In the 2025 seasonal business, Sony sold fewer consoles but more games and was able to further increase the number of subscribers. As a result, quarterly sales in the Games & Network Services segment declined, but operating profit rose. Expectations for the full year were revised upwards.
The third quarter of the financial year was a success across the group. Sony was able to slightly increase both sales and operating profit across all divisions. The Game & Networks Service (GNS) segment also contributed to this, at least in terms of profit.
According to the quarterly balance sheet now presented, the unit responsible for the PlayStation business generated sales of 1.61 trillion yen. At the current exchange rate, this equates to around 8.7 billion euros, a decline of 4% compared to the same quarter last year. However, operating profit rose by almost 20% year-on-year to 140 billion yen, equivalent to around 760 million euros.
Additional information provided on the GNS segment shows that sales of hardware, accessories and VR products declined significantly in the third quarter of the fiscal year, while software sales and network services, which consist primarily of subscription revenue from the PlayStation Network, increased.
In figures, sales of console hardware fell from 584.8 billion yen to 450.4 billion yen, and sales of peripherals and PS VR2 fell from 136.3 billion yen to 128.4 billion yen. Sales of games rose from 784.1 billion yen to 835.5 billion yen, and sales of network services rose from 176.9 billion yen to 199.3 billion yen.
In terms of units sold or shipped, Sony's PS5 hardware sales declined from 9.5 million units in the previous year to 8.0 million units in the reporting period. At the same time, game sales rose from 95.9 million units to 97.2 million units. Of these, 13.2 million units were first-party games, i.e. games from within the group. The number of monthly active PlayStation Network users rose from 129 million in the previous year to 132 million in the third quarter of the financial year.
What is interesting about the detailed data is that sales of physical games also increased in the third quarter compared to the previous year. Although the growth cannot keep pace with that of digitally marketed games, it shows that physically marketed games still have a raison d'être in the console segment.
Last but not least, in addition to the actual figures, Sony has also adjusted its November forecast for the full year in terms of KPIs for sales, operating income, pre-tax income and net income. The segment breakdown shows that Sony has revised its expectations upwards in the areas of Imaging & Sensing Solutions, Music and Game & Network Services.
