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Sony Q3 FY2021 (Oct-Dec) Results - PS5: 3.9m (LTD: 17.3m), PS4: 116.8m / Record Year for PlayStation / 2nd Highest Quarterly Revenue in 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
*All % increase/decrease are calculated with original JPY results
Source 1 / Source 2



Highlights :
  • Q3 FY21: Over ¥813.3bn / $7.15B Revenue and ¥92.9bn / $0.817B Profit between Oct-Dec 2021
    • 2nd biggest Quarterly Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder)
      • Top 3 biggest Quarterly Revenue ever:
        1. Sony Q3 FY20
        2. Sony Q3 FY21
        3. Sony Q3 FY18
    • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q3
    • 3rd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during any quarter
  • Hardware:
    • PS5 : 3.9m units / LTD: 17.3m
    • PS4 : 0.2m units / LTD: 116.8m
  • Software:
    • PS4/PS5 : 92.7m games sold
      • including 11.3m Sony-published games (vs 19.0m - Q3 FY20)
        • accounting for 12.2% of total games sold this Q3 FY21 (vs 18.2% - Q3 FY20)
    • Software digital ratio : 62%
  • PlayStation Store had its 2nd biggest Quarterly Revenue ever with more than ¥432.3bn / $3.80B(-0.1% YoY)
    • including Digital Software & Add-on content
  • PlayStation Software & Services saw their 2nd biggest Quarterly Revenue everwith more than ¥564.4bn / $4.96B (-2.9% YoY)
    • including Physical / Digital Software & Add-on content / Services
  • 111m MAU (monthly active users)
    • 111m active users each spent about $42.37 on average on PSN during Q3 FY21
      • It includes Digital Software, Add-on and Services revenues
  • Updated FY2021 Forecast:
    • Decrease : ¥2730bn / $24.62B Revenue (vs ¥2900bn - Oct 2021 Forecast)
    • Increase : ¥345bn / $3.11B Profit (vs ¥325bn - Oct 2021 Forecast)
      • It would be :
        • Biggest Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
        • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation


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Sony Group Corporation - Q3 FY2021 Results (Oct 2021 - Dec 2021) :

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Sony Revenue : ¥3031.3bn / $26.66B (+12.4% YoY from ¥2696.5bn / $25.80B - Q3 FY20)
Sony Operating Profit : ¥465.2bn / $4.09B (+29.5% YoY from ¥359.2bn / $3.44B - Q3 FY20)
Sony Net Profit : ¥346.2bn / $3.05B (-6.9% YoY from ¥371.9bn / $3.56B - Q3 FY20)
  • Biggest Revenue ever for Sony during any quarter
  • Biggest Operating Profit ever for Sony during any quarter
  • 3rd best Net Profit ever for Sony during Q3
    • 4th best Net Profit ever for Sony during any quarter

Revenue & Profit Breakdown by Segment
Some milestones reached, per segment :
  • Music : Best Revenue and 3rd Best Op. Profit ever during Q3
  • Pictures : Best Revenue and Best Op. Profit ever during any quarter
  • Electronics Products & Solutions : Biggest Revenue since Q3 FY18 / 3rd Best Op. Profit since Q3 FY13 (no data before)
  • Imaging & Sensing Solutions : Best Revenue & 2nd best Op. Profit ever during Q3
  • Financial Services : Best Revenue ever during any quarter

Top Biggest Revenue Drivers for Q3 FY21 :
  1. PlayStation
  2. Electronic Products & Solutions
  3. Financial Services
  4. Pictures
  5. Imaging & Sensing Solutions
  6. Music
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Top Biggest Profit Drivers for Q3 FY21 :
  1. Pictures
  2. PlayStation
  3. Electronic Products & Solutions
  4. Imaging & Sensing Solutions
  5. Music
  6. Financial Services
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Gaming Division - Q3 FY2021 Results (Oct 2021 - Dec 2021) :

