Sony Q3 FY2020 (Oct-Dec) Results - PS5: 4.5m, PS4: 1.4m (LTD: 114.9m) / Record Year for PlayStation / Highest Quarterly Revenue in video game history

[ArmGunar]

*The US Dollar figures have been converted from Japanese Yen with exchange rate provided in Sony fiscal reports
Source 1 / Source 2


As mentioned in the poll, spending on PS Store include Games & Add-on content (DLC/MTX/etc...) but no Services (as PS+/PS Now)
You can change your vote if you made a mistake


Major records broken / milestones reached this quarter or year by PlayStation :
(most of these below have a dedicated graph later in the thread)

• PlayStation reached an all-time high of $8.45B Revenue in a single quarter, a new record for the industry
  • Previous biggest quarterly revenue was Sony Q3 FY18 with ¥790.6bn (= $7.00B)
  • A jump by +11.7% from previous biggest quarterly revenue
  • First time, any platform holder ever reached $8 Billion in a single quarter
• PlayStation reached an all-time high of 22.74B Revenue in 2020 and set a new record for the industry
  • Previous record was Sony 2018 with $20.43B Revenue
  • The second time PlayStation broke the $20B barrier
  • Only PlayStation ever generated more than $18.5B Revenue in a single calendar year, let alone $20B
• PlayStation generated $3.33B Profits in 2020, a new record for them (despite the launch of a new hardware)
  • First time, they broke the $3B barrier
  • Previous most profitable year was 2018 with $2.41B Profits
• PlayStation 5 sold-in 4.5m units, matching PS4's record launch
• PlayStation Network reached an all-time high of $5.06B Revenue in Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec) ; +35.4% YoY
  • Previous record was $4.53B Revenue in Q1 FY20 (April-June 2020)
• PlayStation Network reached an all-time high of $16.44B Revenue in 2020 (+28.9% YoY)
  • Previous record was $12.52B Revenue in 2018
• PlayStation Software & Services reached an all-time high of $5.54B Revenue in Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec) ; +34.0% YoY
  • Previous record was $4.89B Revenue in Q1 FY20 (April-June 2020)
• PlayStation Software & Services reached an all-time high of $18.49B Revenue in 2020 (+30.1% YoY)
  • Previous record was $14.61B Revenue in 2018

Highlights :

• Over $8.45B Revenue and $0.767B Profit between October-December 2020 (Q3 FY20)
  • Biggest Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) during any quarter
    • Top 3 biggest Quarterly Revenue ever:
      1. Sony Q3 FY20
      2. Sony Q3 FY18
      3. Sony Q3 FY17
    • To show how big Revenue are, during this one single quarter (Q3 FY20) Revenue are higher than :
      • any full fiscal year during PS1 generation (FY95 to FY99)
      • 3 full fiscal year during PS2 generation (FY00/03/04)
      • 4 full fiscal year during PS3 generation (FY09 to FY12)
      • (A graph later in the thread will show you that)
  • 2nd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q3
  • 6th best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during any quarter
  • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during a launch hardware quarter
    • PS1 : no numbers but most likely not profitable
    • PS2 : ¥26.0bn ($245M) loss [Jan-Mar 2000] / ¥13.9bn ($245M) loss [Oct-Dec 2000]
    • PS3 : ¥54.2bn ($464M) loss [Oct-Dec 2006] / ¥107.8bn ($910M) loss [Jan-Mar 2007]
    • PS4 : ¥12.4bn ($123M) profits [Oct-Dec 2013]
    • PS5 : ¥80.2bn ($767M) profits [Oct-Dec 2020]
• Hardware:
  • PS5 : 4.5m units sold-in
    • Biggest console launch in video game history, matching PS4's 4.5m units
  • PS4 : 1.4m units sold-in (LTD: 114.9m)
• Software:
  • PS4/PS5 : 103.7m games sold-in
    • including 18.4m Sony-published games
      • 17.7% of total PS5 games sold this Q3
    • PS4/PS5 Software digital ratio : 53%
• PlayStation Store had its biggest Revenue ever during Q3 with more than $4.14B (+41.9% YoY)
  • including Digital Software & Add-on content
• PlayStation Software & Services saw their biggest Revenue ever during Q3 with more than $5.54B (+34.0% YoY)
  • including Physical / Digital Software & Add-on content / Services
• 114m MAU (monthly active users)
  • 114m active users each spent about $113.89 on average on PS Store in 2020
    • It includes Digital Software + Add-on but no Services revenue
    • That average spending grew +26.3% YoY
    • Biggest yearly average spending per active user ever recorded on PS Store
• FY2020 Updated Forecast :
  • $25.53B Revenue & $3.30B Profit... it would be:
    • Biggest Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
    • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation

Sony Corporation - Q3 FY2020 (October - December 2020) :

Sony Revenue : ¥2696.5bn / $25.80B (+9.5% YoY from ¥2463.2bn / $22.64B - Q3 FY2019)
Sony Operating Profit : ¥359.2bn / $3.44B (+19.7% YoY from ¥300.1bn / $2.76B - Q3 FY2019)
Sony Net Profit : ¥371.9bn / $3.56B (+62.0% YoY from ¥229.5bn / $2.11B - Q3 FY2019)

• 2nd biggest Revenue ever for Sony during any quarter
• 2nd biggest Op. Profit ever for Sony during any quarter
• 3rd biggest Net Profit ever for Sony during any quarter (2nd biggest ever during Q3)

