PSN is growing so fast, it's now making more money than Nintendo

PS4

It's the most wonderful time of the year - financials - where numbers and currencies are tossed about and we try to decipher what it all means. We've had Apple, Nintendo and Facebook, now it's Sony's turn.

Unsurprisingly, the PS4 is Sony's big hitter right now: Sony's Game and Network Services division saw a 11.8% jump in sales for the year.

Which is just as well as the company's smartphone sales saw a 20% drop, while Music was up 10.4% and its Sony Pictures division up 6.8%.

But back to those games: the report revealed that the PlayStation Network sales have hit just over 529 billion yen. For perspective, the entire Nintendo company revealed it had sucked up 504.4 billion yen for the same year.

Good times for PS4

Sony revealed that it sold 17.7 million PS4 consoles over the last financial year, bringing the total number of units shifted to 40 million, according to Twitter user ZhugeEx's estimate. Microsoft has been less forthcoming about Xbox One numbers, but estimates peg sales at 20 million or just below.

Again, those are estimates, we can't say for sure until it comes from Microsoft.

It's hardly a surprise that PSN is doing as well as it is. Sony's PlayStation Plus scheme continues to offer a solid lineup of games each month to subscribers, while PlayStation Now, Sony's game streaming service, is offering over 200 titles on demand at the moment.

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.