PS5 Sold Over 2.6 Million Units in Japan in 2023, Highest Sales for PlayStation Since 2004

Data revealed by Famitsu recently revealed that the Nintendo Switch was the highest selling console of 2023 in Japan, but though the PS5 sold just a little more than half of Nintendo’s machine, it still performed better than what Sony platforms have enjoyed in the region in quite a long time.

The PS5 sold over 2.6 million units in Japan over the course of 2023, which not only was an impressive 124% increase over what it managed in 2022 (1.5 million units), but was also the highest total sales a PlayStation machine has seen in Japan in a single year in nearly two decades- more specifically, since the PS2’s 2004 sales total.

A lot of that was undoubtedly thanks to improvements in the PS5’s supply chain after two years of limited availability due to worldwide semiconductor shortages brought about by the Covid pandemic. Software sales for the PS5, however, were fairly low in Japan, especially compared to the Nintendo Switch, with eight out of the top 10 bestsellers being Switch exclusives.

Last month, Sony announced that the PS5 had sold over 50 million units worldwide. The company has previously said it expects to ship a total of 25 million units of the console over the course of fiscal year 2023/24, which ends on March 31. That will be a record number for PlayStation.

Leaks have claimed that Sony will also release a PS5 Pro this September. The console will allegedly make use of Sony’s proprietary supersampling tech, and feature improved performance, 8K support, accelerated ray tracing, and more.