Sony achieved during this quarter its 3rd highest operating margin ever (13.3%) and its 2nd highest profit margin ever (13.8%)

• It means that for each dollar generated, they earned 13.8 cents of profit

Spoiler: Q3 FY20 CONSOLIDATED RESULTS

Revenue & Profit Breakdown by Segment
Some milestones reached, per segment :

• Music : Best Revenue and 2nd best Op. Profit ever during any quarter
• Imaging & Sensing Solutions : 2nd best Revenue and 3rd best Op Profit ever during Q3
• Financial Services : Best Revenue ever during Q3 (2nd best ever during any quarter)

Top Biggest Revenue Drivers for the Quarter :

1. PlayStation
2. Electronic Products & Solutions
3. Financial Services
4. Imaging & Sensing Solutions
5. Music
6. Pictures

Top Biggest Profit Drivers for the Quarter :

1. Electronic Products & Solutions
2. PlayStation
3. Music
4. Imaging & Sensing Solutions
5. Financial Services
6. Pictures

Spoiler: Q3 FY20 RESULTS BY SEGMENT

Gaming Division - Q3 FY2020 Results (October 2020 - December 2020) :

​

Gaming Revenue : ¥883.2bn / $8.45B (+39.7% YoY from ¥632.1bn / $5.81B - Q3 FY2019)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥80.2bn / $0.767B (+50.0% YoY from ¥53.5bn / $0.491B - Q3 FY2019)

• Best Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) during any quarter
  • +39.7% YoY from Q3 FY2019 which is the 6th biggest Quarterly Revenue for any platform holder in video game history
• 2th best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q3
• 6th best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during any quarter
• Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during a launch hardware quarter

On a constant currency basis, Revenue increased +40.7% YoY and Op. Profit increased +32.4% YoY


This quarter, the Gaming Division accounts for :
- 32.8% of Sony total Sales/Revenue (vs 25.7% - Q3 FY2019)
- 22.0% of Sony total Operating Profit (vs 18.9% - Q3 FY2019)


PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5
PS4 Hardware Q3 : 1.4m (LTD: 114.9m)
PS5 Hardware Q3 : 4.5m

PS4/PS5 Software Q3 : 103.7m including 18.4m Sony-published games
Software digital ratio : 53%

• During this quarter, more than 13.05 PS4/PS5 games have been sold each second in the world (= 1.127M games sold each day)
• More than 597 000 digital PS4/PS5 games have been sold-through each day on average on the PlayStation Store during Q3 (= 6.91 digital games sold each second)

PlayStation Plus
Subscribers : 47.4m (up from 38.8m - Q3 FY2019)

• All-time high number of PS+ subscribers
• +8.6m subs year-on-year (achieved the 3rd biggest increase YoY in raw numbers)

Revenue Breakdown (Q3 FY20) :

• Hardware Revenue reached ¥239.5bn / $2.29B (+61.3% YoY)
  • the highest since Q3 FY17
• Physical Software Revenue reached ¥50.9bn / $0.487B (+20.8% YoY)
• Digital Software + Add-on Revenue (PS Store) reached an all-time high of ¥432.8bn / $4.14B (+41.9% YoY)
  • the biggest quarterly revenue PS Store ever recorded
• Services Revenue reached an ¥95.8bn / $0.916B (+12.0% YoY)
  • the 2nd biggest quarterly revenue ever generated by Services
• Others Revenue (PSVR, controllers...) reached ¥64.2bn / $0.615B (+25.7% YoY)
  • driven by the PS5's accessories (DualSense, ....)

PS5 sold-in 4.5m units, same than PS4 during its launch quarter

For its 29th quarter on the market, PS4 reached 114.9m units sold-in and is tracked behind PS2's 118.4m at the same point

This is the Quarterly PS4/PS5 Software Sales since FY16, with the Physical/Digital split

• More than 55m digital games have been sold this Q3, making it the 2nd biggest quarterly digital games sales
• This is the 4th quarter in a row that digital games have sold more than physical games

Now, here is the Software sales with 1st/3rd party breakdown on PS4/PS5 combined

• With only 3 quarters counted for FY20, sales of 1st party games already surpassed the amount sold during the entire FY19

You can take a look below at the evolution of PS Plus subscribers and Software digital ratio over years

• All-time high number of PS+ subscribers
  • +8.6m subs year-on-year (achieved the 3rd biggest increase YoY in raw numbers)
• Q3 saw its highest digital ratio ever at 53%

Here is now the Quarterly Physical Software Sales on PS4/PS5 since FY2016 (from April 2016 onward)
Including : Sony's average gross profit per physical copy sold

For a $60 retail game, publishers have to pay about $7-10 to Sony as a license fee (publisher's gross profit ~ $33)
For its own first-party games, Sony's gross profit will be as high as ~ $40
When Sony's average gross profit is higher than $7-10, that's because it's inflated by the performance of its exclusives

• Q1 FY16 (Apr-June 2016) : Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted 4
• Q4 FY16 (Jan-Mar 2017) : Horizon Zero Dawn
• Q1 FY18 (Apr-June 2018) : God of War & Detroit
• Q1 FY19 (Apr-June 2019) : Days Gone
• Q1 FY20 (Apr-June 2020) : The Last of Us Part II
• Q2 FY20 (July-Sept 2020) : Ghost of Tsushima
• Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec 2020) : Miles Morales, Demon's Souls

Q2 FY18 (July-Sept 2018) with Spider-Man didn't go higher (despite good performance), probably because of huge sales of annual sport titles (Madden/NBA 2K/FIFA) which lowered Sony's average gross profit

Click to shrink...

