The PS5 is approaching its fifth anniversary, and it's hitting a major milestone ahead of it. With at least two years left until the release of what will probably be called the PS6, the PS5 is already starting to surpass the lifetime sales of other PlayStation consoles.
Circana's Mat Piscatella summarized the video game industry's performance in September, noting that the PS5 has now outsold the PS3 in the US. VGChartz estimates that around 23 million PS3s were sold in the US before its somewhat tainted run ended and was replaced by the much more successful PS4.
At least 23 million PS5 units have been sold in the United States.
Call me tainted, but even the PS3 outperformed what most other consoles in PlayStation history have achieved. Despite its problems and the Xbox 360 coming the closest the Xbox has ever come to winning a generation and probably ever will, the PS3 still sold 87.4 million units. Although it is the least successful home PlayStation console of all time in terms of sales, it is still the 8th best-selling console overall.
Or at least the PS5 will overtake it globally. PlayStation's latest console has now sold better in the US than the PS3, but has not surpassed it on a global level. More than 80 million PS5 units have been sold worldwide, which means it's still 7 million units short of the PS3. I think that number will be filled relatively soon.
Piscatella also noted that the PS5's sales have consistently been higher than those of the PS4 “on an hourly basis,” with it selling 4.6% more units than its predecessor in the US as of September. In fact, estimates suggest that the PS4 will be the next console to outsell the PS5 in the US. Of the total 117.2 million consoles sold, 35 million were purchased in the United States.
The biggest challenge facing the PS5 in terms of outselling its PlayStation predecessor is, of course, the PS2. Despite the Nintendo Switch's best efforts, it is still the best-selling console of all time, with over 160 million consoles sold, approximately 54 million of which were sold in the United States. Despite the success of the PS2, the difference in console prices at launch and now means the PS5 is already PlayStation's biggest generation in terms of revenue, despite selling only half as many as the PS2.
- brand
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sony
- original release date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (standard) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (digital),
- operating system
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Orbis OS
- processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- solve
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720p – 8K
