The PlayStation 4 was released in November 2013 and went on to become the second best-selling console Sony has ever made, behind only the PS2. Almost 13 years later it is still in surprisingly wide use. In 2024 there were as many PS4s being played each month as PS5s, and two in every three games added to PlayStation Plus this year can still be played on the older console.

That is starting to change, however. Sony has been quietly removing PS4 features over the past few years, several big online games have dropped the console, and Grand Theft Auto VI will not be released on it when it arrives on 19 November.

This article brings together the key numbers behind the rise and slow wind-down of the PS4. Every figure comes directly from the company that published it. Most are taken from Sony’s own press releases and investor reports, and the rest come from the PlayStation Blog, Rockstar Games and the publishers that have ended PS4 support for their games. Where Sony has stopped sharing a figure, we say so rather than guess.

If you are trying to decide whether a PS4 is still worth buying in 2026, our guide Should you still buy a PS4? looks at prices, games and who the console still suits.

Key Takeaways

  • Sony has shipped more than 117 million PS4 consoles, making it the second-best-selling PlayStation after the PS2 (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jun 2022).
  • The PS4 sold 1 million units in its first 24 hours on sale in the US and Canada (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Nov 2013).
  • The PS4’s best year was fiscal 2016, when Sony shipped 20.0 million units (Sony Group Corporation, Apr 2019).
  • In its last reported year, Sony shipped just 1.0 million PS4s, and only 0.1 million in the final quarter (Sony Group Corporation, May 2022).
  • PS4 owners bought 1.181 billion games by the end of 2019 (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jan 2020).
  • God of War (2018) has sold 23 million copies, according to Sony’s last update on the game (Sony Group Corporation, Apr 2023).
  • In April 2024 there were 49 million monthly active PS4 consoles, exactly as many as PS5s (Sony Group Corporation, May 2024).
  • The average PS4 brought in $669 of spending over its first five years, against $846 for a PS5 (Sony Group Corporation, Jun 2025).
  • More than 99% of the 4,000+ PS4 games are playable on a PS5 (PlayStation.com, Oct 2026).
  • GTA VI launches on 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only, with no PS4 version (Rockstar Games, Oct 2026).
  • Sony will stop producing physical discs for all new PlayStation games from January 2028 (PlayStation Blog, Jul 2026).
  • The PS5 passed 50 million sales on 20 December 2023, about 37 months after launch, the same pace as the PS4 (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Dec 2023).

How many PS4 consoles has Sony sold?

The PS4 followed the PS3, which had a difficult start, and it quickly put Sony back on top of the console market. Over its lifetime it outsold the PS3 by roughly 30 million units, and only the PS2 has sold more.

Figure 1 - Ps4 Stats
Figure 1: This table from Sony lists every PS4 sales milestone the company announced between launch week and the end of 2019, with console and game sales shown next to each other. The 2018 game sales figure marked with an asterisk is the revised one. Source: Sony Group Corporation, Supplemental Information for FY2021 Q4, p.10, Dec 2019. Screenshot of the source document, captured 27 Oct 2026.

What is the PS4’s lifetime sales total?

Sony’s last count of PS4s bought by consumers was 106 million, at the end of 2019. The better-known figure of 117 million is higher because it counts the consoles Sony shipped to shops rather than those sold to players.

How fast did the PS4 reach each sales milestone?

The PS4 passed 10 million sales in under nine months, and for the next four years it added around 10 million more roughly every six months.

Where does the PS4 rank among PlayStation consoles?

The PS4 is the second best-selling PlayStation, and the PS2 is still the only one to have sold more.

When did PS4 sales peak, and what did it cost?

Price played as big a part in the success of the PS4 as its games did. The console launched at $399 and became cheaper in the years that followed, and Sony was still shipping it in large numbers well after the PS5 arrived.