This is the Quarterly Digital Software Sales on PS4/PS5 since FY2019 (from April 2019 onward)
Including : Average Price of a Game bought on PS Store

Next is the Quarterly Average Player Spending on PlayStation Network

• In Q1 FY20 (April-June), it reached $39.78 spent per active user (+43.0% YoY from $27.81 in Q1 FY19)
• In Q2 FY20 (July-Sept), it reached $34.58 spent per active user
• In Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec), it reached $44.37 spent per active user (+27.3% YoY from $34.84 in Q3 FY19)
  • Set an all-time high quarterly average player spending on PSN

Now here is a comparison between Q3 FY20 Revenue vs Full Fiscal Years during PS1/PS2/PS3 generation

• Q3 FY20 Revenue reached more than ¥883.2bn ($8.45B) and became the biggest Quarterly Revenue in video game history
• As mentioned in the highlights, Q3 FY20 Revenue (one single quarter) are higher than:
  • any full fiscal years during PS1 generation
  • FY00/FY03/FY04 during PS2 generation
  • FY09/FY10/FY11/FY12 during PS3 generation
• We are witnessing here the combination of
  • PS4 software sales peak
  • PlayStation Store peak
  • PlayStation Network peak
  • PS5 launch

Gaming Division - Updated FY2020 Forecast (April 2020 - March 2021) :

Gaming Revenue : ¥2630bn / $25.53B (up from ¥2600bn / $24.76B - Oct 2020 forecast)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥340bn / $3.30B (up from ¥300bn / $2.86B - Oct 2020 forecast)

It would be :

• Best Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
• Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation

Sony also forecasted Q4 FY20 Results (Jan-March 2021) with ¥634.1bn / $5.93B Revenue and ¥30.8bn / $0.288B Profit

• Best Revenue and 3rd best Op. Profit ever for PlayStation during Q4, if forecast reached

PlayStation Yearly Revenue & Operating Profit
I added Revenue in USD to give you an idea of what Revenue in JPY mean (therefore if Revenue USD don't follow the same growth than Revenue JPY, it's because of exchange rates)

• FY19 was the 2nd biggest year ever for PlayStation with over $18.19B in Revenue and $2.19B in Profit
  • 2nd best Revenue for any platform holder in video game history
• FY20 Forecast (FY20 FCT) is $25.53B Revenue and $3.30B Profit.... it would be :
  • Best Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
  • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation

PlayStation's history of Operating Profit/Loss
Unlike PS1/PS2/PS3/PS4's launch years, PS5's launch year will see a huge profit of $3.30B thanks to :

• the big PlayStation Store Revenues
• recurrent Services Revenues
• highly-profitable first party games, planned this fiscal year (including TLOU Part II, Ghost of Tsushima and Miles Morales)

Retrospective PlayStation in 2020
(calendar year)​

PlayStation Yearly Revenue & Operating Profit
I added Revenue in USD to give you an idea of what Revenue in JPY mean (therefore if Revenue USD don't follow the same growth than Revenue JPY, it's because of exchange rates)

• 2020 is now the biggest year ever for PlayStation with over :
  • $22.74B in Revenue (+19.0% YoY)
  • $3.33B in Op. Profit (+38.7% YoY)

Revenue Breakdown in 2020

• Hardware Revenue saw a decrease of -6.8% YoY
• Physical Revenue increased +10.7% YoY
• Digital Software and Add-on Revenue (PS Store) reached an all-time high of $12.98B (+36.9% YoY)
• Services Revenue reached an all-time high of $3.45B (+5.7% YoY)
• Others Revenue (PSVR, DualSense...) reached $1.41B (+5.3% YoY)

Here is the Hardware Revenue, 2019 vs 2020

• You can see the impact of PS5 on these hardware revenues

Now, this is the Network Revenue, 2019 vs 2020

• You can see the impact of the pandemic/lockdowns on PlayStation Network spending throughout the year
• Q1 FY20 (April-June) is now the biggest Q1 Network Revenue, even surpassing any Q3 Network Revenue (except Q3 FY20)
• Q2 FY20 (July-Sept) is now the biggest Q2 Network Revenue
• Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec) is now the biggest Quarterly Network Revenue ever recorded on PSN

PS4/PS5 Yearly Hardware & Software Sell-in by Calendar Year

• PS4/PS5 sold more than 340m games in 2020
  • In 2020, more than 10.80 PS4/PS5 games were sold each second on average in the world (= 932 000 games sold each day)
• For the first time, PS4/PS5 sold over 200m digital games in a single year
  • Each second, more than 6.79 PS4/PS5 digital games were sold on average through PS Store in 2020 (= 586 000 each day)

PlayStation Network generated an all-time high Revenue with over $16.44B in 2020 (+28.9% YoY) thanks to :

• PlayStation Store ($12.98B ; +36.9% YoY) through Games and Add-on content (MTX, DLC, etc...) purchases
• PS Services ($3.45B ; +5.7% YoY) with PS+ and PS Now

In 2020 :

• 114 million active users each spent ~ $113.89 on average on the PlayStation Store*
• about 50m PS+/PS Now subscribers spent ~ $5.73/month on average ($68.77/year)**

*calculated by the following formula : "Yearly Total Spending on PS Store" / "MAU at the end of the year"
**calculated by the following formula : "Yearly Services Revenue" / "Amount of PS+ & PS Now subscribers at the end of the year"

Below are the Yearly Hardware Sales and Yearly Software Sales on PlayStation consoles since 1994 by Fiscal Year

• Q4 FY20 data (Jan-March 2021) are missing but it's the PS5 launch so I show you these graphs anyway

Summary since PS4 release

Previous threads :
Q2 FY20, Q1 F2020
FY2019, Q3 FY2019, Q2 FY2019, Q1 FY2019
FY2018, Q3 FY2018, Q2 FY2018, Q1 FY2018

 

[E.T.]

