Sony Reports Strong PlayStation Growth in Q1 FY25
- Sagar Mankar
- Aug 8
- 3 min read
Sony has published its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (ending June 30), showing notable year-on-year growth for its Games & Network Services (G&NS) division — including an 8% rise in sales income and a substantial 127% jump in operating income.
Solid Numbers Across the Board
During the three-month period, Sony’s overall sales income reached ¥2.62 trillion ($17.8 billion), up 2% year-on-year, while operating income hit ¥340 billion ($2.3 billion) — a 36% YoY rise, calculated before the newly introduced U.S. tariff impact.
In the Games & Network Services segment specifically, sales income was ¥937 billion ($6.4 billion), marking an 8% increase from Q1 FY24.
Even more impressive was the operating income at ¥148 billion ($1 billion), more than doubling with a 127% rise compared to the previous year.
Much of this boost came from higher software and network service sales, alongside foreign exchange rate benefits.
Game software sales jumped 11% while PlayStation Plus and other services rose 8.3%. Hardware sales, including the PlayStation 5, saw a smaller but steady 4.7% increase.
PS5 Crosses 80 Million Units Shipped
One of the most significant updates in the report is that PlayStation 5 has now shipped over 80.3 million units globally since its launch in late 2020. For Q1 FY25 alone, 2.5 million PS5 units were shipped, slightly up from 2.4 million in the same period last year.
Sony also revealed that software sales across PS5 and PS4 combined hit 65.9 million units for the quarter, up from 53.6 million YoY. First-party titles accounted for 6.9 million units, and digital purchases continued to dominate, representing 83% of all software sales, up 3% YoY.
Player Engagement at All-Time Highs
User engagement remained strong, with monthly active PlayStation Network users climbing to 123 million, a 6% increase from 116 million last year. Sony highlighted that both active user count and total gameplay hours grew by 6% YoY, signaling healthy player retention and content engagement.
According to the report, a large part of this engagement was driven by new releases and remastered titles, including Oblivion Remastered, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, and Forza Horizon 5, which launched on PlayStation this quarter.
Top Performers and First-Party Milestones
Sony confirmed that God of War remains the top-selling first-party title, having sold 23 million copies across PlayStation and PC. Horizon Zero Dawn isn’t far behind, sitting at 20 million units sold.
Third-party titles are also thriving, with a 22.9% YoY increase, while first-party software saw a solid 15% growth. Add-on content sales went up slightly by 0.6%, although "other software" categories saw a 23.5% drop.
Tariff Impact and Future Outlook
While the numbers look solid, Sony is also bracing for changes. The company now includes a new metric in its report — “operating income before and after tariff impact” — as it begins to assess the consequences of revised U.S. trade policies announced in early August.
A note in the report cautions that the actual impact could shift depending on further policy changes, as the U.S. remains Sony’s largest geographical market, accounting for 34% of all Q1 sales.
Despite this looming challenge, Sony remains optimistic. The company has upwardly revised its full-year operating income forecast, driven by strong software performance and consistent player engagement.
However, it did acknowledge that a delay in the launch of an upcoming first-party title — likely Bungie’s Marathon — could slightly affect the pacing of future quarters.
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