adminThe PS5 sales decline during the holiday period coincided with lower hardware revenue for Sony’s Game & Network Services (G&NS) business. However, digital game and add-on sales increased, monthly active users reached a new high, and Sony raised its full-year revenue outlook for the segment. Here are the key figures for the nine months ended December 31, 2025, and the third quarter.
PS5 sales decline and Sony’s financial results
Sony reported a 21% increase in operating income across the company for the nine months ended December 31, 2025. Its G&NS segment also recorded higher operating income, up 27% to ¥409.1 billion ($2.6 billion), even as hardware sales weakened.
- Sony sales: ¥9.4 trillion ($59.8 billion), up 2.3%.
- Sony operating income: ¥1.3 trillion ($8.2 billion), up 21%.
- G&NS sales: ¥3.66 trillion ($23.2 billion), up 1.3%.
- G&NS operating income: ¥409.1 billion ($2.6 billion), up 27%.
These figures cover nine months, while the hardware and software comparisons below focus on the three months ended December 31, 2025. Keeping the reporting periods separate helps explain why full-period segment sales and quarterly results can move in different directions.
PS5 hardware shipments and revenue
Sony shipped 8 million PS5 consoles during the holiday quarter, compared with 9.5 million by the end of the corresponding quarter in December 2024. That represents a 15.7% decrease in unit shipments.
For the full nine-month period, PS5 shipments reached 14.4 million units, down from 15.7 million in the same period a year earlier. Hardware sales for those nine months were ¥1.18 trillion ($7.5 billion), an 8.5% year-on-year decline.
In the third quarter alone, hardware sales fell 15.1% to ¥614.8 billion ($3.9 billion). Sony attributed the decrease to lower unit sales. For readers comparing console performance, shipment numbers and hardware revenue are related but not interchangeable: revenue also reflects the value of the hardware sold during the period.
Full game sales, Ghost of Yōtei, and monthly users
Full game sales totaled 97.2 million units in the three months ended December 31, 2025, compared with 95.9 million in the same quarter last year. First-party titles accounted for 13.2 million units, up from 11.6 million.
The biggest first-party release in the period was Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Yōtei. The game had sold 3.3 million copies since launching on October 2, 2025.
Monthly active users rose to 132 million by the end of the third quarter, compared with 129 million in December 2024. Sony described this as a record number of accounts and said total gameplay hours increased year on year. Monthly active users offer a broader view of engagement than console shipments alone, although the figures do not indicate how many games each account purchased.
Digital sales and Sony’s updated outlook
G&NS sales decreased 4.1% in the third quarter to ¥1.61 trillion ($10.2 billion). Within the segment, digital game and add-on content sales increased 6% to ¥761.5 billion ($4.8 billion), which Sony linked to higher first-party game revenue. Network services revenue also grew, rising 12.6% year on year to ¥199.2 billion ($1.2 billion).
Sony raised its full-year G&NS revenue outlook to ¥4.6 trillion ($29.2 billion), up from its previous guidance of ¥4.4 trillion. The updated forecast indicates that the company expects segment revenue to finish above its earlier estimate, despite the quarter’s lower hardware sales.
What the PS5 sales decline means
The reported PS5 sales decline reflects fewer console shipments during the holiday quarter and lower hardware revenue, while full game sales, digital content, and monthly active users increased. The results therefore show different trends across Sony’s games business rather than a uniform decline. When assessing future performance, watch for subsequent shipment figures alongside software sales and network services revenue to see whether growth beyond hardware continues.