Figure 2 - Ps4 Stats
Figure 2: Sony’s quarterly figures show the handover from the PS4 to the PS5. PS4 shipments shrink from one quarter to the next while PS5 sales build up, and by the end of its first financial year the PS5 was already outselling the older console. Source: Sony Group Corporation, Supplemental Information for FY2020 Q4, p.9, Mar 2021. Screenshot of the source document, captured 27 Oct 2026.

How many PS4s did Sony ship each year?

Shipments peaked in fiscal 2016 and stayed above 17 million a year for the following two years before dropping away.

How much did the PS4 cost?

The PS4 cost $399 at launch, and Sony cut the US price to $349.99 almost two years later.

What were the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro?

Sony released two new versions of the PS4 in 2016. The slimmer standard model was smaller and cheaper than the original, while the PS4 Pro added extra power for people with 4K televisions.

How did PlayStation VR sell on the PS4?

PlayStation VR sold 5 million units in just over three years. Although that is a sizeable number, it left the headset as a niche product on a console owned by more than 100 million people.

How big is the PS4 game library?

Console sales tend to get the headlines, but game sales help explain why Sony has been in no hurry to leave the PS4 behind. Owners bought more than a billion games for it, and several of Sony’s biggest series of the past decade began on the console.

Figure 3 - Ps4 Stats
Figure 3: Sony keeps a running record of how its own games have sold, from launch week to the most recent update. Its PS4 exclusives carried on selling for years, which helps explain why several of them were later released on PS5 and PC. Source: Sony Group Corporation, Supplemental Information for FY2022 Q4, p.11, Jan 2023. Screenshot of the source document, captured 27 Oct 2026.

How many PS4 games have been sold?

PS4 owners have bought more than a billion games in total. Sony has also revised some of its earlier counts upwards, which means older figures quoted on other sites are probably too low.

What were the biggest PS4 game launches?

God of War set a new launch record for a PS4 exclusive in 2018, and The Last of Us Part II went on to beat it among Sony’s own games two years later.

  • God of War sold more than 3.1 million copies in its first three days, the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive at the time (PlayStation Blog, May 2018).
  • The Last of Us Part II sold more than 4 million copies by 21 June 2020, making it the fastest-selling first-party PS4 exclusive (PlayStation Blog, Jun 2020).
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man sold more than 9 million copies in its first 80 days (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jan 2019).
  • Spider-Man then reached 13.2 million by July 2019, and Uncharted 4 sold 8.7 million in its first 226 days (Sony Group Corporation, Oct 2020).
  • Horizon Zero Dawn sold more than 2.6 million copies in its first two weeks (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Mar 2017).
  • Bloodborne passed 1 million copies within weeks of its March 2015 launch (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Apr 2015).
  • Detroit: Become Human sold 3.2 million copies by August 2019 (Sony Group Corporation, Oct 2020).
  • Ghost of Tsushima reached 8 million copies, including its PS5 Director’s Cut, by October 2021 (Sony Group Corporation, May 2022).
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a cross-generation launch game, sold 6.5 million copies across PS4 and PS5 by July 2021 (Sony Group Corporation, May 2022).

How many games are there on the PlayStation Store?

The PlayStation Store now offers more than 12,000 PS4 and PS5 games, and the number is still rising.

How many people still play on a PS4?

Sony stopped giving separate player numbers for each console after 2024, so there is no reliable figure for how many people are still playing on a PS4 in 2026. The figures Sony did publish before then show that PS4 owners held on to their consoles for much longer than many expected.

Figure 4 - Ps4 Stats
Figure 4: Three and a half years after the PS5 was released, there were still as many PS4s in use each month as PS5s, although PS5 owners spent more time playing. Source: Sony Group Corporation, Business Segment Meeting 2024: Game & Network Services, slide 14, Apr 2024. Chart published by the source, captured 27 Oct 2026.

How many monthly players did PlayStation have at the PS4’s peak?

PlayStation Network had about 103 million monthly users in December 2019, during the last holiday season before the PS5 went on sale.

