The pandemic has played a key role in generating greater video gaming demand, as people were stuck at home spending more time on video consumption. Those who had a regular income might have also been able to save money because of the lack of other forms of entertainment like movies, theater and travel.
This is just one of the causes that explain incredible numbers for gaming console sales over the last year and a half. In this sense, PlayStation 5 (PS5) is Sony’s fastest-selling games console, after surpassing 10 million sales worldwide. The new console reached the figure on July 18th, just under a month faster than the PlayStation 4 managed. Other sales indicators released by Sony include that Spider-Man: Miles Morales has sold over 6.5 million copies since its launch last year, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which was released last month, is already on over 1.1 million units worldwide. Meanwhile, Sony San Diego-developed MLB The Show 21, which was released on non-PlayStation platforms, has surpassed two million sales worldwide. The game actually has more than four million players, and was included in the Xbox Game Pass subscription service of Microsoft.
PS5 has seen double digit growth in terms of engagement, whether that’s monthly users or gameplay time, compared with the launch window of PS4. Industry analysts praised Sony’s ability to overcome the constraints of the pandemic and deliver so much stock into the marketplace. The company’s deep expertise in supply chain management for consumer electronics has enabled it to weather the worst impacts of the pandemic even during the launch of a new product. There was also a continued commercial viability and strength of the global games console market. Other relevant factors include evolving Sony’s subscription offering that drove further scale of that part of its business, and the launch of next-generation PSVR. While no other console supports VR, it remains a nice differentiator for PlayStation.
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In parallel, Microsoft reported its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2021, the final quarter (Q4) of its current financial year. There was a huge jump in gaming revenues driven by hardware sales. Xbox Series X and S are company’s fastest-selling consoles ever.
During this quarter, the firm’s personal computing division -which includes Xbox– saw a 9% increase in revenue up to US$14.1 billion overall. Gaming revenue in particular elevated 11% to US$357 million, primarily driven by an expansion in Xbox hardware. Hardware revenue improved by 172% in Q4, due to a higher volume of Xbox consoles sold than the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, the Xbox content and services subdivision fell 4% to US$128 million. The drop was attributed to “a decline in third-party titles on a strong prior year comparable that benefitted from stay-at-home scenarios.” However, this decay was slightly offset by growth in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions and first-party titles. Besides, millions of people have already used Xbox Cloud Gaming via a mix of desktops, tablets and phones.
Outside of gaming, Microsoft reported overall growth across the company, ending FY21 with a 21% expansion in revenues to US$46.2 billion year-over-year. The company’s commercial cloud revenue also grew 36% to US$19.5 billion year-over-year. For the full financial year, it reported revenues of US$168 billion, an upsurge of 18% year-over-year. Operating income was up 32% to US$69.9 billion, while net income developed by 38% to US$61.3 billion.