Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many game publishers have reported significant increases in demand for their products.
PlayStation is the latest company to divulge this information, with the Japanese tech giant reporting 91 million PS4 games were sold in its first quarter of 2020, ending June 30th, 2020. This is a staggering 83 percent increased over the 49.8 million games sold in the same quarter last year.
On the first-party front, PlayStation reported that The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima have been “trending well” during this quarter. The company had previously confirmed that June’s The Last of Us Part II sold four million copies in its first three days, making it the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive to date. Meanwhile, July’s Ghost of Tsushima recently became the PS4’s fastest-selling new first-party IP, selling more than 2.4 million copies in its first three days.
Altogether, 74 percent of PS4 games sold in this quarter were digital. PlayStation’s quarter was further strengthened by its $69.99/year digital PlayStation Plus service, which is required to play games online and offers free games every month. Overall, PlayStation reached 44.9 million PS Plus members last quarter, up from 41.5 million in the previous quarter.
Naturally, console sales continued to drop, with Sony reporting 1.4 million units sold — up 0.5 million units from the previous quarter, but down significantly from the 3.2 million sold in the same quarter last year. This is to be expected, though, as the PlayStation 4 is ostensibly at the end of its lifecycle, given the impending launch of the PlayStation 5. In its earnings report, the company reiterated plans to release the next-gen console sometime this holiday.
That said, Sony will still reveal new games coming to the nearly seven-year-old console in a ‘State of Play’ stream on Thursday, August 6th. The presentation will primarily focus on PlayStation 4 titles, although it will provide some updates on third-party PS5 titles that were shown during its big June reveal event.
Source: Sony
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
