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Sony Q1 FY2021 (Apr-June) Results - PS5: 2.3m (LTD: 10.1m), PS4: 0.5m (LTD: 116.4m) / Best Q1 Revenue in video game history

ArmGunar

ArmGunar

PlayStatistician
Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,527
*The US Dollar figures have been converted from Japanese Yen with exchange rate provided in Sony fiscal reports
Source 1 / Source 2


Highlights :
  • Q1 FY21: Over $5.62B Revenue and $0.761B Profit between April-June 2021
    • Biggest Q1 Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder)
      • Top 3 biggest Q1 Revenue ever:
        1. Sony Q1 FY21
        2. Sony Q1 FY20
        3. Sony Q1 FY18
    • 2nd biggest Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) during a non-Holiday quarter (non-Q3)
      • Top 5 biggest non-Q3 Revenue ever:
        1. Sony Q4 FY20 (Jan-Mar 2021)
        2. Sony Q1 FY21 (April-June 2021)
        3. Sony Q1 FY20 (April-June 2020 - FF7R/TLOU Part II)
        4. Sony Q2 FY18 (July-Sept 2018 - Spider-Man)
        5. Sony Q2 FY20 (July-Sept 2020 - Ghost of Tsushima)
    • 3rd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q1
    • 6th best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during any quarter
  • Hardware:
    • PS5 : 2.3m units / LTD: 10.1m
    • PS4 : 0.5m units / LTD: 116.4m
  • Software:
    • PS4/PS5 : 63.6m games sold
      • including 10.5m Sony-published games (vs 18.7m - Q1 FY20)
        • accounting for 16.5% of total games sold this Q1 FY21 (vs 20.5% - Q1 FY20)
    • Software digital ratio : 71%
  • PlayStation Store had its 2nd biggest Q1 Revenue ever with more than $2.93B (-18.8% YoY)
    • including Digital Software & Add-on content
  • PlayStation Software & Services saw their 2nd biggest Q1 Revenue ever with more than $4.09B (-14.8% YoY)
    • including Physical / Digital Software & Add-on content / Services
  • 104m MAU (monthly active users)
    • 104m active users each spent about $37.09 on average on PSN during Q1 FY21
      • It includes Digital Software, Add-on and Services revenues
  • Updated FY2021 Forecast:
    • $26.42B Revenue & $2.96B Profit... it would be:
      • Biggest Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
      • 2nd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation


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Sony Group Corporation - Q1 FY2021 Results (April 2021 - June 2021) :

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Sony Revenue : ¥2256.8bn / $20.61B (+15.0% YoY from ¥1962.9bn / $18.24B - Q1 FY20)
Sony Operating Profit : ¥280.1bn / $2.56B (+26.3% YoY from ¥221.7bn / $2.06B - Q1 FY20)
Sony Net Profit : ¥211.8bn / $1.93B (+9.4% YoY from ¥193.6bn / $1.80B - Q1 FY20)
  • Biggest Revenue ever for Sony during Q1
  • Biggest Operating Profit ever for Sony during Q1
    • 6th biggest Operating Profit ever for Sony during any quarter
  • 2nd best Net Profit ever for Sony during Q1
    • 6th best Net Profit ever for Sony during any quarter

Revenue & Profit Breakdown by Segment
Some milestones reached, per segment :
  • Music : Best Revenue and Best Op. Profit ever during Q1
    • 3rd best Revenue and 3rd best Op. Profit ever during any quarter
  • Pictures : 4th best Revenue and 2nd best Op. Profit ever during Q1
  • Electronics Products & Solutions : Biggest Revenue since Q1 FY17 / Best Op. Profit since at least Q1 FY13 (no data before)
  • Imaging & Sensing Solutions : 2nd best Revenue & 4th best Op. Profit ever during Q1
  • Financial Services : 2nd best Revenue ever during Q1

Top Biggest Revenue Drivers for Q1 FY21 :
  1. PlayStation
  2. Electronic Products & Solutions
  3. Financial Services
  4. Music
  5. Imaging & Sensing Solutions
  6. Pictures
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Top Biggest Profit Drivers for Q1 FY21 :
  1. PlayStation
  2. Electronic Products & Solutions
  3. Music
  4. Imaging & Sensing Solutions
  5. Pictures
  6. Financial Services
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Gaming Division - Q1 FY2021 Results (April 2021 - June 2021) :

