Record-Breaking PS5 Sales Help Sony Reach Highest Annual Profit Ever

PS5

(Photo: Ahmad Mohammadnejad on Unsplash)

The sales of Sony's flagship PlayStation 5 game system set a new yearly record on Friday, April 28, contributing to the company's record annual operating income for the fiscal year.

Here's how Sony fared in the March quarter compared to analyst predictions:

Sales came up at 3.06 trillion Japanese yen ($22.7 billion), compared to the 2.92 trillion yen ($21.5 billion) forecasted by Refinitiv. That is a boost of 35% compared to the previous year.
Earnings from operations came in at 128.5 billion Japanese yen ($944 million), above Refinitiv estimates of 124.34 billion yen ($914 million). Compared to the previous year, it is a decrease of 7%.

CNBC is the first to publish these comparative data sets.

Sony predicted an operating profit of 1.18 trillion yen ($8.67 billion) and sales of 11.5 trillion yen ($84.6 billion) for the entire fiscal year that ended in March. Operating profit of 1.21 trillion yen ($8.90 billion) was a record for the corporation, surpassing even the company's own projections.

PS5 Sales Set New Benchmark

Sony reported 19.1 million PS5 sales for the fiscal year, above the company's own 18 million-unit sales projection. That is a significant increase over the previous fiscal year when Sony was dealing with supply chain hurdles and only managed to provide 11.5 million PS5 gadgets.

One of the major contributors to the Japanese giant's annual earnings was its gaming section, which earned 250 billion yen ($1.84 billion) in operational profit, a 27% decrease from the previous year.

With a 33% increase in income from the previous fiscal year, Sony's game business earned 3.64 trillion yen ($27 billion) for the year. The business sector was Sony's most lucrative market.

Sony expects its game division to generate 270 billion yen ($1.99 billion) in operating profit during the current fiscal year. The corporation anticipates that sales of the PlayStation VR 2 virtual reality gaming gear will contribute to the company's bottom line. Next year, the firm expects hardware to contribute more to its profitability.

Sony has said that it expects to sell 25 million PS5 consoles in the current fiscal year. This would set a new standard for the PS5 if accomplished.

The firm's products compete with those of Nintendo's Switch and Microsoft's Xbox.

Profits Soar Thanks to Chips and Music

Sony offers image sensor chips, which are used in many cameras and smartphones. In the fiscal year that concluded on March 31, its image sensor division reportedly posted a profit of 212.2 billion yen ($1.57 billion), up 36% over the previous year.

However, the company forecasts a 5.7% drop in operating profit for the division in the current fiscal year as a result of a decline in demand for its image sensors, particularly from Chinese smartphone manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the music division's profit increased by 24.7% year-on-year to 263.1 billion yen ($1.93) billion in the fiscal year ending March 31. The division's roster of artists includes Beyoncé and Adele.