PlayStation 4 Sales Hit 20.2M Units Sold Through To Gamers Worldwide

After losing a huge amount of market share to Microsoft in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, it appears Sony has well and truly got its groove back with the PlayStation 4. A recent announcement states the Japanese company has sold an incredible 20.2M units to gamer's worldwide.

The announcement, picked up by Eurogamer, was issued at the start of GDC 2015. The last sales update from Sony stated that 18.5M units had been sold by Jan. 4, indicating an additional 1.7M consoles have been sold during the traditionally slow early sales months of the year. Sony’s also stated that the PS4 is currently selling faster than any other platform in PlayStation history, a remarkable feat considering the immense success of the PS1 and PS2.

"We are so grateful for the enormous support from PlayStation fans worldwide, and we are truly humbled that gamer's around the globe have continued to select PS4 as the best place to play. We remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver unique and interactive entertainment experiences powered by the network and the PS4 system's deep social capabilities," said Andrew House, president and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.

In its coverage of the announcement, DualShockers notes that PS4 sales numbers do indeed compare favourably to those of the PS2 during the same period. It’s also mentioned that the PS2 launch was exclusive to Japan before rolling out in North America and Europe a few months later, a situation reversed with the launch of PS4.

Speaking with GamesIndustry in 2014 to mark the 10M sales mark of the PS4, President of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida expressed a degree of puzzlement at the consoles runaway success. He stated that while the company was extremely happy with PS4 sales, he was a little nervous because they had yet to fully understand what was driving those sales. He went to add that the company had asked itself whether it was exhausting its core gamer base, a situation that appears unlikely at this stage, with another 10M units sold.

Despite Yoshida’s comments, Sony’s strategy with the PS4 has been nothing if not measured, and in many ways a direct response to the painful lessons learned from the PS3’s launch. Right from the design phase, the company invited a close-knit group of internal and external game development partners to work closely with the hardware development team. As noted by TechRadar, companies like Bungie had a marked input on the consoles basic design.

Sony also worked hard to make the platform easier to develop for. In a presentation at Gamelab 2013, system architect Mark Cerny stated that the amount of time it takes to get graphics up and running on the hardware was one to two months, compared to six to twelve for PS3. The company has also worked hard to foster a strong relationship with indie developers. An article by Polygon notes that despite the fact that PS4 development kits cost more than their Xbox One counterparts, the company routinely loans them to developers for free.