The PlayStation 5 just crossed a significant milestone. Sony has revealed that it has sold 10 million PS5 consoles as of July 18th, eight months after the system's November 12th debut. The company considered that no mean feat between the pandemic and ongoing chip shortages that reportedly held sales back. It's now Sony's fastest-selling console to date, outpacing the PS4 by nearly a month.
Sales have slowed down since launch. Sony racked up 4.5 million PS5 sales in 2020, but sold 3.3 million in the first quarter of 2021 — it took another four months to add 2.2 million to the tally. That's not surprising between supply constraints and the usual mid-year slump, but you might not see sales climb until the holidays.
PlayStation chief Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview that it was "too early to tell" which markets were the hottest given widespread demand, but pointed out that China was a pleasant surprise. The company sold out its PS5 launch stock "very, very quickly" despite a local market focused on mobile games and the free-to-play model.
The PS5 doesn't have an easy road ahead. Even if Sony could quickly overcome hardware shortages, it still has a dearth of PS5-exclusive titles outside of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal. The biggest games tend to be enhanced versions of games available for the PS4, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and even upcoming blockbusters like Horizon Forbidden West will have PS4 releases. While demand still appears to be brisk, there might not be much added incentive to buy a PS5 until Gran Turismo 7 and other system exclusives arrive in force.