With the sales for the PlayStation 5 failing to meet expectations, Sony has confirmed that the console has entered the “latter stage of its life cycle.”

Initially, Sony had aimed to achieve a lofty goal of 25 million PS5 units sold by the end of the current fiscal year, concluding on March 31, 2025. However, due to underwhelming sales during the pivotal holiday quarter of 2023, the company has recalibrated its projections downward to 21 million units.

As per a recent Bloomberg report, Naomi Matsuoka, Senior Vice President at Sony, has stated that the company anticipates the sales momentum of the PS5 to begin declining in the upcoming fiscal year.

“Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle,” Matsuoka said. “As such, we will put more emphasis on the balance between profitability and sales. For this reason, we expect the annual sales pace of PS5 hardware will start falling from the next fiscal year.”

The PlayStation 5 made its debut in November 2020 but faced significant challenges in availability for nearly two years post-launch due to global supply chain constraints. During this extended period, whenever online retailers sporadically restocked PS5 units, they were quickly seized by resellers. These resellers then resold the consoles on the secondary market, commanding significant markups.

In just over three years since its launch, the PlayStation 5 has managed to sell a total of 54.7 million copies across the globe,

Now that Sony has confirmed the PS5’s entry into the latter half of its life cycle, gamers are undoubtedly eager to anticipate its next iteration, the PlayStation 6.