Excellent work. Thanks

 

[Cactuar]

Amazing as always. Highest quarterly revenue in video game history. And I remember when they laughed at Bugsnax.

 

[IllumiNate]

Very nice thank you, Dat Revenue..

 

[Sandfox]

PS4 numbers seem low. Really seems like generations no longer having tails and just dropping off the face of the earth when the newer console comes out is going to be the norm going forward.

Click to shrink...

PS4 is dying quickly compared to their previous platforms.

 

[LiquidSolid]

Great PS5 number given all the things that were going against them (namely the 7nm semiconductor shortage and pandemic).

The PS4, on the other hand, should've received a price drop mid-2020, there's plenty of potential sales left in it IMO but not at the current price.

 

[El Manco]

Many thanks ArmGunar ! :-)

 

[Angie]

Great work like always ArmGunar

 

[Cess007]

Almost 50m PS+ users. Damn, that's a lot of moneyz

Edit. I also don't think PS4 is gonna reach 120m. It's gonna get close, but it will fall short by an inch

 

[Sandfox]

Great PS5 number given all the things that were going against them (namely the 7nm semiconductor shortage and pandemic).

The PS4, on the other hand, should've received a price drop mid-2020, there's plenty of potential sales left in it IMO but not at the current price.

Click to shrink...

Sony doesn't want people buying the PS4. They want them to just buy the PS5.

 

[Deleted member 15360]

103 mil Software

 

[E.T.]

Jim Ryan deserves a statue. Good lad.

 

[Xeonidus]

Dear god at these numbers. Great OP!

 

[Shirkelton]

PS4 numbers seem low. Really seems like generations no longer having tails and just dropping off the face of the earth when the newer console comes out is going to be the norm going forward.

Click to shrink...

Where were previous generation prices at compared to starting point and relative to the PS4, feel like that could be key.

 

[RedHeat]

With these numbers, I don't see Sony being in any rush to change their service offerings.

 

[Shirkelton]

Jim Ryan should give me some money, imo.

 

[Zalman]

Same shipment as PS4 in the same time period. It's a bit unfortunate they didn't see growth, but I assume it'll happen soon.

 

[Gravity Insanity]

*The US Dollar figures have been converted from Japanese Yen with exchange rate provided in Sony fiscal reports
Source 1 / Source 2


As mentioned in the poll, spending on PS Store include Games & Add-on content (DLC/MTX/etc...) but no Services (as PS+/PS Now)
You can change your vote if you made a mistake


Disclaimer :

1. I put a lot of placeholder numbers to save time
2. At first, only numbers from Highlights & Q3 FY20 Results are correct and updated with info from Sony
3. If there is no graph or table attached to informations posted from Q3 FY20 Results onward, so it's placeholder numbers
4. If there is a graph or table attached, then numbers are correct !

Thread under construction !

A lot of graphs and tables will be added within minutes, stay tuned

It might take more time than usual because I don't know how Sony will incorporate PS5 numbers in their Supplemental Info
Therefore, I will maybe have to adjust some tables/graphs

You will also find a full retrospective of PlayStation in 2020 (calendar year)​

Upcoming updates for the thread :

• Summary of PS4 numbers (Table)
• Q3 FY20 Results :
  • Sales Breakdown for the Quarter (Graph x2)
  • Hardware shipments during launch quarter (Graph)
  • Hardware shipments comparison (Graph) PS4 vs PS1 vs Wii vs PS2
  • PS4 Software sales & Physical/Digital breakdown (Graph)
  • Quarterly PS4 Software Sales - Physical/Digital (Graph)
  • Software sales & 1st/3rd party breakdown on PS4/PS5 (Graph)
  • PS Plus & Digital Ratio evolution (Graph)
  • Quarterly Physical Software Sales on PS4/PS5 + Sony's Average Gross Profit (Graph)
  • Quarterly Digital Software Sales on PS4+PS5 + Average Price of a Game bought (Graph)
  • Quarterly Average Player Spending on PlayStation Network (Graph)
  • Revenue Q3 FY20 vs full fiscal year PS1/PS2/PS3 (Graph)
• FY20 Forecast Update :
  • PlayStation Yearly Revenue & Operating Profit + FY20 Forecast (Graph)
  • PlayStation's History of Operating Profit/Loss + FY20 Forecast (Graph)
• Retrospective PlayStation 2020 (calendar year) :
  • PlayStation Yearly Revenue & Operating Profit (Graph)
  • Sales Breakdown for the Year (Graph)
  • PS4 Yearly Hardware/Software sell-in by calendar year (Graph)
  • Top 10/15 Highest Yearly Software Sales by calendar year (Graph)
  • Yearly Total Player Spending on PSN by calendar year (Graph)
  • Yearly Hardware Sales and Yearly Software Sales on PlayStation consoles since 1994 by fiscal year (Graph)
• Sony Corp. Results including tables & graphs

