PS5 is less than 3 million short of 100 million as Sony says its next console is on schedule

Sony shipped 2.6 million PS5 consoles in the July-to-September quarter of 2026, down from 4 million a year earlier, according to PlayStation's business data. Those are units delivered to retailers and distributors, not consoles already in players' hands, and the drop works out to 35%. Sony puts lifetime shipments at "more than 97 million," which leaves the PS5 less than 3 million short of 100 million. Our own tally of Sony's rounded quarterly figures comes to about 97.9 million.

PlayStation still made more money. The division's operating income, its profit before interest and taxes, rose 83% year over year to 220.1 billion yen, roughly $1.4 billion at the quarter's average rate of 159.3 yen per dollar. On the November 5 earnings call, CFO Lin Tao said development of the next PlayStation platform is on schedule and that Marvel's Wolverine has sold more than 2.4 million copies.

Fewer consoles, more digital sales

Hardware matters less because the business runs on what people buy once they own a console. Sony's quarterly filing with the SEC shows digital software and add-on content bringing in 643.9 billion yen, up from 568.1 billion, while network services, which include PS Plus, grew from 182.7 billion to 218.3 billion.

The 83% jump flatters the comparison. A year ago Sony took a 31.5 billion yen impairment on part of Bungie, the studio behind Destiny and Marathon, plus an 18.3 billion yen correction to development costs. By our math, stripping those out puts last year's profit at about 170.2 billion yen, which makes this year's gain closer to 29%.

For the full year, Sony now expects PlayStation revenue of 4.83 trillion yen, up from the 4.54 trillion it forecast in July, and operating income of 700 billion yen, 40 billion more than before. The one weak spot is its own games, hurt by a change in a release date. The filing doesn't name the title, but on the same call Tao confirmed God of War Laufey has slipped to the first quarter of Sony's next fiscal year, April through June 2027.

What Sony said about PS6 and memory

Sony doesn't use the PS6 name and hasn't announced the console. Asked about its progress, Tao said "the development itself is on schedule," without offering a release window, price or specs.

Sony says RAM, the working memory a console uses while running a game, has become more expensive and that it has offset the higher cost on PS5 through promotions, pricing changes and other cost cuts, so it expects console sales to be as profitable this fiscal year as last year. It didn't spell out which changes. The price move we know about is the April 2 increase, which put the PS5 at $649.99, the Digital Edition at $599.99 and the PS5 Pro at $899.99 in the US, as noted in our console Black Friday guide.

Looking at its next fiscal year, which starts in April 2027, Sony says it has already agreed with suppliers on the amount of memory it needs for the hardware it expects to sell. That covers volume, not price, so it neither confirms nor contradicts leaker KeplerL2's claim that PS6 memory and storage would cost more than $680 per console.

Wolverine tops 2.4 million, and GTA VI counts this year

Marvel's Wolverine launched September 15, and Tao said cumulative sales have passed 2.4 million units. Sony didn't say when it took that count or how many copies were digital. It listed the game as one reason the quarter improved, even though the quarter included only 16 days of Wolverine sales. Our Marvel's Wolverine review scored it 7.5 out of 10.

The other big release Sony expects to feel isn't its own. Tao said GTA VI will already contribute in the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2027, and will keep contributing after that, though it won't be the only driver.