Sony has released its fiscal Q2 results for July to September, revealing new statistics.

According to the company’s official statement, more than 25 million PlayStation 5 units have been shipped to stores as of September 30. In the previous quarter, 3.3 million units were shipped, the same as a year earlier, so there has been no change. PlayStation 4 hardware figures are no longer available from the company, so we can’t rely on an official report (there is a good chance that the figure is less than 100,000 units; the last official figure was exactly 100,000).

Let’s look at the additional data as well. There is a decrease to be reported: there are 45.4 million PlayStation Plus subscribers (no details on how many are Essential, Extra, or Premium…). That sounds like a lot, but the year-ago figure was 47.2 million, so there’s been a 1.8 million drop. Then there is another decline, and that is in terms of game sales. In the previous quarter, 62.5 million PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 games were sold. That’s down 13.9 million from 76.4 million the last year.

Sales of first-party, in-house developed (PlayStation Studios) games also decreased. Out of 62.5 million in the July-September period this year, 6.7 million were in-house developed, compared to 7.6 million out of 76.4 million last year. Finally, there’s a slight change in the proportion of digital game purchases from the PlayStation Network, from 62% last year to 63% this year.

There are reportedly more PlayStation 5 units heading to stores. Still, rumours suggest that the PlayStation 5 Standard Edition and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, which doesn’t have a Blu-ray drive, will be replaced next autumn by a new model that comes with a detachable optical drive, which Sony will sell separately, and that this console will take the place of the current two models… will it be a good idea?

Source: Gematsu