Sony shipped 2.6 million PS5 consoles in Q2 2026, down 35% from 4.0 million a year earlier, its results supplement shows. Their PlayStation unit’s operating profit still rose 83% to ¥220.1 billion (about $1.39B or Php 88 billion), Sony says, which it calls a second-quarter record.
Last year’s one-offs explain about half of that jump: ¥49.8 billion (about $314M or Php 20 billion) in charges, including a write-down on Bungie. Without them, profit rose 29%, helped by network services and first-party games.
Sony says new PS5 sales are declining as expected at this stage of the console’s life, and will keep going down gradually. Its 6-month total of 4.2 million trails Nintendo’s 6.49 million Switch 2 consoles.
The whole company set Q2 records, with operating profit of ¥622.3 billion (about $3.93B or Php 249 billion) on sales of ¥3.43 trillion (about $21.7B or Php 1.37 trillion). It also raised its full-year profit forecast 9% to ¥1.87 trillion (about $11.8B or Php 750 billion).
PlayStation’s share of that raise rests mostly on other publishers’ software, which beat Sony’s expectations, plus network services and lower costs. Asked by Nikkei on the earnings call whether Grand Theft Auto VI was behind it, CFO Lin Tao pointed to strong engagement. She later said GTA VI will contribute this fiscal year.
US sales of the PS5 rose 22% in units and 43% in dollars in September, Circana’s Mat Piscatella says. Bloomberg ties that to buyers preparing for GTA VI, and credits price increases and the $900 (about Php 57,100) PS5 Pro for the revenue.
Piscatella gives the game only part of the credit. PS5 sales rose under 20% week on week in late August and early September, then more than 70% in the week ending September 19th, he says in a Bluesky post:
Tl;dr likely a smaller GTA reveal bump and a larger Wolverine launch bump. Not seeing clear steady ramp up to GTA, no.
Sony’s earnings deck and call give no US console figures. Its 2.6 million counts consoles shipped worldwide over three months, so the numbers don’t conflict.
GTA VI, with about 74% of digital pre-orders on PS5 by Sensor Tower’s estimate, is launching soon on November 19th – right in the quarter that brought Sony 7.9 million PS5 shipments last year. We’ll see how it works out for them this time around.
