The PlayStation 5 Hits Huge Sales Milestone Way Ahead of XBox

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced on Wednesday that the PlayStation 5 (PS5) has now surpassed 50 million consoles sold, three years after its November 2020 launch. The milestone is a stark comparison to the Xbox Series X, which was also released in November 2020 and had sold just 21 million units as of July. At that time, the PS5 was on track to hit 50 million with 38.4 units already sold.

The company attributes the momentum over the past year to a slate of highly popular games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from Insomniac Games, Baldur’s Gate 3 from Larian Studios, and Alan Wake 2 from Remedy Entertainment and Epic Games.

The console is just now hitting its stride three years in as developers are taking full advantage of the PS5's advanced technology. Game developers are now able to produce games with "lightning-fast loading, gorgeous environments enhanced with ray tracing, and deepened immersion with the DualSense controller’s innovative haptic feedback and adaptive triggers," Sony states in a press release.

"Achieving this PS5 sales milestone is a testament to the unwavering support of the global PlayStation community and their passion for the incredible experiences created by the talented developers from PlayStation Studios and our partners," said Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. "We’re grateful for all of our players who have joined the PS5 journey so far, and we’re thrilled that this is the first holiday season since launch that we have a full supply of PS5 consoles—so anyone who wants to get one can get one."

PS5 sales are still dwarfed by the Nintendo Switch, which is one of the best-selling video game systems of all time with 132 million lifetime sales.

The PS5 now boats a library of more than 2,500 games, as well as new accessories such as the PlayStation Portal remote player and the Pulse Explore wireless earbuds.