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Gaming Revenue : ¥813.3bn / $7.15B (-7.9% YoY from ¥883.2bn / $8.45B - Q3 FY20)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥92.9bn / $0.817B (+15.9% YoY from ¥80.2bn / $0.767B - Q3 FY20)
  • 2nd biggest Quarterly Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder)
  • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during Q3
  • 3rd best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation during any quarter
This quarter, the Gaming Division accounts for :
  • 26.8% of Sony total Sales/Revenue (vs 32.8% - Q3 FY20)
  • 29.0% of Sony total Operating Profit (vs 22.0% - Q3 FY20)

Hardware
PS4 : 0.2m units / LTD: 116.8m
PS5 : 3.9m units / LTD: 17.3m


Software
PS4/PS5 : 92.7m (down from 104.2m - Q3 FY20)
including 11.3m Sony-published games (down from 19.0m - Q3 FY20)​
accounting for 12.2% of total games sold (down from 18.2% - Q3 FY20)​
Digital ratio : 62% (up from 53% - Q3 FY20)
  • During this quarter, more than 11.66PS4/PS5 games have been sold each second in the world (= 1.01 million games sold each day)
  • More than 624 000 digital PS4/PS5 games have been sold-through each day on average on PlayStation Store during Q3 FY21 (= 7.23 digital games sold each second)

PlayStation Plus
Subscribers : 48.0m (up from 47.4m - Q3 FY20)
  • All time high of PS+ subscribers

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Revenue Breakdown (Q3 FY21) & Closer Look
  • Hardware Revenue reached ¥201.5bn / $1.77B (-15.3% YoY)
  • Physical Software Revenue reached ¥29.6bn / $0.260B (-43.7% YoY)
    • Lowest Q3 Physical Revenue since at least Q3 FY16 (no data before)
  • Digital Software + Add-on Revenue (PS Store) reached ¥432.3bn / $3.80B (-0.1% YoY)
    • 2nd biggest Q3 PS Store Revenue ever
    • 2nd biggest PS Store Revenue ever during any quarter
  • Services Revenue reached an all-time high of ¥102.5bn / $0.902B (+7.0% YoY)
    • Biggest quarterly revenue ever generated by Services
  • Others Revenue (PSVR, Controllers, PC/Xbox...) reached ¥47.4bn / $0.416B (-26.3% YoY)
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Now this is PlayStation Revenue, Trailing 12 Months
  • PlayStation recorded the 2nd biggest Revenue in video game industry during the last 12 months period (Jan 2021 - Dec 2021)
    • With more than ¥2734.9bn (about $24.91B with current ER)
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Hardware - Follow Up

PS5 surpassed 17.3m units sold-in after 5 quarters on the market
  • It overtook PS VITA (10-15m estimates) and Wii U (13.56m) LTD
  • Next stop, Gamecube (21.74m) then Xbox (24m)

For its 33rd quarter on the market, PS4 reached 116.8m units sold-in LTD

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Software - In Depth Analysis

This is the Software Sales on PlayStation platforms during Q1-Q3 (April-Dec) since 1997
  • Q1-Q3 FY21 Software Sales is the 2nd biggest in PlayStation history
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Here is below the PS4/PS5 Software Sales since FY15 (Q1-Q3 comparison ; physical/digital split)
  • Q1-Q3 FY21 Software sales are still very strong, higher than pre-pandemic level
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Now, it's the Software Sales on PlayStation platforms during Q3 since 1997

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This is the Quarterly Software Sales on PS4/PS5 since FY16 (including the physical/digital split)
  • This is the 8th quarter in a row that digital games have sold more than physical games (since Jan-Mar 2020)
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Now, here is the PS4/PS5 Software Sales since FY18 (Q1-Q3 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
  • All time high numbers of PS+ subscribers
  • Biggest digital ratio during Q3
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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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Gaming Division - Q4 FY2021 Forecast (Jan 2022 - March 2022) :

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Gaming Revenue : ¥655.5bn / $5.96B (-0.7% YoY from ¥660.3bn / $6.24B)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥86.2bn / $0.783B (+160.8% YoY from ¥33.0bn / $0.312B)

