Sony sells more Playstation 5s than before at the end of the year
Sony was able to significantly increase game console sales in the Christmas quarter. The gaming and music segments are growing.
(Image: Shutterstock.com/Tero Vesalainen)
Sony recorded higher sales and profits than expected at the end of 2024 thanks to rising sales of the Playstation 5. In addition to the gaming division, the music division also recorded higher profits, but the film business suffered once again. Despite rising revenue, the operating result for this division continued to decline. Overall, however, Sony is positive about the future and has raised its forecast for the current quarter. The stock market is impressed and the Japanese company's share price continues to rise.
Although it is hardly surprising that game console sales are higher in the Christmas quarter than at other times of the year, Sony was able to sell significantly more Playstation 5s in the last three months of 2024 than at the end of 2023. In the previous year, Sony's PS5 sales figures were disappointing at 8.2 million units, but now the conglomerate has increased PS5 sales by 16 percent year-on-year to 9.5 million consoles. This means that a total of 74.9 million Playstation 5s will have been sold by the end of 2024.
Videos by heise
This has a positive impact on the overall result for the fiscal third quarter of Sony's 2024 financial year. In the months from October to December 2024, the Group increased its revenue by 18 percent year-on-year to 4.4 trillion Japanese yen, the equivalent of 27.6 billion euros. At the same time, the operating result grew by 1 percent year-on-year to 469.3 billion yen (2.9 billion euros). According to CNBC, these figures are well above the expectations of analysts, who had forecast sales of 3.77 trillion yen and an operating profit of 404.2 billion yen.
Gaming and music divisions impress
Sony's "Game & Network Services" made the biggest contribution to this result. Thanks to higher PS5 sales and higher demand for games and network services, the gaming division was able to increase its turnover by 16 percent to 1.682 trillion yen (10.5 billion euros) in the last quarter. The operating profit of this division was even 37 percent higher than in the previous year and now stands at 118.1 billion yen (739 million euros).
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier eine externe Umfrage (Opinary GmbH) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (Opinary GmbH) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
Sony's music business is no less successful. In the year-end quarter, Sony Music was able to increase sales by 14 percent to 481.7 billion yen (3.01 billion euros) thanks to higher streaming revenues. The operating result even grew by 28 percent to 97.4 billion yen (609.2 million euros).
Weaknesses in film, photo and finance
In contrast, the film business continues to weaken. Sony's film business already flopped last summer, and this has continued. Although the film division's turnover recently increased by 9 percent to 398.2 billion yen (2.49 billion euros), the operating result fell by 18 percent to 34 billion yen (212.9 million euros). Sony attributes this to higher marketing costs and lower licensing income for TV and streaming series. According to Sony's upcoming CEO Hiroki Totoki, the Hollywood strikes also had an impact and led to the postponement of films in the Spiderman and Jumanji series, writes Variety.
The turnover of Sony's photo division, which supplies camera sensors for smartphones, for example, fell by one percent year-on-year to 500.9 billion yen (3.1 billion euros) and the operating result also fell by 2 percent to 97.5 billion yen (610.8 million euros). Sony attributes this to lower shipments of mobile devices.
Sony's financial services and insurance division was able to increase revenue by a whopping 130 percent year-on-year to 718.5 billion yen (4.5 billion euros), but the operating result fell by 40 percent to 46.4 billion yen (290.9 million euros). The Group blames this on higher expenses for insurance financing.
Positive outlook boosts Sony shares
Nevertheless, Sony is raising its forecast for the current financial year, which ends in March. The Group expects annual sales to be four percent higher than before, and the operating result is now expected to be two percent higher. This obviously goes down well with investors. After Sony's share price had already risen by 5.5 percent during the course of the day, it rose a further 2.4 percent in the after-hours trading.
(fds)
