With the differences between console generations minimal in terms of gameplay and visuals, and most games remaining playable on both current and last-gen consoles, millions of people have opted to stick with theirPS4instead of buying aPS5. However, as confirmed byPlayStation’s most recent data, the balance of power has officially changed.
Detailed during Sony’s annual business meeting, andreported by VGC, the PS5’s active monthly user count is higher than the PS4 equivalent. Even though the PS5 is already approaching its fifth birthday, this is the first time in the console’s history that it has had more active users than its older sibling.
That 2025 would be the year when the scales finally tipped in the PS5’s favor was always likely. During the same meeting last year, Sony revealed that there was a 50/50 split between active users on the PS5 and the PS4. It didn’t provide exact numbers this year, however, as you may see in the slide below, the section of the active users bar that represents those playing on PS5 is significantly bigger than the one representing the PS4.
More People Are Playing PS5s Than PS4s
It Has Taken Five Years For The Balance To Shift
It’s also worth noting that there are 124 million active users across PS5 and PS4. That’s not only a significant uptick on the 97 million figure reported last year, but you have to assume most of those new users are doing their gaming on PS5s.
As for what this means for the future of the PS4 and those who still use it remains unclear. Even though enough people have migrated over to PlayStation’s current gen that it now has more active users, there are still tens of millions of people using their PS4s. While pretty much all first-party PlayStation games are now PS5 exclusives, and have been for a while, other third-party studios continue to support the PS4 and other last-gen consoles.
Team Cherry, for example,updated Hollow Knight: Silksong’s website this week, further confirming that despite the eternal wait for its sequel,Silksongis still coming to PS4.Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which wasrevealed during last week’s Xbox Showcase, will also be getting a last-gen version.
There will be a time when the PS4 is eventually left behind forever. However, due to the smaller leap between generations and people sticking with their older consoles, support for them will have a longer tail than ever before. That will almost certainly be reflected with theSwitchtoo, although I imagine the balance between Switch andSwitch 2users will shift significantly quicker than it has done for the PS5 and the PS4.
PlayStation 5
The PlayStation 5 was launched in 2020 as Sony’s next-gen console, armed with an SSD and the new DualSense controller. Disc-based and digital models are available, and it supports the new PS VR2 virtual reality headset.
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 was Sony’s entry in the eighth console generation, launched in 2013 with a custom AMD APU under the hood. Shipping more than 117 million units, it got a mid-gen refresh in the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro.
