During holiday 2017 season, Sony sold more than 5.9 million PS4 consoles, which brings worldwide PS4 sales up to 73.6 million as of December 31, 2017. In early December, they had just crested the 70 million mark. During that same holiday period, more than 55.9 million PS4 games were sold, accounting for both digital and retail sales. That’s up nearly 10% over last year’s holiday period (50.4 million), and brings the total number of PS4 games sold to over 645 million.
During the 2016 holiday period, PS4 sales reached 6.2 million, but while overall sales for the season might be slightly down, Sony is still reaching impressive numbers with total worldwide PS4 sales. Sony defines the holiday period as the end of November (encompassing Thanksgiving and Black Friday) through the end of the year.
Sony Interactive Entertainment released a statement from President John Kodera about the success PlayStation Plus, the PS Store, and the PlayStation Network.
Thanks to the continued support from our fans across the globe, we are honored to announce remarkable sales during the holiday season. PlayStation Network continues to demonstrate spectacular growth, with the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers surpassing 31.5 million, and PS Store recording its largest-ever monthly sales of content in December 2017. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our community and our partners for helping us achieve such phenomenal milestones. We promise our unwavering commitment to bring more amazing experiences to our fans, including exclusive games and innovative network services, as PS4 continues to flourish as the best place to play.
The PlayStation 3 lifetime sales eclipsed 83 million, but by this time next year, we could very likely see PS4 sales surpassing those of its predecessor.
It’s an exciting time to be a gamer, as Nintendo just announced that the Switch has become the fastest selling console in the US. With so many video game consoles in houses worldwide, it’s clear that interest in interactive entertainment is only increasing, and that’s sure to have great effects on the medium as we move into 2018 and beyond.