Sony has released its full-year financial results, reporting stable sales and a modest increase in operating income for its Games & Network Services segment (G&NS).
However, performance in this segment was affected by a 41.6% decline in Q4 operating income and lower PlayStation 5 unit sales for the year.
Sony also recorded a ¥120.1 billion ($765 million) impairment related to Bungie after its title portfolio – which includes Destiny 2 and Marathon – did not meet expectations.
Here’s what you need to know:
The numbers
Full-year (12 months ended March 31, 2026)
- Net sales: ¥12.5 trillion ($79.7 billion, up 3.7% year-over-year)
- Operating income: ¥1.4 trillion ($8.9 billion, up 13.4% year-over-year)
- Game & Network Services net sales: ¥4.7 trillion ($29.9 billion, up 0.3% year-over-year)
- Game & Network Services operating income: ¥463.3 billion ($2.9 billion, up 12%)
Q4 (three months ended March 31, 2026)
- Net sales: ¥3.03 trillion ($19.3 billion, up 8.3% year-over-year)
- Operating income: ¥163.5 billion ($1.04 billion, up 24% year-over-year)
- Game & Network Services net sales: ¥1.02 trillion ($6.5 billion, down 2.8% year-over-year)
- Game & Network Services operating income: ¥54.1 billion ($345.1 million, down 41.6% year-over-year)
The highlights
Revenue for Sony’s G&NS segment remained flat for the year, supported by a 13.9% increase in network services sales to ¥763.1 billion ($4.8 billion). Monthly active users increased in the fourth quarter to 125 million.
Non-first-party software sales increased to 317.9 million units, up from 303.3 million last year. First-party game sales also rose from 28.9 million to 32.1 million.
Total software sales reached ¥2.6 trillion ($16.5 billion), with digital software and add-ons increasing 5.5% to ¥2.4 trillion ($15.3 billion).
G&NS operating income reached a record high, driven by higher sales and favorable foreign exchange rates despite the impairment loss from Bungie.
Sony previously reported a ¥31.5 billion ($204.2 million) impairment charge after Destiny 2’s underperformance in Q2 and has now recorded an additional ¥88.6 billion ($565 million) impairment in Q4.
Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon launched during the fourth quarter, with Sony noting that “player reception is strong” and “engagement metrics such as retention also remain at a high level.”
“Going forward, we aim to improve the performance of the game by working to retain highly engaged core users through the introduction of additional content, further improvements in the gameplay experience and expansion of the user base,” it said.
Hardware revenue and unit sales declined, with annual revenue down 12.1% to ¥1.4 trillion and Q4 revenue down 28.4% to ¥209.1 billion ($1.3 billion).
Hardware revenue continued to decline during FY25 | Image credit: Amanz via Unsplash
PlayStation 5 unit sales declined to 16 million from 18.5 million last year. In the fourth quarter, 1.5 million units were sold, compared to 2.8 million in the same period last year.
Cumulative PS5 sales have surpassed 93 million. Sony attributes stable profits from software and network services to the expanding install base.
Sony addressed the potential for further price increases, having recently announced global price rises for the US, UK, Europe, and Japan in March, and for South Korea and Southeast Asia in April.
“We plan to base our PS5 hardware sales in FY26 on the volume of memory we can procure at reasonable prices, and we expect hardware profitability to be essentially the same as FY25. If circumstances change going forward, we plan to manage the impact on profitability by flexibly adjusting, among other things, unit sales and promotional plans.”
Looking ahead, Sony forecasts a 6% decrease in G&NS segment revenue to ¥4.4 trillion ($28 billion) and a 30% increase in operating income to ¥600 billion ($3.8 billion).
