Sony PS5 sales fall off a cliff amid memory shortages

Source: Engadget

Sales Decline

Amid a memory shortage that forced Sony to raise PS5 prices twice in less than a year, the company sold just 1.5 million PS5 units in its fourth fiscal quarter, down 46 % from the year before. The outlook for the gaming division next year is also gloomy, with revenue forecast to fall six percent to $1.69 billion.

Financial Overview

Overall, Sony’s gaming division revenue was slightly up for the full fiscal 2025 year, reaching 4.69 trillion yen ($29.9 billion) versus 4.67 trillion yen ($29.8 billion) the prior year. Operating income rose 12 % to 463.3 billion yen ($2.95 billion), helped by increased PlayStation Network sales.

Some of the revenue and profit issues stemmed from impairment losses related to Bungie’s Destiny 2 due to its poor sales. Excluding those charges, and with the expected blockbuster launch of Grand Theft Auto VI in November, Sony anticipates a 30 % boost in profits for the next fiscal year despite the revenue dip.

Future Outlook

Sony’s forecasts hinge on securing sufficient memory. The company stated, “We plan to base our PS5 hardware sales in FY26 on the volume of memory we can procure at reasonable prices and we expect hardware profitability to be essentially the same as FY25.” In its previous earnings report, Sony revealed that it had secured the minimum memory needed for the 2026 holiday season.

For consumers, the situation is less reassuring. A standard PS5 now costs $650 after the March 2026 price hike—$150 more than a year ago—for a console that is nearly six years old and approaching the end of its lifecycle. Nintendo faced a similar challenge with its aging Switch console, but the June 2025 launch of the Switch 2 dramatically reversed its fortunes, becoming the fastest‑selling Nintendo console ever.