Now, a new number has shown us just how fast the PS5 is racking up sales.

Sony has officially announced that the company has sold 50 million PlayStation 5 consoles since the launch in 2020. That number was only at 30 million a year ago in December 2022. The next 20 million PS5s were sold in 12 months, and the last 10 million of those, in less than five months. In the 161 weeks since launch, that’s an average of over 30 consoles each minute, a one new PS5 sold every two seconds.

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The quick growth of PS5 sales will certainly help Sony reach its goal of shipping 25 million units by March 2024, with 2023 shipments already standing at 22.5 million. These are great numbers, but what exactly makes the PS5 so popular?

Why is the Sony PlayStation 5 selling so quickly?

Yes, the Sony PS5 is the company’s most powerful console ever made, but timing has also played a huge role in the PS5 success story. The console launched in 2020, offering a COVID-stricken world in lockdown a new channel to put their energy in. With gaming seeing a huge rise during lockdown, the PS5 was a great option for new gamers.

Around the same time, PC gamers who were looking to build their own desktops, were facing a severe shortage of graphics cards (one of the most important components of a gaming PC) by both big players Nvidia and AMD, due to factors like crypto-hoarding and COVID-related manufacturing issues. This led gamers to look at console gaming. While the PS5 was also hard to get during this time, it wasn’t stocked-by-scalpers difficult to get your hands on one.

These factors, together with the release of a range of console-exclusive titles by PlayStation Studios drew even more gamers to console gaming. Popular titles in the Spider-Man series and the God of War series came first to the PS5 as usual, as will the much-awaited GTA 6 in 2025.

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Lastly, other factors like Sony releasing a bunch of sister-consoles for the PS5 could also have helped. The Sony PlayStation VR 2, which lets you enjoy games in virtual reality, and the more recent handheld PlayStation Portal, all require the PlayStation 5 as the base console!

Can the PlayStation 5 beat the legendary PS2?

Yes, the Sony PS5 has sold well in its first three years, but can it beat the decade-long record set by Sony’s own PS2? The PS2 sold about 155 million units, the most among any gaming console ever released, but it also did the same over a period of 12 years (between 2000 and 2013).

If you think about it, the PS5 has reached a third of that number in just three years, leaving it a lot more room for to cover the rest of the PS2’s milestone, and perhaps even beat it! We’ll just have to wait to find out.