Sony PS4 sales top 35 million after holiday boost
Sony has sold more than 35.9 million units of its PlayStation 4, the Japanese electronics giant said Tuesday, as it touts its dominance over rivals Microsoft and Nintendo in the games console market.
During the holiday season, Sony said it sold 5.7 million units, taking its cumulative tally to 35.9 million. Last time Sony announced PS4 figures was in November, when it said it had sold 30.2 million units.
The Japanese electronics giant also said software sales hit 35 million copies during the holiday period in retail stores and through digital downloads. Sony added that it saw a 60 percent increase in subscribers to PlayStation Plus (PS Plus) at the end of 2015, compared to the same period last year. PS Plus is a subscription service where users can play online with friends and also get access to a free full game every month.
Sony appears to have benefited from the round of price cuts to the PS4 ahead of the holidays as well as a strong upcoming games pipeline in 2016 with upcoming games including "Unchartered 4", the next game in the popular series.
Gaming has been one of Sony's stronger performing business units as areas such as mobile struggle and the company has been quick to release numbers around its success.
In contrast, Microsoft has been very quiet about its Xbox gaming console. There have been no overall sales figures for the Xbox One, the PS4's closest competitor, since November 2013, when Microsoft said it had sold 10 million units. Since then, official figures from Microsoft have been vague.
In its 2015 earnings for the three months to June 30, Microsoft said it had sold 1.4 million Xbox consoles in that quarter. But it did not specify how many were Xbox One devices, or earlier versions of the consoles.
And in the latest earnings release, Microsoft stopped releasing any Xbox unit numbers at all.
Meanwhile, Nintendo's Wii U, which was released in November 2012, a year before the Xbox One and PS4, had sold 10.73 million units as of September 30.