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​
Gaming Revenue : ¥615.8bn / $5.62B (+1.6% YoY from ¥606.1bn / $5.63B - Q1 FY20)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥83.3bn / $0.760B (-32.9% YoY from ¥124.0bn / $1.15B - Q1 FY20)
  • Biggest Q1 Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder)
  • 2nd biggest Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) during a non-Holiday quarter (non-Q3)
  • 3rd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q1

This quarter, the Gaming Division accounts for :
  • 27.3% of Sony total Sales/Revenue (vs 30.8% - Q1 FY20)
  • 28.7% of Sony total Operating Profit (vs 48.4% - Q1 FY20)

Hardware
PS4 : 0.5m units / LTD: 116.4m
PS5 : 2.3m units / LTD: 10.0m (instead of 10.1m due to rounding, if anyone asks)


Software
PS4/PS5 : 63.6m (down from 91.4m - Q1 FY20)
including 10.5m Sony-published games (down from 18.7m - Q1 FY20)​
accounting for 16.5% of total games sold (down from 20.5% - Q1 FY20)​
Digital ratio : 71% (down from 74% - Q1 FY20)
  • During this quarter, more than 8.09 PS4/PS5 games have been sold each second in the world (= 699k games sold each day)
  • More than 496 000 digital PS4/PS5 games have been sold-through each day on average on the PlayStation Store during Q1 FY21 (= 5.74 digital games sold each second)

Latest first-party games sales information
Sold-through (= sold to consumers), as of July 18th :
  • Spider-Man Miles Morales : 6.5m
  • MLB The Show 21 : 2m
  • Returnal : 560k
  • Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart : 1.1m

PlayStation Plus
Subscribers : 46.3m (up from 45.0m - Q1 FY20)

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Revenue Breakdown (Q1 FY21) & Closer Look

PS5 momentum leads to record levels for Hardware & Others Revenues
Digital Software & Add-on Revenue are still very high, way higher than pre-pandemic level
  • Hardware Revenue reached ¥120.6bn / $1.10B (+116.9% YoY)
    • Biggest Hardware Revenue since Q1 FY15
  • Physical Software Revenue reached ¥25.6bn / $0.234B (-32.4% YoY)
    • Higher than Q1 FY17, Q1 FY19 (Days Gone)
    • Lower than Q1 FY16 (U4/Ratchet), Q1 FY18 (GOW), Q1 FY20 (TLOU Part II)
  • Digital Software + Add-on Revenue (PS Store) reached ¥320.4bn / $2.93B (-18.8% YoY)
    • 2nd biggest Q1 PS Store Revenue ever
    • 6th biggest PS Store Revenue ever during any quarter
  • Services Revenue reached an all-time high of ¥102.0bn / $0.931B (+9.3% YoY)
    • Biggest quarterly revenue ever generated by Services
  • Others Revenue (PSVR, Accessories, Sales on PC/Xbox...) increased to ¥47.2bn / $0.431B (+90.8% YoY)
    • Biggest Q1 Others Revenue since at least Q1 FY15 (no data before)
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Here is the Top 6 Biggest Revenue during a non-Holiday Quarter (non-Q3)
  • This Q1 FY21 achieved the 2nd biggest non-Q3 Revenue in video game history
  • Thanks to PS5 sales (Hardware) & PS Store (Digital, Add-on)
  • Note : In JPY (original results), Q1 FY21 is ahead Q1 FY20 (It's below in dollars because of exchange rates)
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Now this is PlayStation Revenue, Trailing 12 Months
  • PlayStation recorded the biggest Revenue in video game industry during the last 12 months period (July 2020 - June 2021)
    • With more than ¥2666.0bn / $25.03B generated
  • Note : In JPY (original results), Q1 FY21 is ahead Q4 FY20 (It's below in dollars because of exchange rates)
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Hardware - Follow Up

