Sony’s initial production estimates for the PlayStation 5 had the company shipping at least 10 million units during the holiday rush. Reports came out in September that indicated production had been cut by around 4 million units, sparking rumors of a shortage. Sony insisted it was on track and that those rumors were unfounded.
Famitsu notes that Japanese retail outlets have only moved 118,000 PlayStation 5 units in its first four days from launch. The only Japanese launch worse than the PS5 was the PS3, which managed less than 100,000 at launch. For reference, Sony sold over a million PlayStation 4 consoles within 24 hours in the US, and the PS2 sold more than 500,000 units on day one.
People are getting top dollar for the high demand item on third-party selling sites like eBay. There are pages upon pages of PS5 auctions on eBay fetching nearly $1,000 per unit regardless of whether it is the standard or digital version. One digital version closed for $2,025. So the demand seems to be there.
There are reports have suggested that Sony reserved the vast majority of PS5 stock for the US and EU markets because of waning interest in Japan. If this is the case, and Sony’s claims of 10 million units before year-end are true, global sales could already be over a million, but that is speculative at best.
