While Microsoft is looking to its cloud-based future for videogame profits, Sony has consistently found them in the console market. And it has done so, again—and quite quickly—with the higher-end PlayStation 5, according to disclosures it made during its quarterly earnings announcement.

Sony earned a net income of $2.6 billion on revenues of $20.7 billion for the quarter ending June 30. Both are significant gains over the year-ago quarter, the results easily surpassed analyst expectations, and Sony is now raising its profit forecast for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2022.

The big news, of course, is the PlayStation 5, which has sold faster than any previous PlayStation console despite a global component shortage. Sony’s Game & Network Services division, which is responsible for PlayStation, reported $5.6 billion in FQ1 revenues, a record for the quarter and the second-best quarter ever for the division.

Sony had previously announced that it had sold over 10 million PS5 consoles, and it noted today that 2.3 million of them came during the previous quarter. Game makers also sold 63.6 million PS games in the quarter, 10.5 million of which were first-party exclusives, and 71 percent of which were digital.

But here’s the most impressive stat from the quarter: The PlayStation 5—or, at least the $500 version with the optical drive—is already profitable. It’s no longer sold at a loss, something that Sony has achieved with each of its console generations. And something that Microsoft has acknowledged it has never done.

Incredible.

Tagged with PlayStation 5