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Sony PS4 Unit Sales Cross 70M Mark, VR Breaks 2M Milestone

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Sony Corporation’s PlayStation 4 sales have marked another major milestone, crossing the 70-million mark worldwide, per Sony’s internal sales estimates. The company’s stock has been riding on this momentum as well, having risen 13.4% over the past three months, outperforming the industry’s gain of 11.4%.

The latest figure of 70.6 million units of PS4 sales includes this year’s Black Friday weekend, during which the current “slim” model of the console was widely available for $199.99 ($100 off the regular price).

The holiday season is still young, and we expect PS4 console’s momentum to add more to its coffers during the rest of the shopping season. However, its sales, this year, probably won’t beat last year’s incredible numbers. The entertainment giant had shipped 9.7 million PS4 units across the world during the holiday quarter in 2016 — a record number in Sony’s history for PlayStation console sales.

PS4 clearly seems to be on track to surpass its predecessor very soon. PS3 had sold about 80 million units during its lifespan, while the flagship PS4 console is rapidly approaching the number in just four years.

It’s uncertain how PS4 compares to its most direct competitor, Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT - Free Report) Xbox One, as Microsoft hasn’t released definite sales figures for the same. Xbox One was estimated to have sold roughly 20 million units, back in January this year. On the other hand, Nintendo Co.'s (NTDOY - Free Report) 3DS handheld has sold 68 million units since its launch in 2011, whereas the Switch has sold over 7 million units since it became available this year.

Industry analysts estimate that PS4’s sales are actually more than double the Xbox One console, and quadruple of Nintendo’s Wii U console. PS4 clearly emerges as the leader in the current generation of video game consoles.

Together with the hardware numbers, Sony also said that more than 617 million PS4 games have been sold to date, both digitally and at retail.

Meanwhile, Sony’s VR (virtual reality) headsets have also made significant inroads as far as sales are concerned.The company has sold 2 million PS4-based VR headsets since its debut in October 2016, which stands ahead of the Rift and Vive sales. That’s double the figure Sony released in June, when it declared global sell-through of 1 million PSVR headsets. However, the VR industry, as a whole, is still far from established yet, even though Sony’s numbers are clearly picking up rapidly.

The latest data, according to IDC, projects dedicated augmented reality and virtual reality headsets to grow to 100 million units by 2021. This is up from last year’s roughly 10 million shipments and reflects a five-year CAGR of a whopping 57.7%. Sony seems exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on this trend.

Clearly, PS4 and VR systems are likely to act as major profit churners for this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company in the quarters ahead.

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