As Christmas nears, it seems that Sony’s PlayStation 5 console shipments to the US in September 2022 were up by 400% compared to last year. David Gibson, a senior analyst at MST Financial, studied the imports to determine how many Sony products were making it to the US. According to him, Sony shipped around 7.5 million kilograms of products to the US in September 2022.
This change adds up to an increase of 400% of the 1.5 million kilograms shipped to the US in September last year. This doesn’t exactly translate to Sony selling 5 times as many PlayStation 5 consoles, as the figure is referring to shipments of all products to the US that were made by Sony, not just consoles.
Gibson also said:
“Lots of reports of improved PS5 supply in the past few months, but no data until now. Import data into the US confirms that Sony Interactive (PlayStation) shipments in Sept were +400% YoY. Yes, you read that right. Some of that will go into inventory for the GoW launch for sure.”
What About Microsoft?
The import figures for Microsoft were also studied by Gibson. He noted an estimated increase of 89% in the supplies of Xbox consoles compared to last year (4.5 million kg compared to 2.5 million in the previous year).
Lots of reports of improved PS5 supply in the past few months, but no data until now. Import data into the US confirms that Sony Interactive (PlayStation) shipments in Sept were +400% YoY. Yes you read that right. Some of that will go into inventory for GoW launch for sure. #PS5 pic.twitter.com/SvC6xTPQxs
— David Gibson (@gibbogame) October 11, 2022
While Sony and Microsoft have seen major improvements in terms of sales, Nintendo’s figures seem to have dropped. With total shipments down by 59% year-on-year. But since Nintendo is also using air freight, these figures are definitely incomplete, since this analysis only refers to sea freights.
Sony’s Increased PlayStation 5 Shipments
The reports from Gibson coincide with those of GamesIndustry.biz’ head Christopher Dring, who tweeted only a week ago that he had gotten reports of Sony having a strong month of September in terms of console availability.
Dring wrote:
“According to my retail sources, PS5 availability worldwide during September was ‘surprisingly good. One source told me it was the best it’s been for over a year. Looking forward to seeing that data.”
A few months ago Sony announced that the retail price of the PlayStation 5 was going up by 12.5% in Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia and North America, but the US was not going to see a price increase. It seems that the price increase has had no negative impact on Sony‘s sales figures at all.