Major records broken / milestones reached this quarter or year by PlayStation :
(most of these below have a dedicated graph later in the thread)

• PlayStation reached an all-time high of $8.45B Revenue in a single quarter, a new record for the industry
  • Previous biggest quarterly revenue was Sony Q3 FY18 with ¥790.6bn (= $7.00B)
  • A jump by +11.7% from previous biggest quarterly revenue
  • First time, any platform holder ever reached $8 Billion in a single quarteR
• PlayStation reached an all-time high of 22.74B Revenue in 2020 and set a new record for the industry
  • Previous record was Sony 2018 with $20.43B Revenue
  • The second time PlayStation broke the $20B barrier
  • Only PlayStation ever generated more than $18.5B Revenue in a single calendar year, let alone $20B
• PlayStation generated $3.33B Profits in 2020, a new record for them (despite the launch of a new hardware)
  • First time, they broke the $3B barrier
  • Previous most profitable year was 2018 with $2.41B Profits
• PlayStation 5 sold-in 4.5m units and set a new console launch record
• PlayStation Network reached an all-time high of $5.06B Revenue in Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec) ; +35.4% YoY
  • Previous record was $4.53B Revenue in Q1 FY20 (April-June 2020)
• PlayStation Network reached an all-time high of $16.55B Revenue in 2020 (+28.9% YoY)
  • Previous record was $12.52B Revenue in 2018
• PlayStation Software & Services reached an all-time high of $5.54B Revenue in Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec) ; +34.0% YoY
  • Previous record was $4.89B Revenue in Q1 FY20 (April-June 2020)
• PlayStation Software & Services reached an all-time high of $18.49B Revenue in 2020 (+30.1% YoY)
  • Previous record was $14.61B Revenue in 2018

Highlights :

• Over $8.45B Revenue and $0.767B Profit between October-December 2020 (Q3 FY20)
  • Biggest Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) during any quarter
    • Top 3 biggest Quarterly Revenue ever:
      1. Sony Q3 FY20
      2. Sony Q3 FY18
      3. Sony Q3 FY17
    • To show how big Revenue are, during this one single quarter (Q3 FY20) Revenue are higher than :
      • any full fiscal year during PS1 generation (FY95 to FY99)
      • 3 full fiscal year during PS2 generation (FY00/03/04)
      • 4 full fiscal year during PS3 generation (FY09 to FY12)
      • (A graph later in the thread will show you that)
  • 2nd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q3
  • 6th best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during any quarter
  • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during a launch hardware quarter
    • PS1 : no numbers but most likely not profitable
    • PS2 : ¥26.0bn ($245M) loss [Jan-Mar 2000] / ¥13.9bn ($245M) loss [Oct-Dec 2000]
    • PS3 : ¥54.2bn ($464M) loss [Oct-Dec 2006] / ¥107.8bn ($910M) loss [Jan-Mar 2007]
    • PS4 : ¥12.4bn ($123M) profits [Oct-Dec 2013]
    • PS5 : ¥50.0bn ($767M) profits [Oct-Dec 2020]
• Hardware:
  • PS5 : 4.5m units sold-in
    • Biggest console launch in video game history, surpassing PS4's 4.5m units
  • PS4 : 1.4m units sold-in (LTD: 114.9m)
• Software:
  • PS4/PS5 : 103.7m games sold-in
    • including 18.4m Sony-published games
      • 17.7% of total PS5 games sold this Q3
    • PS4 Software digital ratio : 53%
• PlayStation Store had its biggest Revenue ever during Q3 with more than $4.14B (+41.9% YoY)
  • including Digital Software & Add-on content
• PlayStation Software & Services saw their biggest Revenue ever during Q3 with more than $5.54B (+34.0% YoY)
  • including Physical / Digital Software & Add-on content / Services
• 114m MAU (monthly active users)
  • 114m active users each spent about $113.89 on average on PS Store in 2020
    • It includes Digital Software + Add-on but no Services revenue
    • That average spending grew +26.3% YoY
    • Biggest yearly average spending per active user ever recorded on PS Store
• FY2020 Updated Forecast :
  • $25.53B Revenue & $3.30B Profit... it would be:
    • Biggest Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
    • 2nd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation

Gaming Division - Q3 FY2020 Results (October 2020 - December 2020) :

​

Gaming Revenue : ¥883.2bn / $8.45B (+39.7% YoY from ¥632.1bn / $5.81B - Q3 FY2019)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥80.2bn / $0.767B (+50.0% YoY from ¥53.5bn / $0.491B - Q3 FY2019)

• Best Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) during any quarter
  • +39.7% YoY from Q3 FY2019 which is the 6th biggest Quarterly Revenue for any platform holder in video game history
• 2th best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q3
• 6th best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during any quarter
• Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during a launch hardware quarter

On a constant currency basis, Revenue increased +40.7% YoY and Op. Profit increased +32.5% YoY


This quarter, the Gaming Division accounts for :
- 32.8% of Sony total Sales/Revenue (vs 25.7% - Q3 FY2019)
- 22.3% of Sony total Operating Profit (vs 18.9% - Q3 FY2019)


PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5
PS4 Hardware Q3 : 1.4m
PS5 Hardware Q3 : 4.5m

Software Q3 : 103.7m including 18.4m Sony-published games
Software digital ratio : 53%


PlayStation Plus
Subscribers : 47.4m (up from 38.8m - Q3 FY2019)

