Famitsu Sales: Week 14, 2026 (Mar 30 - Apr 05)

[archbrix]

Louie said:

Otter said:

This is also true. Playstation has been pretty stable the last 3 generations, this is nothing new or dire. PS3 sold 10m, PS4 9m but killed early, PS5 will sell 8.5m but is killed early by economic circumstances.  

If 3rd party games continue to be prioritised and preferred on PlayStation over Switch, the PS6 dual systems should comfortably repeat PS5s numbers and have a less turbulent lifespan.

Just to chime in: Playstation hasn't been stable in Japan, at all. They had huge success with the PSP and moderate success with the Vita. We shouldn't forget that. I know for some reason people like to ignore handheld sales, but in Japan Playstation has declined a lot in popularity over the past decade. The Vita sold over 5 million units in Japan, I think. So they will probably decline by 5-6 million in sales this generation. Which is probably the reason why there are so many rumors of a handheld or hybrid PS6 version. 

Exactly.  Not factoring in handhelds when defining stability for Japan certainly won't give you accurate results.  Going from a home console userbase of 23m with the PS2 to 10.4m with the PS3 was offset by Sony adapting to the market with a handheld, resulting in a fantastic performance for Playstation during Gen 7.  Now in Gen 9, not only will the PS5 finish about a million behind the PS4 but there is no handheld at all to fall back on:

Gen 6 - 23m+ (PS2)

Gen 7 - 30m+ (PS3 + PSP)

Gen 8 - 15m+ (PS4 + PSV)

Gen 9 - 8.5m or so (PS5)

Sony absolutely needs a handheld or hybrid unit if it ever hopes to get back to that 15m+ userbase in Japan.