Sony Increases Profit Forecast After Stellar Christmas Season – Does This Mean Victory Over Microsoft?

03.02.2021

  • News

Every year, the eSports niche takes another leap forward. Millions of fans now follow the sport, and it continues to grow as it gains personalities, top sponsors, exciting tournaments, and new games. However, what the industry was really anticipating for so long was a new games console. Now we have it, evidence of next-gen excitement is clearer than ever before as Sony boosts its profit forecast for 2020/21.

Sony Growing Through the Pandemic

According to date presented by Find Betting Sites, between September and December, the last quarter of 2020, the Japanese technology giant reported an operating profit figure of just under £2.5 billion. Compared to the same period in 2019, this is a jump of around 20%. However, it doesn’t end there, and Sony believe that the year between March 2020 and March 2021 will be much stronger than first expected.

Originally, Sony predicted an annual profit of around £4.9 million. Now, it claims the figure is likely to be closer to £6.5. Why the jump? Just in case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t been paying attention to video game news in recent times, Sony have released a new console…and it’s selling incredibly well.

Over the quarter covering Christmas, Sony revealed that they had sold 4.5 million consoles. For those who have been trying to buy the console with no luck, you will have seen that stores around the world have been selling out of the new unit quickly. Even websites like Amazon, normally on top of big releases like this, struggled to fulfil demand.

During the busy festive period, there was a 9% increase in revenue for Sony compared to the same period in 2019. This tells us a couple of things; not only has the PlayStation 5 performed better than expected, but its success hasn’t been perturbed by the pandemic. With people working reduced hours or relieved from their jobs entirely, some experts claimed that failing to delay the release was a mistake. Now, these experts are probably regretting such statements.

Sony vs Microsoft (vs Nintendo)

With the release of the PS5, this is the fifth time these technology giants have competed against one another. Most people (apart from avid Microsoft fans) have now accepted the fact that the PS4 outshone the Xbox One. If we look at sales figures alone, it makes for grim reading for Microsoft because they were actually outsold by Nintendo and the Switch too. Overall lifetime sales in September 2020 were as follows:

  • Sony PS4 – 113 million units
  • Nintendo Switch – 63 million units
  • Microsoft Xbox One – 48 million units

With this in mind, it gave the Switch a market share of 28% while the Xbox had 22% and the PS4 50%. The gap between Sony and Microsoft in the fourth generation was much larger than most experts predicted. Although the latter has closed the gap somewhat, early statistics show another victory for the Japanese company.

Omdia, a research company, predict that Microsoft will sell 12 million units before the end of 2021. For Sony, they’re expected to reach nearly 18 million units by the end of this year. By 2024, Microsoft will get to 42 million while Sony will be way ahead with 64 million. Of course, these are only projections, but it’s an indication of how the competition is going so far.

So, Sony has increased profit projections, and the same is true for Nintendo during what is a good time for the video game industry. Thanks to a bumper Christmas, Nintendo sold nearly 12 million units over Christmas and now predicts a 33% jump for net profit for March 2020 to March 2021.

Which console have you chosen? Which will you choose? It’s certainly an exciting time for video games, eSports, and the whole industry.

About the author

Carl Hughes

Editor

Carl Hughes

Editor

Carl Hughes is a leading expert on sports and casino betting. Carl began his career with a BSc in Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences from the University of Birmingham before working within the industry for some of the bigger names (GVC and Bet365) and has been praised as being "a leading sports betting commentator".