PlayStation 4 just beat Wii and PS1 for all-time sales
Sony, like many other companies, recently released a new quarterly financial report, and in it we received an update on how PlayStation 4 sales are doing. If you've been following the story of the PlayStation 4, then it probably won't be a surprise to learn that sales are still really good. In fact, the console has become the second-best selling home console of all time, sitting behind only the PlayStation 2.Sony reported that the PlayStation 4 has sold 102.8 million consoles as of September 30th, 2019. These are sell-in figures, meaning Sony has shipped a total of 102.8 million units, but regardless of that, it's safe to say that the PlayStation 4 has solidified its spot as one of the best-selling game consoles of all time.
If we expand the scope to include handheld game consoles, then these figures put the PlayStation 4 in the fourth-place spot, behind the PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy. PS4's 102.8 million units is enough to put it slightly ahead of the original PlayStation and the Wii, which are the only other home consoles that have managed to sell more than 100 million units.
Here is a look at cumulative global console shipments for key platforms, launch aligned.
The PS4 surpassed 100m faster than the PS2, Wii and PS1 and is now tracking alongside PS2. Will likely end around 120m+, higher than all home consoles except PS2 which sold just under 160m. pic.twitter.com/IEU4NX93X9
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 30, 2019
According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, the PlayStation 4 crossed the 100 million sales threshold faster than the PS2, Wii, and PS1. That doesn't mean it'll one day beat the PlayStation 2's lifetime sales, though; with the next generation of consoles on the horizon, Ahmad thinks that the PlayStation 4 will wind up selling around 120 million units total, good enough for a solid second-place finish among home consoles but still quite a bit behind the PS2's nearly 160 million sales.
It may be quite some time before we see another console manage to top the PS4's lifetime sales, because exceeding 100 million is a rare thing in the games industry. Though we haven't seen the PlayStation 5 in the flesh yet, Sony is planning to have the console out at some point in late 2020, so it won't be much longer until the PlayStation 4 will be supplanted by new hardware. We'll see where the PS4 manages to land, so stay tuned.