Here at SG, we often encounter misnomers that are perpetuated across social media relating to the health of specific consoles or companies. Fortunately, the data shows us that the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch are all very healthy platforms and performing well for their respective companies. Of course, this means that the industry itself is healthy and continuing to grow which benefits all of us.
On the Sony side, the PlayStation 4 has surpassed 75 million units sold after selling another 2.5 million units in the 4th quarter of fiscal year 2018 (1st quarter 2018). Software sales were also up with full-software sales of 246.9 million compared to 217.9 million the prior year. These sales helped the Games and Network Services division earn 445 billion Yen (just over 4 billion dollars) which was a 16% increase over the prior year.
Additionally for Sony, PlayStation Plus subscribers increased 23% over the course of the entire fiscal year (from 26.4 million to 34.2 million).
On the Microsoft side, the Xbox division made 2.25 billion dollars in revenue, an 18% increase over the prior quarter. Xbox Live meanwhile had 59 million monthly active players, a 13% increase over the 52 million at this same time period last year.
Even more exciting however, is that the company’s operating expenses related to gaming have increased by 5% over the last quarter which represents a substantial investment into future gaming related projects by Microsoft.
Our Take
We’re really enjoying the state of the industry right now. After reporting the success of the Switch yesterday, it was great to see promising numbers from both Sony and Microsoft today for their respective platforms. The future of the video game industry has never been brighter!