PS5 surpassed 10.1m units sold-in

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For its 31st quarter on the market, PS4 reached 116.4m units sold-in LTD

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Software - In Depth Analysis

Here is below the PS4/PS5 Software Sales since FY15 (Q1 comparison ; physical/digital split)

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This is the Quarterly Software Sales on PS4/PS5 since FY16 (including the physical/digital split)
  • This is the 6th quarter in a row that digital games have sold more than physical games
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Now, here is the PS4/PS5 Software Sales since FY18 (Q1 comparison ; 1st/3rd party split)

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This is the Quarterly Software Sales on PS4/PS5 since FY19 (including the 1st/3rd party split)

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You can take a look at the evolution of PS Plus subscribers and Software digital ratio over years

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Here is now the Quarterly Physical Software Sales on PS4/PS5 since FY16 (from April 2016 onward)
Including : Sony's average gross profit per physical copy sold
For a $60 retail game, publishers have to pay about $7-10 to Sony as a license fee (publisher's gross profit ~ $33)
For its own first-party games, Sony's gross profit will be as high as ~ $40
When Sony's average gross profit is higher than $7-10, that's because it's inflated by the performance of its exclusives
  • Q1 FY16 (Apr-June 2016) : Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted 4
  • Q4 FY16 (Jan-Mar 2017) : Horizon Zero Dawn
  • Q1 FY18 (Apr-June 2018) : God of War & Detroit
  • Q1 FY19 (Apr-June 2019) : Days Gone
  • Q1 FY20 (Apr-June 2020) : The Last of Us Part II
  • Q2 FY20 (July-Sept 2020) : Ghost of Tsushima
  • Q3 FY20 (Oct-Dec 2020) : Miles Morales, Demon's Souls
  • Q1 FY21 (Apr-June 2021) : Returnal, Ratchet & Clank
Q2 FY18 (July-Sept 2018) with Spider-Man didn't go higher (despite good performance), probably because of huge sales of annual sport titles (Madden/NBA 2K/FIFA) which lowered Sony's average gross profit
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
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This is the Quarterly Digital Software Sales on PS4/PS5 since FY19 (from April 2019 onward)
Including : Average Price of a Game bought on PS Store

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Next is the Quarterly Average Player Spending on PlayStation Network

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And finally, here is the Quarterly Average Player Spending on PSN per Category

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Gaming Division - Updated FY2021 Forecast (April 2021 - March 2022) :

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Gaming Revenue : ¥2900bn / $26.42B (flat from ¥2900bn / $27.10B - April 2021 FCT)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥325bn / $2.96B (flat from ¥325bn / $3.04B - April 2021 FCT)

Forecasts remain unchanged !
Note: However forecasts in USD fluctuate due to exchange rates

If forecasts are reached, it would be :
  • Best Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
  • 2nd Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation


Summary since PS4 release

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​
Previous threads :
FY2020, Q3 FY2020, Q2 FY2020, Q1 FY2020
FY2019, Q3 FY2019, Q2 FY2019, Q1 FY2019
FY2018, Q3 FY2018, Q2 FY2018, Q1 FY2018
 
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STech

STech

Member
Sep 24, 2018
1,735
Can't imagine how could be the numbers if there was not stock problems
 
starfoxxxy

starfoxxxy

Gravity Is Hard
Banned
Mar 13, 2021
6,488
So nothing too surprising, great qtr for Sony

I'm still wondering how they plan on matching last years 1st party software output with all the delays
 
Ariakon44

Ariakon44

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 17, 2020
10,175
Angie said:
They didn't mention Horizon delay?
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I doubt they'll do that in the report, and if Schreier is right, it's still scheduled to come out this fiscal year. So while sales would be delayed to q4 instead of q3, the majority of Horizon's sales will still be in its first few weeks and would still count for this year, so the numbers probably wouldn't shift all that much.
 
KillerMan91

KillerMan91

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,354
Lower shipments for PS5 than for PS4 during its first Q1 (2.3 million vs 2.8 million) but yet higher sell trough which shows that PS5 is completely sold out while PS4 already had ample stock at this point. Also shows how severe the component shortages are. Overall also drops bit below PS4 in total launch aligned shipments (10.1 vs 10.4 million).
 