• All-time high number of PS+ subscribers
• +8.6m subs year-on-year (achieved the 3rd biggest increase YoY in raw numbers)

----------------------------------------------------
From this point forward, numbers and informations are PLACEHOLDERS
But if a graph is attached, then numbers/infos are correct and updated
----------------------------------------------------




Revenue Breakdown (Q3 FY20) :

• Hardware Revenue reached ¥300bn / $2.87B (+100% YoY)
  • making it the 2nd biggest Quarterly Hardware Revenue ever for PlayStation
• Physical Software Revenue reached ¥50bn / $0.478B (+18.8% YoY)
  • the highest since Q2 FY18 (July-Sept 2018)
• Digital Software + Add-on Revenue (PS Store) reached an all-time high of ¥420bn / $4.02B (+37.7% YoY)
  • the biggest quarterly revenue PS Store ever recorded
• Services Revenue reached an all-time high of ¥97bn / $0.928B (+13.5% YoY)
  • the biggest quarterly revenue ever generated by Services
• Others Revenue (PSVR, controllers...) reached an all-time high of ¥80bn / $0.766B (+56.6% YoY)
  • driven by the PS5's accessories (DualSense, ....)

PS5 sold-in 4.5m units, same than PS4 during its launch quarter

For its 29th quarter on the market, PS4 reached 114.9m units sold-in and is tracked behind PS2's 118.4m at the same point







Here is below the PS4 software sales since FY2015, including the quarterly physical/digital split from FY2016 onward
(doesn't include "download only software titles" for FY15)

• With only 3 quarters counted, FY20 is already the 3rd highest yearly software sales in video game history

This is the Quarterly PS4 Software Sales since FY16, with the Physical/Digital split

• As mentioned in the highlights, PS4 sold more than 100m games during Q3
• Set a new software sales record during a single quarter in video game history
• More than 62m digital games have been sold this Q3, making it the 2nd biggest quarterly digital games sales
• This is the 4th quarter in a row that digital games have sold more than physical games

Now, here is the Software sales with 1st/3rd party breakdown on PS4/PS5 combined

• With only 3 quarters counted for FY20, sales of 1st party games already surpassed the amount sold during the entire FY18

You can take a look below at the evolution of PS Plus subscribers and Software digital ratio over years

• All-time high number of PS+ subscribers
  • +7.5m subs year-on-year (achieved the 3rd biggest increase YoY in raw numbers)
• Q3 saw its highest digital ratio ever at 62%

Here is now the Quarterly Physical Software Sales on PS4 since FY2016 (from April 2016 onward)
Including : Sony's average gross profit per physical copy sold







This is the Quarterly Digital Software Sales on PS4 since FY2019 (from April 2019 onward)
Including : Average Price of a Game bought on PS Store








Next is the Quarterly Average Player Spending on PlayStation Network

• In Q1 FY20 (April-June), it reached $39.78 spent per active user (+43.0% YoY from $27.81 in Q1 FY19)
• In Q2 FY20 (July-Sept), it reached $34.58 spent per active user
• In Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec), it reached $44.98 spent per active user (+29.1% YoY from $34.84 in Q3 FY19)
  • Set an all-time high quarterly average player spending on PSN

Now here is a comparison between Q3 FY20 Revenue vs Full Fiscal Years during PS1/PS2/PS3 generation

• Q3 FY20 Revenue reached more than ¥892.0bn ($8.50B) and became the biggest Quarterly Revenue in video game history
• As mentioned in the highlights, Q3 FY20 Revenue (one single quarter) are higher than:
  • any full fiscal years during PS1 generation
  • FY00/FY03/FY04 during PS2 generation
  • FY09/FY10/FY11/FY12 during PS3 generation
• We are witnessing here the combination of
  • PS4 software sales peak
  • PlayStation Store peak
  • PlayStation Network peak
  • PS5 launch which is the biggest console launch in history (with a higher price than PS4)

Gaming Division - Updated FY2020 Forecast (April 2020 - March 2021) :​

Gaming Revenue : ¥2600bn / $24.76B (flat from ¥2600bn / $24.76B - Oct 2020 forecast)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥300bn / $2.86B (flat from ¥300bn / $2.86B - Oct 2020 forecast)

It would be :

• Best Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
• 2nd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation

Sony also forecasted Q4 FY20 Results (Jan-March 2021) with ¥500bn / $5.33B Revenue and ¥51bn / $0.477B Profit



PlayStation Yearly Revenue & Operating Profit
I added Revenue in USD to give you an idea of what Revenue in JPY mean (therefore if Revenue USD don't follow the same growth than Revenue JPY, it's because of exchange rates)

• FY19 was the 2nd biggest year ever for PlayStation with over $18.19B in Revenue and $2.19B in Profit
  • 2nd best Revenue for any platform holder in video game history
• FY20 Forecast (FY20 FCT) is $24.76B Revenue and $2.86B Profit.... it would be :
  • Best Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
  • 2nd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation

PlayStation's history of Operating Profit/Loss
Unlike PS1/PS2/PS3/PS4's launch years, PS5's launch year will see a huge profit of $2.86B thanks to :

• the big PlayStation Store Revenues
• recurrent Services Revenues
• highly-profitable first party games, planned this fiscal year (including TLOU Part II, Ghost of Tsushima and Miles Morales)

Retrospective PlayStation in 2020
(calendar year)​

PlayStation Yearly Revenue & Operating Profit
I added Revenue in USD to give you an idea of what Revenue in JPY mean (therefore if Revenue USD don't follow the same growth than Revenue JPY, it's because of exchange rates)

