PlayStation 4 Hits 103 Million Units Sold
- Paul Thurrott
- Oct 30, 2019
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Sony has sold 102.8 million PlayStation 4s, making it the second-most popular video game console of all time, behind only the PlayStation 2, which sold 155 million units over its lifetime. With this new number, the PS4 has surpassed the original PlayStation, which was released in 1994 and sold 102.5 million units.
Sales of the PS4 have, of course, declined over time: Sony sold 3.9 millions in its second fiscal quarter of 2018, and that tally fell to 2.8 million units in this past quarter. But the percentage of game titles sold digitally vs. on disc has risen dramatically in the same time frame, from 28 percent in 2018 to 37 percent this year. PS Now usage has likewise grown from 34.3 million subscribers to 37 million, setting up Sony for an all-digital/streaming future.
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But the PS4 has outsold its would-be competitor, the Xbox One, by such a wide margin that Microsoft stopped providing console sales figures back in 2014. So the gap between the two platforms is now a matter of conjecture, though figures from major game publishers suggests that Sony now has at least a 3-to-1 sales lead over Microsoft.
Next year, of course, the two firms will square off yet again, both with new consoles—that seem very similar so far, at least technically—and with new game streaming services. But in an ironic twist, Sony will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud backend for its coming service, so Microsoft could attain at least some measure of respect, even if Sony continues to outperform its own gaming offerings.