The PlayStation 5 has passed 100 million consoles. Sony quietly updated its official sales page this week to say the PS5 had shipped “more than 100 million” units worldwide as of 10 November 2026, two days before the console’s sixth birthday. In Australia, where the PS5 launched on 12 November 2020, that birthday is today.
It makes the PS5 only the fourth PlayStation to reach nine figures, and it arrives a week before Grand Theft Auto VI. But Sony’s own numbers also show something the milestone headline hides: PS5 shipments have slowed sharply this year, as the console has become much more expensive, including here. Here’s what the 100 million figure actually measures, how the PS5 compares with older consoles, and what it means if you’re thinking of buying one in Australia.
What Sony actually announced
There was no press release. Sony Interactive Entertainment changed the cumulative hardware table on its Business Data & Sales page, which now lists the PlayStation 5 at “More than 100 million (As of November 10, 2026)”. Sony labels the figure as sell-in, meaning consoles shipped to retailers and distributors, not consoles bought by players, and notes that its PS5 figures include “returned and refurbished products”.
The same page puts the PS4 at more than 117 million, the PS2 at more than 160 million and the original PlayStation at more than 102.4 million, so the PS5 joins those three as the only PlayStation hardware past 100 million. The milestone was reported independently by GamesRadar+, Inven Global and VGChartz, all of which point to the same Sony page.
How fast the PS5 got there
Sony’s quarterly table lets you check the maths. Adding up every quarter from launch to the end of September 2026 gives 97.9 million PS5s shipped. To pass 100 million by 10 November, Sony therefore needed at least another 2.1 million in about six weeks, which is already most of the 2.6 million it shipped in the whole July to September quarter.
In time terms, the PS5 took a little under six years from its November 2020 launch. By GamesRadar+’s count, the PS4 got there in five years, eight months and 15 days, and the PS2 in five years, eight months and 26 days, while the original PlayStation took more than nine years. So the PS5 is slightly slower than its two best-selling predecessors, despite spending much of its first two years in short supply.
For context outside Sony, Nintendo’s own figures put the original Switch at 157.20 million units and the Switch 2 at 26.35 million, both as of 30 September 2026. The PS2’s 160 million-plus remains the record Sony lists. (Nintendo, which is adding eShop gifting on 17 November, reports on a different schedule, so the dates don’t line up exactly.)
The part the milestone hides: shipments are down this year
Sony’s financial year runs April to March. In the first two quarters of its 2026 financial year (April to September 2026), Sony shipped 1.6 million and 2.6 million PS5s, a total of 4.2 million. In the same two quarters a year earlier it shipped 2.5 million and 4.0 million, or 6.5 million. That is a fall of roughly 35 per cent, calculated from Sony’s published table.
That slowdown lines up with the biggest price rise of the PS5’s life. From 2 April 2026, Sony raised prices globally, saying, as reported by Progress Bar: “With continued pressures in the global economic landscape, we’ve made the decision to increase the prices of PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player globally.” Sony hasn’t said the price rise caused the drop, and a console this far into its life would normally slow down anyway, but the timing is hard to ignore.
What a PS5 costs in Australia now
Sony’s Australian online store currently lists these recommended retail prices (in AUD, including GST):
- PS5 Digital Edition (Slim): A$919.95
- PS5 (Slim, with disc drive): A$999.95
- PS5 Pro: A$1,399.95
At launch in November 2020, the disc PS5 was A$749.95 and the Digital Edition A$599.95, according to Stevivor’s price history, which Progress Bar’s launch-price figure matches. That means the disc model now costs A$250 (33 per cent) more than it did six years ago, and the cheapest digital model A$320 (53 per cent) more. The PS5 Pro launched in November 2024 at A$1,199.95 and rose by A$200 in April. Retailers often sell slightly under RRP, so check before you buy.
Why GTA VI matters to the next number
The milestone lands a week before Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on 19 November. Sony and Microsoft have both said it is the most pre-ordered game in their stores’ histories, as This Week in Videogames reported, and pre-loading opened in Australia earlier this week (our GTA VI pre-load guide covers times and the up to 212GB download). The October to December quarter is also always Sony’s biggest: it shipped 7.9 million PS5s in that quarter last year and 9.5 million the year before.
Our read: a giant holiday release plus Black Friday should give PS5 shipments a lift over the next two months, but at today’s Australian prices the PS5 is a much bigger purchase than it was. If you’re buying primarily for GTA VI, note that the game isn’t launching on PC or Nintendo consoles, so a PS5 or Xbox Series console is currently the only way to play it.
What to keep in mind about the numbers
- “Shipped” isn’t “sold”: sell-in counts consoles delivered to shops, not those in people’s homes, and Sony includes returned and refurbished units.
- Sony gives only “more than 100 million”, not an exact figure; the 2.1 million-in-six-weeks figure is a minimum, calculated from its tables.
- Sony doesn’t publish Australian PS5 sales, so there is no official local share of the 100 million.
- Sony separately estimates 127 million monthly active PlayStation users as of 30 September 2026, on the same page. That covers PS4 and PS5 players and is Sony’s own estimate.
Featured image: PlayStation consoles from the original PlayStation to the PS5, with the PSP and PS Vita, photographed in 2021. Photo: JDC808 via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped slightly, resized to 1200×800 and converted to PNG. The adapted image is shared under the same licence. PlayStation and Sony trademarks are shown for editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement.
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