George Foreman Grill, sorry… PlayStation 3 is now behind PS5 in US sales. Sony's newest machine achieved this feat in less than five years on sale (PS5 released November 12, 2020).
Dear Circana analyst Mat Piscatella shared some trivia on Blueskynoting that the sales overtaking occurred during the September sales period.
“Fun fact about September 2025 US video game data: PlayStation 5 has now surpassed PlayStation 3 in lifetime installs,” Piscatella wrote. “So that's cool.”
He didn't share numbers – Circana charges for things like this – but mentioned in the replies that PS5 sales are also outpacing PS4 sales in the US “over time” and have been for a “very long time.” “PS5 is ahead of PS4 by 4.6 percent,” he wrote.
As a guide, Sony's business website lists PS4 sales worldwide – more than 113.5 million (as of September 2020), lifetime sales of the PS3 – more than 87.4 million (as of March 2017), and lifetime sales of the PS2 – the company's best-selling machine – more than 160 million (as of March 2012). Given the dates associated with these counts, these numbers have likely changed since then.
Sony announced in its latest financial report in August that PlayStation 5 sold 80.3 million units. total – the pace is about the same as PS4on the same basis, for some time. The next batch of financial results is due to be published on November 11.
However, Sony expects PS5 sales to slow, both because it believes the console has passed its sales peak and, I expect, due to the difficult economic conditions and tariffs facing the market. Prices for this generation of consoles have never been higher.
It's strange to think about planning for the next generation of consoles. But as I recently learned, maybe the role of the console is about to change.