If forecasts are reached, it would be :
  • 2nd Biggest Q4 Revenue for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) in video game history
  • 2nd Biggest Revenue ever for PlayStation (and for any platform holder) during a non-Holiday quarter (non-Q3)
  • Best Q4 Operating Profit ever for PlayStation


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

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Gaming Revenue : ¥2730bn / $24.62B (decrase from ¥2900bn / $26.32B - Oct 2021 FCT)
Gaming Operating Profit : ¥345bn / $3.11B (increase from ¥325bn / $2.95B - Oct 2021 FCT)

Note: 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
  • Best Operating Profit ever for PlayStation


Summary since PS4 release

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Previous threads :
Q2 FY2021, Q1 FY2021
FY2020, Q3 FY2020, Q2 FY2020, Q1 FY2020
FY2019, Q3 FY2019, Q2 FY2019, Q1 FY2019
FY2018, Q3 FY2018, Q2 FY2018, Q1 FY2018
 
Last edited:
Ariakon44

Ariakon44

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 17, 2020
10,184
Those supply chain issues are really showing through this quarter. They could have had so many more sales by this point.
 
Penny Royal

Penny Royal

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,158
QLD, Australia
Sales drop almost entirely down to lower PS5 sales caused by production shortages.

Operating income for GNS is up tho, so it's not all doom & gloom.
 
Plax

Plax

Member
Nov 23, 2019
2,819
Penny Royal said:
Sales drop almost entirely down to lower PS5 sales caused by production shortages.

Operating income for GNS is up tho, so it's not all doom & gloom.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It feels far from doom and gloom reading these results, unless I missed something. It appears that they've just posted one of their best quarters ever (and across the industry) despite the shortages. Happy to be corrected though!
 
Rayasab

Rayasab

Banned
Apr 12, 2021
1,954
Bought PS4 slim last month for CFW and homebrew, if Sony keeps making them it could reach 130M
 
Penny Royal

Penny Royal

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,158
QLD, Australia
Plax said:
It feels far from doom and gloom reading these results, unless I missed something. It appears that they've just posted one of their best quarters ever (and across the industry) despite the shortages. Happy to be corrected though!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Overall it's a great 1/4, but the component shortages leading to a disappointing PS5 sales result will be the big takeaway 95% of commentators will focus on

Also, top work on the thread as always ArmGunar
 
Ariakon44

Ariakon44

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 17, 2020
10,184
Plax said:
It feels far from doom and gloom reading these results, unless I missed something. It appears that they've just posted one of their best quarters ever (and across the industry) despite the shortages. Happy to be corrected though!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's not doom and gloom, but that hardware number is rough compared to expectation. That Bloomberg article said they were still going to produce about 15 million systems this year but their shipped number is going to struggle to hit 13 million instead of the more than 14.8 million they were targeting.
 
SuperBoss

SuperBoss

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,527
Record breaking profits, while having shortages. Insane. With everything coming out this year, 2022 is about to be huge for them.

They just need the supply issue fixed.
 
Tratorn

Tratorn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
709
Really disappointing sales, the shortages are so bad.

At least they are doing great when it comes revenue and profit.

If the forecast becomes true, they will get like 80% of their Bungie money back within 1 fiscal year. :p
 

Trey2Deebo

Alt account
Banned
Jan 24, 2022
711
Is there any relief in sight when it comes to the chip and parts shortages that are hurting so many of these companies like Sony? I can't imagine with this recent COVID surge things could be that much better anytime soon right? Seems unfortunate, I do wonder what impact it would have on the timing/development/release of PS5 pro.
 

