The PlayStation 5 has been notoriously hard to get a hold of ever since it launched nearly two years ago. While Sony's consoles have previously been difficult to buy upon launch, especially the PS2, things usually improve by year two. While Sony has had to contend with unprecedented supply chain issues, such as computer chip shortages, it now seems the tide might finally be turning. The prospects for potential PS5 owners are looking up. According to David Gibson, a senior analyst at MST Financial, supply figures for Sony's console have improved drastically. While there has been anecdotal reports that there are more PS5s in circulation, Gibson found import data that confirms PlayStation shipments last month were up by over 400 percent year on year. However, this applies only to the United States.In fact, PlayStation imports have been steadily rising the past few months, with a chart showing progressively steep increases in shipment numbers since July. Gibson believes that the most recent shipment, which is a massive increase from this time last year, will help prepare inventory as Sony gears up for the launch of God of War Ragnarok.
Meanwhile, on the Xbox side, Gibson managed to make a chart too. For Microsoft's consoles, while the total number of shipments might not be as high as Sony's, there is also a year-on-year increase, with Gibson basing his estimates on "more interpretation to get the right sources", but it looks like supply into the US for September was up by more than 89 percent YoY.
However, Nintendo supply is not as good, with shipments down 59 percent YoY. But Gibson notes that Nintendo has been using air freight, while his data relies on sea freight, so it might not be as bad as that.
The increase in PS5 stock is making it easier than before to purchase one, in America at least, while the price of the console has remained the same too. In other territories such as the UK, however, the price of the PS5 rose in recent months, with Sony citing inflation and currency trends for the hike.