  • PlayStation Network reached 103 million monthly active users in December 2019 (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jan 2020).
  • PS Plus had 26.4 million subscribers in March 2017, midway through the PS4’s life (Sony Group Corporation, Apr 2019).
  • PS Plus subscribers grew from 36.4 million in March 2019 to 47.6 million in March 2021 (Sony Group Corporation, Apr 2021).
  • Monthly active users jumped to 114 million in March 2020 as pandemic lockdowns began, still before the PS5 launched (Sony Group Corporation, Apr 2021).

How many PlayStation players are there in 2026?

Around 125 million people now use PlayStation each month across the PS4 and PS5, but Sony no longer says how many of them are playing on a PS4.

  • PlayStation had 125 million monthly active users in June 2026, PS4 and PS5 combined (Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jun 2026).
  • That was up from 118 million in March 2024 (Sony Group Corporation, May 2024).
  • Sony’s 2025 slide showed 124 million monthly users in March 2025, with PS5 the larger share but no numbers given for either console (Sony Group Corporation, Jun 2025).

Do PS4 owners play as much as PS5 owners?

In 2024 there were as many active PS4s as PS5s, but PS5 owners spent around 70% more time playing on their consoles.

  • Of the 3.8 billion hours played on PlayStation consoles in April 2024, 1.4 billion were on PS4 and 2.4 billion on PS5 (Sony Group Corporation, May 2024).

Is Sony ending support for the PS4?

Sony has not announced a date for switching off the PS4. Instead it has been removing features gradually, and publishers have been ending support for their own games at their own pace. When these changes are put on a timeline the direction is clear, even though the PS4 is still getting more PS Plus games than Sony’s own policy suggests.

Figure 5 - Ps4 Stats
Figure 5: Sony said that from January 2026 it would only add PS4 games to PS Plus from time to time, but two in every three Monthly Games this year can still be played on PS4. October has been the lowest month so far. Source: PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Plus Monthly Games posts, January to October 2026, Oct 2026. Chart built by TechMonka from the platform tags in nine posts (April’s post lists no platforms), captured 27 Oct 2026.

What PS4 features has Sony already removed?

Social features were the first to go, followed by films and TV shows on the PlayStation Store, and more recently some security and community tools have been withdrawn as well.

  • Facebook integration was removed from the PS4 on 7 October 2019 (PlayStation.com, Oct 2019).
  • PlayStation Communities stopped working on the PS4 from April 2021 (PlayStation.com, Apr 2021).
  • PlayStation Store stopped selling and renting movies and TV shows after 31 August 2021 (PlayStation.com, Aug 2021).
  • X (Twitter) integration ended on the PS4 on 13 November 2023 (PlayStation.com, Nov 2023).
  • Comments, likes and public sharing were removed from PS4 “What’s New” from 25 March 2025 (PlayStation.com, Mar 2025).
  • Tournaments and Teams were removed from the PS4 on 27 October 2025 (PlayStation.com, Oct 2025).
  • Trend Micro’s PS4 safety services stopped taking new purchases on 25 August 2026 and shut down on 25 August 2027 (PlayStation.com, Aug 2026).

What changed for PS4 owners on PS Plus in 2026?

Sony said on its PS Plus page that PS4 games would only be added intermittently from January 2026. In practice the change has been smaller than that suggests, and TechMonka’s own count found that 20 of the 30 new Monthly Games between January and October can still be played on PS4. April is not included because its announcement did not list platforms.

Which big games have dropped the PS4?

Three major online games have closed their PS4 versions since the middle of 2025 so that their developers can focus on the PS5 and other current platforms.

  • Black Desert ended PS4 support on 26 June 2025 and became PS5 and Xbox Series only (Pearl Abyss, Mar 2025).
  • PUBG: Battlegrounds ended PS4 support on 13 November 2025, the day its native PS5 version launched (PUBG: Battlegrounds, Aug 2025).
  • Genshin Impact was removed from the PS4 store on 10 September 2025, and PS4 players were locked out from 8 April 2026 (HoYoverse, Aug 2025).