• 2020 is now the biggest year ever for PlayStationwith over :
  • $23.30B in Revenue (+22.1% YoY)
  • $3.04B in Op. Profit (+26.9% YoY)

Revenue Breakdown in 2020

• Hardware Revenue saw an increase of +8.0% YoY, last time it increased was in 2015
• Physical Revenue increased +10% YoY
• Digital Software and Add-on Revenue (PS Store) reached an all-time high of $12.86B (+35.7% YoY)
• Services Revenue reached an all-time high of $3.46B (+6.1% YoY)
• Others Revenue (PSVR, DualSense...) reached $1.56B (+16.2% YoY), the highest since 2017 (no data before)

Here is the Hardware Revenue, 2019 vs 2020

• You can see the impact of PS5 on these hardware revenues
• As mentioned earlier, PS5 makes Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec 20) the 2nd biggest Quarterly Hardware Revenue ever for PlayStation

Now, this is the Network Revenue, 2019 vs 2020

• You can see the impact of the pandemic/lockdowns on PlayStation Network spending throughout the year
• Q1 FY20 (April-June) is now the biggest Q1 Network Revenue, even surpassing any Q3 Network Revenue (except Q3 FY20)
• Q2 FY20 (July-Sept) is now the biggest Q2 Network Revenue
• Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec) is now the biggest Quarterly Network Revenue ever recorded on PSN

PS4 Yearly Hardware & Software Sell-in by Calendar Year

• PS4 set a new yearly software sales record for the industry with more than 330m games sold in 2020
  • Previous record was PS4 2018 with 285m games sold
  • In 2020, more than 10.68 PS4 games were sold each second on average in the world (= 922 000 games sold each day)
• For the first time, PS4 sold over 200m digital games in a single year
  • Each second, more than 7.01 PS4 digital games were sold on average through PS Store in 2020 (= 606 000 each day)

Top 10 and Top 15 Highest Yearly Software Sales

• PS4 2020 reached the #1 spot with over 330m games sold

PlayStation Network generated an all-time high Revenue with over $16.33B in 2020 (+28.1% YoY) thanks to :

• PlayStation Store ($12.86B ; +35.7% YoY) through Games and Add-on content (MTX, DLC, etc...) purchases
• PS Services ($3.46B ; +6.1% YoY) with PS+ and PS Now

In 2020 :

• 110 million active users each spent ~ $116.94 on average on the PlayStation Store*
• about 50m PS+/PS Now subscribers spent ~ $5.88/month on average ($70.54/year)**

*calculated by the following formula : "Yearly Total Spending on PS Store" / "MAU at the end of the year"
**calculated by the following formula : "Yearly Services Revenue" / "Amount of PS+ & PS Now subscribers at the end of the year"









Below are the Yearly Hardware Sales and Yearly Software Sales on PlayStation consoles since 1994 by Fiscal Year

• Q4 FY20 data (Jan-March 2021) are missing but it's the PS5 launch so I show you these graphs anyway

Summary of PS4​

Previous threads :
Q2 FY20, Q1 F2020
FY2019, Q3 FY2019, Q2 FY2019, Q1 FY2019
FY2018, Q3 FY2018, Q2 FY2018, Q1 FY2018

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Great work ArmGunar

 

[salromano]

114.9? Shouldn't it be 115? Last report was 113.6.

 

[ArchLector]

Amazing work and analysis as always, ArmGunar !

 

[SinCityAssassin]

4.5 million surpasses 4.5 million?

 

[Jawbreaker]

Amazing start. Stock production can't ramp up soon enough.

 

[vivftp]

Great thread ArmGunar , appreciate your hard work.

Amazing results for PlayStation

 

[Procheno]

Hate how they never report actual software sales

Like how much has TLOU2, GoT, Horizon, SM:MM, Dreams, etc sold?

 

[CaviarMeths]

PS4 moving 1.4m this holiday seems to suggest to me that the transition to PS5 will be pretty rapid. PS5 was completely sold out, and rather than buy a PS4 instead, consumers either bought something else or held onto their money to wait for PS5 restock. The next-gen transition will probably happen as fast as supply for PS5 can keep up.

 

[Zalman]

Hate how they never report actual software sales

Like how much has TLOU2, GoT, Horizon, SM:MM, Dreams, etc sold?

Click to shrink...

I'm curious about this too. Nintendo spoils us with their software data.

 

[criteriondog]

Sony keeps on killing it. They know what they're doing.

 

[bes.gen]

don't even want to calculate how much i spent on ps store in 2020, I'll get depressed

 

[SinCityAssassin]

I'm curious about this too. Nintendo spoils us with their software data.

Click to shrink...

Capcom and Nintendo are outliers in the industry where catalogue and new release totals are talked about. For a lot of companies its much more preferrable to talk about wholesale revenue. Especially with the rapidly growing digital profit margins.

 

[ArchLector]

Hate how they never report actual software sales

Like how much has TLOU2, GoT, Horizon, SM:MM, Dreams, etc sold?

Click to shrink...

Because game sales are only a part of Sony's corporate revenue they don't have to report those to the shareholders. So they use sales numbers for positive PR push only. Same reason MS does not have to reveal sales.

 

[Deleted member 864]

Amazing results overall.

Great work as always ArmGunar. :)

 

[Jawbreaker]

4.5m happy Astro Bots have found a home.

