While the PS5 itself continued to stand the test of time as the best-selling console in January, veteran analyst and Circana games lead Mat Piscatella says Sony isn't managing to sell as many units of the PS5 Pro as it did the PS4's version.
Upon launching this past November, the PlayStation 5 Pro sold quite well (along with its disc drive, which scalpers tried to upsell post-release). It seems that this initial success didn't last all that long, however, according to Piscatella's recent thread on BlueSky. The analyst begins by posting US video game market highlights from January, including top-selling titles and hardware platforms – which the standard PlayStation 5 led in sales.
Compared to last year's January, this year's first month saw far fewer sales in the US overall. "January video game hardware spending dropped 45% when compared to a year ago, to $205 million," writes Piscatella. "This is the lowest January total for video game hardware spending since the $131 million reached in January 2020. Double-digit percentage declines compared to a year ago were seen across all major console platforms."
The PlayStation 5, despite being "once again the best-selling hardware platform of the month across both units and dollars" in the US in January, saw its sales dip "by 38% year-on-year, with Xbox Series declining by 50% and Switch 53%." When asked about how the PS5 Pro in particular "is tracking" in comparison to how the PS4 Pro did three months into its availability on the market, Piscatella confirms that it has "fallen behind."
He states that the "PS5 Pro has fallen behind [the] PS4 Pro's pace," but doesn't specify any other sales figures for either of Sony's PlayStation Pro platforms. It's not all that surprising to read, considering the upgraded console's divisive $700 price tag, but there's still no telling what sort of ups and downs the PS5 Pro might have in the future – or how and when its successor, the potential so-called PlayStation 6, will materialize.
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