Credit: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
- Sony PlayStation 5 sales have set a new record in the United States for units sold in the first five months.
- This news comes from respected third-party retail analyst NPD. It did not divulge specific sales numbers.
- Despite millions of consoles sold, there are still a lot of people out there who want to buy it but simply can’t find one.
The Sony PlayStation 5 is probably one of the hottest items on the market right now. At the end of 2020, the console was so difficult to get that an entire black market industry began in which scalpers could easily sell one for four times its list price.
With that in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that PlayStation 5 sales just set a new record. According to this Twitter thread from a noted NPD analyst (h/t ArsTechnica), Sony moved more units of the PS5 in the United States during its first five months than any other console in history. This new record comes in tandem with a previous record, which saw the PS5 become the fastest-selling console in total dollar sales.
Related: PS5 buyer’s guide: All you need to know about Sony’s PlayStation 5
NPD doesn’t usually disclose hard numbers, and it doesn’t here. However, Nintendo claimed to sell 4.8 million units of its Switch console in its first 10 months in “the Americas.” As such, we can extrapolate that Sony has almost certainly sold millions of PS5s.
In other words, the PlayStation 5 is selling like gangbusters. Of course, that probably doesn’t mean much to the hundreds or maybe even thousands of people reading this who are ready to buy a PlayStation 5 but simply can’t find one.
Thanks to the ongoing global chip shortage — as well as an assumed artificial scarcity marketing plan on Sony’s part — buying a PlayStation 5 at its list price is still incredibly difficult.
It will be interesting to see the final tally of PlayStation 5 sales years from now, though. Could this end up topping the PlayStation 2 and become the best-selling console of all time?