 

[nolifebr]

Sony is selling the PS5 hardware at a loss. I bet it may take some months to decrease the price of those parts.

 

[cw_sasuke]

PS4 moving 1.4m this holiday seems to suggest to me that the transition to PS5 will be pretty rapid. PS5 was completely sold out, and rather than buy a PS4 instead, consumers either bought something else or held onto their money to wait for PS5 restock. The next-gen transition will probably happen as fast as supply for PS5 can keep up.

Click to shrink...

PS4 system were rare at some places as well...also these customer could go ahead and buy MS or Nintendo systems as well.
I think Sony is gonna sell as much as they can ship for all of 2021, but i dont think the low PS4 numbers is saying alot...the system already sold alot and in that mainstream market its competing with alot of other systems.

Hate how they never report actual software sales

Like how much has TLOU2, GoT, Horizon, SM:MM, Dreams, etc sold?

Click to shrink...

These are only used for positive PR, if needed.
Nintendo is the only plattform holder that provides software numbers of all of their titles as long as they are million sellers, so thats pretty much most of their Switch games.

 

[Deleted member 15973]

Does this mean PS Now is at 3 millionish subscribers?

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Sony is selling the PS5 hardware at a loss. I bet it may take some months to decrease the price of those parts.

Click to shrink...

I'm somewhat surprised the standard model is also a loss leader.

 

[Penny Royal]

Awesome work as ever ArmGunar.

Well I think we can be certain that had Sony been able to secure more stock for the 1.5m covered in this report, they would have sold them. PS5>5 transition seemingly will be as rapid as Sony can build and ship consoles.

Another amazing quarter, and assuming they can at least maintain stock supplies into Q4 G&NS will have another record year.

I'd be interested to know if the below-cost applied to both models or just the DE.

 

[Welfare]

Wonder where the posters will be that must assume Sony only produced 4.5M because that's what they expected to sell.

Sell through data in multiple regions pointed to PS5 at best matching PS4 launch quarter, which is what happened. It should track closely with PS4.

And speaking of PS4, that is now dead. RIP 120M

 

[CaviarMeths]

PS4 system were rare at some places as well...also these customer could go ahead and buy MS or Nintendo systems as well.
I think Sony is gonna sell as much as they can ship for all of 2021, but i dont think the low PS4 numbers is saying alot...the system already sold alot and in that mainstream market its competing with alot of other systems.

Click to shrink...

I... agree? I'm confused. I'm saying the PS4 seems to be winding down pretty quickly as consumers are either buying competing products or waiting for PS5. I think the next-gen transition is going to be pretty fast, much like PS3 -> PS4 was.

 

[Deleted member 15973]

Why aren't they dropping the PS4 price? It's still the same price for 4 years after it's first price drop while the PS4 Pro is still $399.

 

[dom]

It wasn't that long ago it felt like the PS4 should have crossed 120m. Really fell off a cliff. Covid and being a new console launch really messed that up. While Covid would have brought larger demand, the cost to manufacture is just not worth when you can use those resources with making PS5s.

 

[vivftp]

Why aren't they dropping the PS4 price? It's still the same price for 4 years after it's first price drop while the PS4 Pro is still $399.

Click to shrink...

Still room for a PS4 super slim to make an appearance maybe later this year if they want to offer a budget option. Only time will tell if that happens or if they'll phase out the PS4 sooner than expected to go all in on the PS5.

 

[Norsuchamp]

I guess Jim Ryan was telling the truth after all. Biggest console launch ever.

Amazing numbers but the fact that they are selling every unit with loss takes the sweetest cherries off from the cake. I don't even like cherries.

 

[KastuśKalinoŭski]

Why aren't they dropping the PS4 price? It's still the same price for 4 years after it's first price drop while the PS4 Pro is still $399.

Click to shrink...

they're just making money instead

as for audience growth, there's PS5 for that

 

[Decarb]

Playstation $22.7B annual revenue, what?
PSN $16.5B annual revenue, what what?

 

[Welfare]

Still room for a PS4 super slim to make an appearance maybe later this year if they want to offer a budget option. Only time will tell if that happens or if they'll phase out the PS4 sooner than expected to go all in on the PS5.

Click to shrink...

Super slim would have happened in 2019 if they planned for it.

7nm is too expensive and in short supply which is needed for new gen.

 

[g-m1n1]

Good job as always ArmGunar

MASSIVE results.

Sony killed the PS4 quickly, it had so many potential at 149-199€... 2 years agoI was expecting 130mil sales. Now if it reaches 120mil would already be great....

 

[Deleted member 1003]

The numbers are clear, it's time for Playstation Home to come back.

 

[cw_sasuke]

I... agree? I'm confused. I'm saying the PS4 seems to be winding down pretty quickly as consumers are either buying competing products or waiting for PS5. I think the next-gen transition is going to be pretty fast, much like PS3 -> PS4 was.

Click to shrink...

Oh i wasnt disagreeing i just think even if the PS4 numbers were higher they would sell all PS5 they are able to ship. Though you are right that the low PS4 shipments make it even more clearer, that people arent really looking into buying a PS4 for the future.

 

[IIFloodyII]

I'm somewhat surprised the standard model is also a loss leader.

Click to shrink...

I'm not, it'd probably be break even range at the best of times, but with everything being in extremely high demand and limited supply + Covid likely jacking up the cost of a lot of other logistics, not really surprised it's a loss leader. I do wonder how significantly so though.