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Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has announced on its official site that worldwide cumulative sell-through of the PlayStation 5 has passed 100 million units. The milestone was reached as of November 10, 2026. PS5 becomes the fourth PlayStation platform to hit 100 million, following the original PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 4.
Counting from the launch of the original model on November 12, 2020, that puts the milestone almost exactly at the six-year mark. A generation that spent close to two years branded “the console you can’t buy” thanks to the semiconductor shortage still reached 100 million at essentially the same pace as PS4, and that is genuinely impressive.
This article uses the sales data SIE publishes to place PS5’s 100 million in the context of PlayStation history, and to measure how its pace compares with PS4’s. The number itself is less interesting than the situation it sits in.
When did PS5 cumulative sell-through pass 100 million?
It crossed 100 million units as of November 10, 2026. SIE publishes cumulative sell-through figures on the business data and sales page of its own site, and that is where this 100 million milestone was shown.
Four PlayStation home consoles have cleared 100 million: the original PlayStation, PS2, PS4 and now PS5. The all-time record belongs to PS2, which had reached more than 160 million units as of March 31, 2012. That stands as one of the highest figures in the entire console business, and whether PS5 can eventually beat it is honestly still unreadable.
| Console | Published cumulative sell-through | As of |
|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 2 | More than 160 million units | As of March 31, 2012 |
| PlayStation 4 | 106 million units | Reported January 7, 2020 |
| PlayStation 5 | 100 million units | As of November 10, 2026 |
The original PlayStation is absent from the table because the data SIE currently publishes does not appear to include a figure that can be lined up on the same basis. Its status as a 100-million-plus console is officially acknowledged, but here I am listing only the three figures that could be confirmed.
Is PS5 hitting the milestone faster than PS4 did?
Version 1.0.0
The pace is almost identical. PS4 launched overseas on November 15, 2013, and the 106 million figure was reported on January 7, 2020. That works out to roughly six years and two months from launch.
PS5 launched on November 12, 2020 and passed 100 million as of November 10, 2026, which is right around six years flat. Line the two up and PS5 is marginally quicker, but with different reporting timing and different accounting basis, calling it a tie is the fairer read.
What makes it interesting is that this tie was produced under completely different conditions. PS4 sold worldwide despite a Japanese launch that trailed the overseas release by months, arriving on February 22, 2014. PS5, by contrast, spent nearly two years with supply unable to keep up because of the semiconductor shortage, and scalper pricing stayed in the headlines throughout. On top of that, Japan saw price increases from 2024 onward. Matching PS4’s six years under those circumstances means the slow start was fully clawed back in the back half.
How should the 100 million figure be read?
Read it not as a console scoreboard but as confirmation that the software and services foundation is complete. 100 million is the scale at which third parties can build a business on PS5 alone, and it is also ammunition for deciding to wrap up cross-gen support with PS4.
There is a caveat, though. PS5 is well past the midpoint of its generation, and the higher-end PS5 Pro is already out. The remaining lifespan at the moment it reached 100 million has to be shorter than PS4’s was at the same unit count, so growth from here is unlikely to form the long straight line needed to chase PS2’s record.
Even so, the fact that a generation which began in shortage got this far is not in dispute. Personally, I am less interested in the numbers from here than in how many developers decide they can build PS5-only.
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Summary: PS5 reaches 100 million as PlayStation’s fourth console to hit the mark
PS5’s worldwide cumulative sell-through passed 100 million units as of November 10, 2026. It is the fourth PlayStation platform to reach 100 million, after the original PlayStation, PS2 and PS4, with the all-time high still held by PS2 at more than 160 million units (as of March 31, 2012).
PS4’s 106 million was reported on January 7, 2020, roughly six years and two months after its November 15, 2013 overseas launch. PS5 took about six years from its November 12, 2020 launch, making the pace near identical. Posting that number through shortages and price hikes deserves full credit.
PS5’s 100 million is a number built on persistence, not momentum. A generation that fell behind on supply ended up level with PS4 at the same milestone in about the same six years. Rather than burning it as console-war fuel, the practical way to see it is as the signal that third parties have reached the scale where they can greenlight projects for PS5 alone.
The thing to watch next is not unit counts but how many PS5-only titles ship with PS4 support dropped.
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Nokko Oda
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