Ludi_Ludere

Ludi_Ludere

Member
May 2, 2021
345
Something of interest to note is that despite the delay of GoW and the supposed delay of Horizon, Sony has not changed its forecast for the gaming division which is interesting.
 
Temascos

Temascos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,505
Damn, that is an insane achievement! I initially read it as "Best Q1 Revenue for Sony's history" but in all game history?! I wonder how much is left profit wise but it's gotta be a good chunk of change (Not a financial person).

I wonder why Demon's Souls isn't being counted as First Party, given that it's a PS Studios title.
 
Ariakon44

Ariakon44

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 17, 2020
10,175
Hamster Plugin said:
Hasn't this been higher before?

It's good for us players, but some executives must be regretting that decision to have F2P games not need Plus to play online. F2P really blew up at the end of the PS4 gen.
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It was a bit higher last quarter, but has had a huge percentage increase over the pandemic.
 
s y

s y

Member
Nov 8, 2017
10,430
Temascos said:
Damn, that is an insane achievement! I initially read it as "Best Q1 Revenue for Sony's history" but in all game history?! I wonder how much is left profit wise but it's gotta be a good chunk of change (Not a financial person).

I wonder why Demon's Souls isn't being counted as First Party, given that it's a PS Studios title.
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it's first party but sales have yet to be disclosed.
 
NediarPT88

NediarPT88

Member
Oct 29, 2017
15,086
There's a noticeable drop in software compared to the previous Q1 (first party titles dropped by almost half, TLOU2 released last year in this period).

PS+ subs also dropped more significantly compared to the last Q4->Q1.

Makes sense when you consider the lockdowns around this time last year.

Edit:

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Welfare

Welfare

Prophet of Truth - You’re my Numberwall
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,912
Since silicon is still maxed out, I can only assume the reason PS5 fell so much from the previous quarter is in part to Xbox buying up more of the limited silicon. They went up from the Jan-Mar period while Sony is down.

2.3M is certainly a drop but sell through in the US pointed to way lower availability compared to Q1. Guess other regions were starved of PS5's for awhile.

 
Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,841
Netherlands
Layla said:
physical software 4%, -32.4% YoY
expected but brutal to see :(
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Strange to see too, because the disparity for PS5 is becoming huge (e.g. Ratchet and Clank is €20 cheaper physical than digital, although I see they currently have promotions for Returnal and Demons that put it on par with store prices).
I guess most of the money for Sony is in the value added stuff (MTX, PS+) anyway.
 
Ariakon44

Ariakon44

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 17, 2020
10,175
Are they still forecasting shipping 15 million + ps5s this fiscal year?
 
Doctor_Thomas

Doctor_Thomas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,649
SolidSnakex said:
Part of the issue is no continued price drops. The PS4 only dropped $100 from its launch price, which is the smallest amount ever for a PS console.
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This is very true.

The Pro console was basically discontinued because the price point vs PS5 made no sense.

I think Sony are quite content to not do deep price drops on hardware if they don't need to. Not like the PS4 had issues selling. Maybe if PSNow ever opts for PS5 streaming, it might make a cheaper PS4 an attractive option for some people.
 
WetWaffle

WetWaffle

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Oct 25, 2017
4,601
SmartWaffles said:
PS4 really grinded to a halt damn.
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Not surprised. Sony hasn't given it many official price drops, at it's price, you're better off buying a ps5 for a little more. The only Playstation console that broke that trend and continued selling gangbusters after the new one launched was the PS2 cause it was only 100 I believe.
 
Welfare

Welfare

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Oct 26, 2017
5,912
PS4 LTD just by adding all the quarters together: 116.7M

What Sony reports: 116.4M

Gaaaah I hate this

Also this is only really selling in EMEA and Asia. Maybe Latin America is getting some of this? PS4 is dead at US retail.
 
danhz

danhz

Member
Apr 20, 2018
3,231
Oh shit, didn't know we had earnings today, cool as i am having a really slow workday today

Great job as always, made my morning more fun.
 
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