The PlayStation 5 (PS5) has reached a new sales milestone, at least in the United States. According to Mat Piscatella, Senior Director and Video Game Industry Thought Leader at the analytics company Circana, the PS5 has now sold more units than the PlayStation 3 did during its entire lifetime in the U.S.
Worldwide, however, that target has not yet been reached. The PS5 has sold about 80 million units, while the PS3 reached around 88 million. Still, it’s very likely that the PS5 will achieve this goal soon.
PS5 Sales and Financial Success in the U.S.
According to Piscatella, the PS5 is still far behind the PS2 in terms of total sales — the PS2 remains Sony’s best-selling console. However, Sony stated in September 2025 that the PS5 generation is the most successful financially.
The main reason is that the PS5 is more expensive, subscriptions such as PlayStation Plus generate large profits, and many third-party live service games also bring in strong revenue. Additionally, digital sales have increased, making the PlayStation Store a real money-making machine.
Piscatella also pointed out another interesting fact: for some time now, PS5 sales in the U.S. have been higher than PS4’s, with a 4.6% lead as of September. This contributes to the PS5 becoming a major source of revenue.
Even exclusive titles are performing well — for example, Ghost of Yotei has sold as much as its predecessor, despite a smaller player base, since Ghost of Tsushima launched late in the PS4 generation.
