Sony has hit a significant breakthrough sale for PS5 in its home country. According to Famitsu’s sales figures, Sony has sold 2,027,783 PlayStation 5 consoles in Japan. An awe-inspiring feat considering the ongoing console shortage.
Sony has struggled to meet PS5’s demand ever since the console was released in late 2020. A combination of supply chain problems due to the pandemic and scalping worsened the situation. Although the company has shipped more than 21.7 million PS5 units worldwide, some gamers still struggle to find one at a reasonable price.
Famitsu’s sales report also revealed that Japanese gamers still prefer the standard disc drive variant of PS5 over the digital one. Of the more than 2 million PS5s sold in Japan, only 300,000 were digital.
Despite selling more than 2 million units in Japan, PS5 did not perform as well as its predecessors. The latest console took significantly longer to reach the 2 million mark than its previous iterations. PS3 took 73 weeks, and PS4 took 90 weeks to get 2 million units sold in Japan as opposed to PS5’s 101 weeks.
A week in July saw Xbox taking the lead and selling more consoles in Japan despite PlayStation’s global market dominance.
Historically PlayStations have always sold well in Japan. But now, many Japanese gamers can’t get their hands on one due to supply constraints. Many potential customers still need to enroll in a lottery to get a chance to buy the system.
Earlier this month, Insider Gaming shared a rumor that Sony plans to ship more than 30 million consoles in the 2023 fiscal year. The company aims to end the global console shortage by early 2024.
Unlike PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch continues to dominate in Japan. The handheld console sold more than 5 million units in 2021 and a whopping 25 million in 2022. The main reason for Nintendo’s success is the growing interest in mobile gaming and its cheaper price tag. The upcoming Switch-exclusive Breath of the Wild sequel is probably another contributing factor.