Sony's latest quarterly results bring two headline numbers. PlayStation 5 has now shipped 97.9 million units worldwide, putting the console within touching distance of 100 million. Insomniac Games' Marvel's Wolverine has sold more than 2.4 million copies since its September 15 launch. In the same results, Sony said development of its next-generation console is progressing on schedule, and that spending on the new platform ramps up from next fiscal year.
PS5: 2.6 million in the quarter, 97.9 million in total
In the three months to September 30, 2026, Sony shipped 2.6 million PS5 consoles. That is 0.9 million fewer than in the same quarter last year, which is normal for a console now six years into its life. The lifetime total is now 97.9 million. At this pace PS5 should pass 100 million during the holiday quarter, and that quarter also brings the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, which Sony itself names as a driver for the period.
Software sold better than hardware. Across PS5 and PS4, Sony sold 88.2 million games in the quarter, up 7.9 million year on year. First-party titles made up 8.2 million of those, an increase of 1.9 million, helped by Wolverine landing halfway through September. Full-game digital downloads were 78 percent of all software sold, six points higher than a year ago.
The player base also grew. PlayStation Network reached 127 million monthly active users in September, 8 million more than a year earlier and a record for that month. For the Game & Network Services segment overall, sales rose 9 percent year on year and operating income rose 89 percent.
Marvel's Wolverine passes 2.4 million
Sony gave Wolverine's sales as of November 4: more than 2.4 million copies, in a little over seven weeks on a single platform. Insomniac's earlier Marvel games set a very high bar, so this is not a Spider-Man-scale opening. Still, it is a solid start for an M-rated, PS5-only action game about a character who had never led a big-budget console game of his own.
Wolverine also led Sony's hardware push this autumn, with limited-edition consoles and accessories released alongside the game. The way first-party unit sales rose in the quarter suggests the timing worked: the quarter covered only about two weeks of Wolverine sales, and first-party software still rose by nearly two million units.
PS6 is "progressing as scheduled"
Sony did not give a date, but it was more direct than usual about its next console. Development of the next-generation platform is progressing as planned. Chief financial officer Lin Tao said Sony intends "to make solid progress in preparing for the next-generation platform," and that "from next fiscal year onward, there will be investment in the new platform." Sony's next fiscal year starts in April 2027. On timing, Tao said only that Sony "will announce that at an appropriate time in the future."
That matches what Sony has said all year. Earlier this year, CEO Hiroki Totoki said the company had not yet fixed a release date for PS6. Sony now confirms that next-generation spending will show up in its accounts from April, but that is a budgeting commitment, not a launch date.
Memory, margins and a raised forecast
Sony also addressed the rising cost of memory chips, which has pushed up prices across PC and console hardware this year. The company says it has secured enough memory to cover its next business year, and it expects hardware profitability to stay roughly level with the previous fiscal year. That suggests the PS5 should not need another sharp price change in the short term.
Sony raised its full-year sales and operating income forecasts for the gaming business. It credits third-party releases, led by GTA VI, along with its own first-party slate and cost improvements. With GTA VI due before the end of the year, Wolverine still selling, and PS5 heading toward 100 million, the holiday quarter is set to be the strongest of the PS5's late life, while work on its successor moves forward in the background.
