Sony has announced the PlayStation 4's exact lifetime sales as of March, with the console selling 22.3 million units according to the latest financial report.
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That number is impressive, keeping it comfortably ahead of Microsoft's Xbox One with a steady rate of growth. The year's financial report shows that the PS4 moved 14.8 million of those during the last financial year ending March 31, 2015.
Sony has been struggling as a whole in recent fiscal years despite strong performances from its consoles and software. That trend continues, with its gaming division coming in as the biggest earner. Sony's overall performance has seen a positive reversal, though--gone is the $78 million loss from last year, replaced this time with a $401 million operating income. The other sectors of Sony's business have turned around (the company shed its computer component), but the dragging mobile department needs to be addressed. Despite the turn around in multiple areas, Sony still posted a massive loss as expected--the company reports a $1.05 billion loss, overall (with the troubled mobile department a major contributor, losing $1.8 billion).
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Compared to Microsoft's recent report about Xbox sales, Sony and PlayStation look to be in great shape. Microsoft reported a slowdown in console sales compared to the same time last year, though they didn't distinguish between Xbox One and Xbox 360 numbers, making it difficult to make a sure judgement on the new console's performance. Still, given that the Xbox One was already trailing PS4 (it only sold more for about three months, which included price cuts and the holidays) and Microsoft enacted a permanent price drop, the company will likely be disappointed. It's worth noting that the Xbox can succeed without leading the market in sales--the two consoles compete, but can be individually successful, as well. We'll see how sale shake out over the beginning of the next fiscal year for both companies.
