PS5 is selling faster than PS4 in the US despite years of console shortages

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PS5 is one of the fastest-selling consoles of all time

PS5
(Image credit: Sony)

In the 29 months since PS5 hit the US market, it has now sold more units than the PS4 did over its own first 29 months.

"PlayStation 5 hardware unit sales have now surpassed those of PlayStation 4 on a time-aligned basis (29 months in market)," according to Mat Piscatella of US sales tracking group Circana (formerly known as NPD). PS5 was the best-selling console in terms of both units sold and dollars generated for March 2023, and is also the best-seller for the calendar year so far.

We don't have perfectly aligned charts for how every console had historically sold in its first 29 months, but handily, Piscatella also reported on the 28-month sales leaderboards back in 2019. At the time, Wii, PS2, and PS4, and Switch were the fastest-selling consoles in the US. If PS5 has now surpassed PS4 in 29 months, it's probably outdone Switch, too.

Remember, of course, that these sorts of rankings don't necessarily indicate how a console's going to wind up in its lifetime sales - the Xbox 360 ended up being the second best-selling console in US history despite not being in the 29-month rankings, but this all does indicate that demand for PS5 is strong, even accounting for all the shortages that plagued its first two years on the market.

For a little extra US sales data, Hogwarts Legacy remains the best-selling game of the year so far, trailed by Modern Warfare 2, Resident Evil 4 Remake, MLB: The Show 2023, and the Dead Space remake. Piscatella notes that PS5 is driving the console market, and big games are selling well, despite a relative lack of major releases so far in 2023.

There are plenty of upcoming PS5 games to help fill out your library.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.