Deleted member 10445

Banned
Oct 20, 2021
727
Plax said:
It feels far from doom and gloom reading these results, unless I missed something. It appears that they've just posted one of their best quarters ever (and across the industry) despite the shortages. Happy to be corrected though!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Nah, no doom and gloom.
Just disappointing shipped numbers. Sadly nothing they can do.
 
cyrribrae

cyrribrae

Chicken Chaser
Member
Jan 21, 2019
12,723
I mean... they're doing very well! Great thread, as always :D

(And this is why no one should feel bad about Sony in the "acquisition wars". They got to this position by being ruthless and they will continue to be. Everyone else has now also learned the playbook. We're in for a generation of competition. lol)
 
rubidium

rubidium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,327
Till when the chip shortages last? It is affecting many industries all over the world, right?
 
Xeonidus

Xeonidus

“Fuck them kids.”
Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,277
That revenue number is blowing my mind. They beat their old yearly record by over 3 billion dollars?!
 
DealWithIt

DealWithIt

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,690
Kind of amazing that they have a product that they could sell a virtually unlimited number of. And they just can't make them. Nature of the beast right now.
 

Lagspike_exe

Banned
Dec 15, 2017
1,974
They would be in rampage mode if only they could produce enough. Hopefully the crypto meltdown frees up some waffers from GPU miners.
 
MegaSackman

MegaSackman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,729
Argentina
In 3 months, 111 millions users spent around $40 each overall? That's insane to me.

Probably a number we've seeing for years but it's the first time I pay attention to it.
 
g-m1n1

g-m1n1

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,408
Luxembourg
Sony is the one suffering the most from the shortage imo.

They were the best prepared in terms of games with their new console and yet it won't help them at all.
The shortage will last until 2nd half of 2023…
 
Gavalanche

Gavalanche

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 21, 2021
17,447
g-m1n1 said:
Sony is the one suffering the most from the shortage imo.

They were the best prepared in terms of games with their new console and yet it won't help them at all.
The shortage will last until 2nd half of 2023…
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It would have been interesting to see how they would have gone without shortages.

They are ding well revenue and profit wise at least.
 
ShinobiBk

ShinobiBk

One Winged Slayer
Member
Dec 28, 2017
10,121
That hardware number is absolutely brutal
Shows how rough stock is cause that is honestly nearly unacceptable for the holiday quarter.
 
Hilarious_Bearious

Hilarious_Bearious

Member
Nov 4, 2017
7,371
Is the PS4 having supply issues too, or are they just not pushing it? I'd have thought the PS4 would be a good low-price option for emerging markets, or to get price-sensitive users locked in to the PlayStation ecosystem for a future PS5 purchase.
 
vivftp

vivftp

Member
Oct 29, 2017
19,760
Looking at those revenue numbers we can only imagine what they would be at without supply shortages and if God of War, Horizon and GT7 had managed to launch in 2021 as planned. They'd be absolutely crushing any previous record.

Quite happy that they're managing to still do well given all these setbacks. Hopefully their new production line of 6nm chips later this year might help improve the supply lines and let them get more consoles out there.
 
Mister_X

Mister_X

Member
Aug 22, 2020
1,494
This gen is going to be longer than the 360/PS3 gen. At least there will likely be mid gen refreshes though
 

AnotherDayAnotherDollar

The Fallen
Oct 31, 2017
5,632
Pretty good quarter for Sony looking at the overall numbers. Actually it's pretty great. I will let Pictures have their 15 minutes of fame even if the forecast still hasn't changed and the division is still expected to be the lowest ROIC for Sony.
 
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AndersTheSwede

AndersTheSwede

Member
Oct 27, 2017
442
Supply issues could really crimp LTD for the PS5. Falling behind PS4 production through the same launch period, despite a massively larger market… ain't great.
 
Vito

Vito

One Winged Slayer - Formerly Undead Fantasy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,059
62% digital ratio.

Yeah, PS6 will be digital only at this point.
 
Arex

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,501
Indonesia
In a world without chip shortage they probably would've cruised past 20m by now huh.

Anyway seems good number overall (except the hardware lol)

I'm guessing the engineers are hard at work on reducing the chip footprint and overall size of the consoles so that they can make more of them with the same resources. Hope we'll get slim(mer) PS5 sooner :P
 
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