The best-selling console for the final week of January was the PS5, which continues to be the console of choice for Japanese gamers.
According to the most recent sales statistics, PS5 continued to rule the console market last week in Japan, where it was the best-selling console overall. Since the PS5 console’s release in November 2020, there has been a persistent problem with availability, with many fans unable to obtain the eagerly anticipated gadget. A number of things, including production and assembly issues with hardware component limitations, can be blamed for this scarcity. The COVID-19 pandemic has also posed a number of difficulties for the shipping sector, which has made the PS5 shortage even more acute.
Jim Ryan, the CEO of PlayStation, spoke about the PS5 shortages in a video call at the PlayStation Partner Awards in December 2022. He apologized to the customers for the inconvenience and assured them that all supply problems had been fixed. Customers in Japan and Asia will be able to purchase their PS5 units during the year-end shopping season and into 2023, Ryan specifically mentioned.
Sales of the PS5 have increased in Japan as a result of the gradual improvement in supply issues. Famitsu reports that with a total of 62,908 units sold during the week ending January 29, 2023, the PS5 was the most popular gaming console in Japan. This number exceeded the Nintendo console’s sales, which over the same time period sold 51,108 units. Less than 10,000 copies of the PS5’s digital edition were sold, falling short of expectations. Compared to this, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S sold only slightly more than 1,200 units during the same time period.
Units sold:PS5 – 62,908Switch – 51,108Xbox Series – 1,265PS4 – 1,061 pic.twitter.com/WY2ocHwOWI
— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) February 2, 2023
Nintendo’s sales numbers have frequently overshadowed the long history of PlayStation console success in Japan. Nintendo Switch games like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Splatoon 3, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have dominated software sales in Japan over the past few months. Despite this, the fact that the PS5 outsold Nintendo in Japan suggests that Sony’s hardware is growing in popularity.
In 2020, the video game industry expanded significantly as a result of lockdowns and stay-at-home policies. Even with the relaxation of restrictions, Sony has not displayed any signs of slowing down. Nearly $10 billion was made by Sony’s Game and Network Services division in 2022, a 53% YoY increase. Additionally, Sony sold over 7 million PlayStation 5 units over the holiday season, an 82% increase from the previous quarter. Since its release, Sony has reportedly sold 32 million PS5 units, with 25% of those sales occurring in the most recent fiscal quarter. Sony needs to sell an additional 5 million units by the end of March 2023 in order to meet its sales targets.
Source: Rahman Shaukat
