The PlayStation 5 is nowhere, and yet, the PlayStation 5 is everywhere. Sony has sold 7.8 million PS5s since the console officially launched last November, according to a company quarterly earnings call held this morning.
It’s no secret that getting your hands on a PS5 is nearly impossible, in part thanks to a global semiconductor shortage that’s affected production of everything from cars to consoles. Industry analysts believe you might not reasonably be able to pop into your local GameStop and buy a console until later this summer (or beyond).
But, somehow, despite the extraordinary difficulty everyone’s having finding one, the PS5 is selling roughly on pace with the PS4. As VGC points out, the PS4—one of the buzziest, best-selling consoles of all time—sold 200,000 fewer units than the PS5 in its first sixth months of availability.
In today’s call, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said that the company plans to outpace the PS4's second-year figures of 14.8 million consoles, but was clear that the company likely won’t be able to produce more consoles than that, despite stratospheric demand.
You might have a hard time getting a PS5 today, but hopefully availability follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, as these initial sales figures indicate. Time, folks: It’s a flat circle.