How does this compare to total game sales across the platforms? As you might expect, those peaked during the pandemic at a whopping 338 million copies sold. Things started trending downward after that but have been rebounding over the last couple of years. Sony is now closing in on that pandemic high after nearly 320 million games were sold last year. I expect that it will blow past the previous record after Grand Theft Auto VI drops this fall.
This captures the dual vibes facing many PS5 owners this console generation. While Sony overall has been killing it, that wider platform success has come despite a lack of any real identity for the company’s first-party output over the last couple of years. There have been great games from studios like Team Asobi and Sucker Punch, but nothing that feels quintessential to the PS5 era the way Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima helped define the PS4.
Part of that is incredibly long development times. Where games used to take three to four years to come out, and sequels were even quicker to turnaround, nowadays even games that borrow from their predecessors, like Ghost of Yotei, can take up to five years to make. The other part is a hard pivot to live-service gaming that led to ultimately ill-fated acquisitions and, aside from notable exceptions like Helldivers 2, a lot of stuff people just did not want to play. Will the PS5 benefit from pent-up projects at the end of its lifecycle? Probably. But the bigger question will be whether Sony can sustain that first-party momentum into the PS6 era rather than squander it again.