If you are still playing on a PS4 and are thinking about upgrading before GTA VI comes out, our PS5 guide covers every model and price. Our GTA 6 hub has everything Rockstar has confirmed so far.

PS4 vs PS5: has the PS5 caught up?

The PS4 is still more than 20 million units ahead of the PS5 in lifetime sales. The PS5 has, however, matched its sales pace and pulled ahead on how much each owner spends, and those trends say more about where Sony’s business is heading than the overall totals do.

Figure 6 - Ps4 Stats
Figure 6: Sony compared how much money each console brought in over its first five years. The gap is widest in services like PS Plus, which is where the company wants its future growth to come from. Source: Sony Group Corporation, Business Segment Meeting 2025: Game & Network Services, slide 15, Mar 2025. Chart published by the source, captured 27 Oct 2026.

How do PS4 and PS5 sales compare?

By the middle of 2026 the PS5 had shipped more than 95 million units, which leaves it about 22 million behind the lifetime total of the PS4.

Did the PS5 sell faster than the PS4?

The PS5 got off to a slower start because of chip shortages, but by the time it reached 50 million sales it had caught up with the pace set by the PS4.

Do PS5 owners spend more than PS4 owners did?

Sony’s figures show that PS5 owners spend more. Over its first four years on sale, the average PS5 brought in about a quarter more money than the average PS4 did over the same period.

  • Each active PS5 generated $731 over its first four years, against $580 for a PS4 over the same period (Sony Group Corporation, May 2024).

What happens to your PS4 games and saves on a PS5?

Almost all PS4 games can be played on a PS5, and saves can be moved across using PS Plus cloud storage. Sony also offers trade-in credit for the old console.

  • PS Plus includes up to 100GB of cloud storage for moving PS4 saves to a PS5 (PlayStation.com, Oct 2026).
  • Sony offers up to $150 off a PS5 or PS5 Pro when you trade in a PS4 through Back Market (PlayStation.com, Oct 2026).

For anyone thinking further ahead, our PS6 article tracks the expected release date, price and specs.

Methodology and Sources

All of the statistics on this page come from the organisations that produced them rather than from roundups or aggregator sites. Most are taken from Sony itself, through Sony Interactive Entertainment’s press releases and business data page or Sony Group Corporation’s investor reports. The rest come from the PlayStation Blog and PlayStation.com, from Rockstar Games and from the publishers of Black Desert, PUBG and Genshin Impact.

Sony reports console sales in two ways. Sell-in counts the consoles shipped to shops, while sell-through counts those bought by consumers. We say which one each figure uses and never mix the two in the same claim. Sony also revised its PS4 game sales totals in January 2020, and only the revised figures are used here.

The PS Plus count is TechMonka’s own analysis, based on the platforms listed in each monthly PlayStation Blog post. PlayStation.com support pages do not show a publication date, so we have dated them to the month of the event they describe, or to the month we checked them where there is no event date. This page is updated every month.

Glossary

  • Sell-in: consoles shipped to retailers, which Sony reports in its earnings.
  • Sell-through: consoles bought by consumers, which Sony estimates in its press releases.
  • MAU (monthly active users): unique accounts that played or used PlayStation Network in the last month of a quarter, estimated by Sony.
  • Monthly active consoles: unique PS4 or PS5 consoles used on PlayStation Network in a month, estimated by Sony.
  • PSN: PlayStation Network, Sony’s online service.
  • PS Plus: PlayStation Plus, Sony’s subscription for online play, monthly games and a game catalogue.
  • First-party: a game published by Sony’s own studios.
  • Fiscal year (FY): Sony’s financial year, which runs from April to March. Fiscal 2016 is April 2016 to March 2017.
  • Backward compatibility: playing games made for an older console on a newer one.

Sources

WRITTEN BY TechMonka Desk

The TechMonka newsroom

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