The PS5 has had a very successful launch in most markets around the world, with the console breaking records in several regions and being out of stock pretty much everywhere. One country where it hasn’t had the best launch, however, is Japan. That is, of course, partially down to Sony sending limited stocks for Japanese markets, but with more and more reports talking about Sony de-emphasizing the Japanese market in its plans (something that Sony denies), those slowing sales have become quite problematic.
In fact, as per sales data compiled by Famitsu (via ResetEra), in all of 2020, Sony sold less than a million PlayStation consoles in Japan, which combines both PS4 and PS5 sales. That, incidentally, is the first time Sony has sold less than a million PlayStations in Japan throughout a year since 1994, and also represents the fourth consecutive year of decline for yearly PlayStation sales in the region.
Recently, Sony discontinued all but one PS4 models in Japan to free of production pipelines for the PS5, so it remains to be seen how that will affect their hardware sales in the region. You can read more about that through here.
