Sony PlayStation Soaring Amid Industry Decline in Consumer Spend

variety.com:

Kaare Eriksen Information Editor Note: This article is based on content from Variety Intelligence Platform’s special report “2023 Media & Tech Trend Tracker,” available exclusively to subscribers. Sony Interactive Entertainment in February announced PlayStation Playmakers, a new initiative to partner with names like LeBron James on promoting the console brand.

For anyone else in gaming, this move would come across as a plea for consumers to spend at levels not seen since 2021. But for Sony, it’s capping off a return to form.

Video gaming was marred by consistent year-over-year drops in consumer content spend, a trend that continued into January. But PlayStation 5 consoles recently overcame a shortage in semiconductor chips, which led to 7.1 million units shipped by Sony in the fourth quarter of 2022, a new record for PS5.

The end result? PlayStation resisted the content sales decline. The 2022 holiday quarter saw revenue from hardware sales more than double year over year, skyrocketing from just under $1.5 billion to more than $3.2 billion.