Skip to main content

PS5 shortages may be coming to an end soon

Tired of hitting dead ends trying to acquire the coveted PS5 and working against the bots scalping them in the last 18 months? Here’s some news that may give you a sigh of relief: Sony projects that it will sell 18 million consoles worldwide during this fiscal year, which runs through March 31, 2023 — a sign that the shortage of the PS5 may be coming to an end.

During its latest financial briefing on Tuesday, the company said that the PS5 sales forecast is up about 60% from the 11.5 million consoles it sold during the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2022. That projection is also based on the company’s “current visibility into parts procurement,” or its ability to acquire the components needed to build the PS5, which has been hindered by chip shortages and other supply chain issues wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Sony is confident that the shortages of chips and other parts are improving, CFO Hikori Totoki suggested that the projected PS5 sales number is a conservative one. He commented in a briefing call with investors (translated by VGC) that the PS5 stock is still in very short supply, saying that the company originally planned on producing 22.6 million consoles by this point of the system’s life cycle but reduced the target to 18 million due to component constraints. Even then, he believes that may not be enough to meet high consumer demand.

“18 million units is what we feel very comfortable we can get the parts and components for [during FY22],” Totoki said. “We feel that there is little bit higher demand than that, so if the question is if we can meet the demand, I think we’re still short somewhat.”

Sony sold about 2 million PS5 consoles in the first quarter of 2022, and 19 million overall since its release in November 2020. While 18 million consoles is still low in Totoki’s eyes, that’s enough to save PS5 fans the stress of seeing it getting sold out every time retailers announce stock drops, especially as the company prepares for the launch of the revamped PS Plus, which starts rolling out at the end of May.

Editors' Recommendations

Cristina Alexander
Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…
PS Plus Extra subscribers can try two of the month’s biggest PS5 games for free
The main character of Tales of Kenzera: Zau stands with two elemental items.

Both Dave the Diver and Tales of Kenzera: ZAU will launch for PlayStation 5 this month, and both will included in PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra's Game Catalog from day one.

Dave the Diver will be the first to be added, as its PS5 port launches on April 16. Dave the Diver was a surprise hit when it was released for PC in 2023, standing out as a charming game where players go diving for the seafood they then serve in their sushi restaurant. While it was controversially nominated for best indie at The Game Awards despite being developed by Nexon studio Mintrocket, it's still a fantastic game and well worth your time when it finally launches on PS5 in a couple of weeks.

Read more
All upcoming PS5 games: 2024 and beyond
Eve kneeling with her sword.

The PlayStation 5 has been out for some time now, and its reception has been mostly positive. It includes lots of quality-of-life improvements over its predecessor, the PlayStation 4, such as faster load times, a solid-state drive (SSD) instead of a regular hard disk drive (HDD), and an improved controller in the form of the new DualSense. However, a console is only as good as the games available on it, and thankfully, the PS5 has you covered on that front as well.

While the machine already has a worthy library of great PS5 games, there are even more to look forward to, with some releasing as soon as this month, while others are still years away. In the video game world, it's not uncommon to be aware of games that are still several years out from release. It's also normal for a new game to be revealed and launched within just a couple of months. In this comprehensive list, we'll go through the major PS5 releases scheduled for 2023 and speculate on future games.

Read more
PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade is getting a free demo later this week
Eve kneeling with her sword.

Shift Up and Sony Interactive Entertainment revealed that a free demo for its upcoming sci-fi action game Stellar Blade will launch this Friday, March 29.

The free demo and its impending release were confirmed on PlayStation Blog this morning after Sony accidentally made the demo available on the PlayStation Store for about 20 minutes earlier this month. At this time, it seems like the demo will remain on the PlayStation Store indefinitely after it's initially released this Friday. As for the contents of the demo itself, Sony and Shift Up say that this is a demo featuring the opening moments of the game.

Read more