PlayStation 5 enters top 30 list of best-selling game consoles but PS5 stock will remain scarce until the second half of 2021

The PlayStation 5 has joined the list of the top 30 best-selling game consoles of all time in just over three months of “availability”. Sales figures from Sony itself revealed over 4.5 million units were sold by December 31, 2020, and you can be sure that amount has grown considerably in the weeks since then, even if the PS5 is in incredibly short supply at the moment. An estimate from VGChartz stands at 5.21 million lifetime sales for Sony’s latest console. Depending on which chart you’re looking at, this puts the PS5 either in 26th place or 29th place in the lists of best-selling consoles.

The Dreamcast and Sega Saturn will be the next classic consoles for the PS5 to leapfrog over before it sets its sights on the 15 million or so PlayStation Vita sales. To crack into the top 20, Sony’s hardware will need over 20 million sales, while over 80 million units sold should get the device into the top 10. It’s expected the PS5 could crack the top 20 by early 2022, while getting into the top 10 should be achievable within the console’s product life cycle. In fact, Sony considers 100 million to be a target lifetime sales figure for the PS5, which would leave it rooted firmly in the middle of the top 10 sellers.

The PS5’s immense popularity isn’t just demonstrated by its incredible sales figures though; the subreddit r/PS5 has now crossed the one-million member mark, which puts it in the top 400 out of a staggering 2.2 million subreddits. Further unit sales have been hampered by chip shortages and competition from not only rivals wanting those same processors but also other industries such as car manufacturing. PlayStation boss Jim Ryan is clearly aware of the situation and has apologized for the stock shortage, and he also claimed that "production is ramping up steadily" with greater availability coming toward the end of 2021 when more retail stores should be able to physically stock the PS5 and thus negate the online bot/scalper scourge.

Check Amazon for PS5 stock