PlayStation 5 unit sales declined over the holiday season, with third-quarter hardware revenue decreasing by 15% to $3.9 billion
Over the nine months that ended on December 31, 2025, Sony disclosed a 21% surge in its operating income, signaling overall growth.
The company's Game & Network Services division notably experienced a 27% rise in operating income, reaching ¥409.1 billion, equivalent to $2.6 billion.
Despite these gains, the sales of PlayStation 5 units saw a decrease of 15.7%, impacting Sony's hardware revenue negatively.
Key details include:
Statistics
Data for the nine months up to December 31, 2025
- Total Revenue: ¥9.4 trillion, or $59.8 billion, marking a 2.3% increase
- Operating Earnings: ¥1.3 trillion, translating to $8.2 billion, a 21% growth
Game & Network Services
- Total Sales: ¥3.66 trillion, or $23.2 billion, up by 1.3%
- Operating Earnings: ¥409.1 billion, or $2.6 billion, a rise of 27%
Noteworthy Points
During the recent holiday season, Sony shipped 8 million PlayStation 5 units, a decline from the previous year’s 9.5 million units sold by the third quarter's end in December 2024.
For the entire nine-month period, total shipments of the PS5 declined to 14.4 million from last year's 15.7 million within the same timeframe. This decreased hardware sales to ¥1.18 trillion ($7.5 billion), an 8.5% year-over-year reduction.
The sale of full games reached 97.2 million units for the quarter ending December 31, 2025, with 13.2 million being first-party games. This was an increase from the previous year's figures of 95.9 million total game sales and 11.6 million first-party titles.
Among the top first-party launches was Ghost of Yōtei by Sucker Punch Productions, selling 3.3 million units since its release on October 2, 2025.
Moreover, by the close of the third quarter, monthly active users hit a record 132 million, compared to 129 million in December 2024, reflecting an increase in "total gameplay hours year-over-year," according to Sony.
Sales from Games & Network Services fell 4.1% in the third quarter to ¥1.61 trillion ($10.2 billion).
However, digital game sales and add-ons grew 6% to ¥761.5 billion ($4.8 billion) due to enhanced first-party game income.
Despite a 15.1% drop in hardware sales to ¥614.8 billion ($3.9 billion), driven by lower unit sales, Sony saw a 12.6% increase in network services revenue to ¥199.2 billion ($1.2 billion) during Q3.
Looking forward, Sony has adjusted its full-year forecast upwards, now predicting G&NS revenue to hit ¥4.6 trillion ($29.2 billion), a 4% rise from the earlier forecast of ¥4.4 trillion ($27.9 million).