PS5 Pro sales fall behind PS4 Pro in the US as console sales plummet

Sales for Sony’s upgraded PS5 appear to have stumbled after only a few months, as console sales in the US drop across the board. Sony’s PS5 Pro console had a seemingly strong launch in November last year, despite its eye-watering £700 price tag. According to Sony, the mid-generation upgrade was ‘performing slightly stronger’ in terms of pre-orders than the PS4 Pro. Sony hasn’t released separate sales figures for the PS4 Pro, but the company’s new CEO, Hideaki Nishino, recently said it accounted for 20% of overall PlayStation 4 sales, which was last recorded as over 117.2 million, as of March 2022.

It seems the PS5 Pro might not have the same luck, as new data states it has already dropped behind the sales pace of the PS4 Pro after only three months. According to data from market research firm Circana, as shared by analyst Mat Piscatella on Bluesky, the PS5 Pro has ‘fallen behind the PS4 Pro’s pace’ in the US.

In November last year, Piscatella claimed the PS5 Pro ‘had a solid start’ with ‘units in the same ballpark as the PS4 Pro’s launch’. While there are no exact sales figures, it’s worth noting that the PS5 Pro is considerably more expensive than the PS4 Pro, at £700 to £349.

Sales slumped across all console formats in the month of January, which is not traditionally a busy time for the industry. According to the data, video game hardware spending dropped 45% when compared to the same period last year, to $205 million (£162 million). This is said to be the lowest January total for video game hardware spending in the US since 2020 (the last year before the current generation started).

While a drop in sales for the Nintendo Switch is no surprise, given its age, the poor performance of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S explains why Sony and Microsoft are already talking about next gen replacements. PS5 Pro has fallen behind PS4 Pro's pace.Digital SKUs accounted for 49% of PS5 HW units in Jan and 88% of XBS units.

PlayStation 5 hardware spending dropped by 38% year-on-year, Xbox Series X/S dropped by 50%, while the Switch fell by 53% – no doubt due to the announcement of the Switch 2 midway through the month. It’s hard to gauge Sony’s sales expectations for the PS5 Pro, considering the PS4 Pro was similarly positioned as a niche product, but it’s hard to imagine it is too perturbed by the situation.

Earlier this month, the company announced the PlayStation 5 total lifetime sales (including the PS5 Pro) had reached 75 million, just shy of the PlayStation 4’s sales of 76.6 million within the same period. While Sony’s first party line-up for 2025 is weak so far, with only Ghost of Yōtei confirmed for this year, the company is probably banking on GTA 6 to give PlayStation 5 sales a boost, which is on track to launch this autumn.

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