Sony’s shipments for the PlayStation 4 suffered a dip in both the final quarter of 2019 and the year as a whole. Given that next-generation platforms are on the horizon, this doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. In 2019, approximately 14.7 million PS4 were shipped; comparatively, Sony shipped 17.7 million throughout 2018. As of December 31, 2019, the console’s total number of shipments amounted to 108.9 million.
A similar pattern is present in the quarterly results for the last three months of 2018 and 2019. Holiday season 2018 saw Sony ship a total of 8.1 million PS4 units. 2019’s final quarter only moved 6.1 million. The PS4 has not seen this slow of a holiday season since its 2013 launch, wherein about 4.5 million units were shipped. Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad posits this downward trend will hit a sharper decline in 2020, unless PS4 receives a price cut at retail.
In a brief thread of tweets, Ahmad broke down Sony’s financial results for the last quarter of 2019 as they relate to PS4 sales. His thread begins with the following Twitter post:
Total sell in for the PlayStation 4 has reached 108.9 million units as of December 31st 2019.
The console shipped 6.1 million units in the final quarter of 2019, down from 8.1 million units last year. Now approaching end of lifecycle. pic.twitter.com/DlkBj8PuHU
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 4, 2020
Such a decline additionally affected revenue for Sony’s PlayStation arm during last year’s final quarter. The division suffered a 20 percent drop in revenue, bringing in 158.5 billion yen, which translates to $1.46 billion USD. According to The Verge, Sony attributes the decline in revenue to lower hardware and third-party game sales.
Sony is still keeping details about the PlayStation 5 under wraps. Some bits of information, such as the price, remain secret as Sony seemingly awaits news from the competition. Regardless of how and when news surfaces, the PS5 is still on track to release this holiday season.
