PlayStation first-party game sales have been sliding for five years — Ghost of Yotei finally turned the tide

Sony's first-party PlayStation game sales have dropped every financial year since April 2020, when a pandemic-era gaming boom and heavy hitters like The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima inflated the numbers. The streak finally broke last year — April 2025 to March 2026 — with a modest uptick driven by Ghost of Yotei. The data comes from Game File's Stephen Totilo, published on the eve of Sony's State of Play showcase.

The slide happened despite some genuine blockbusters. Helldivers 2 is still the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, God of War Ragnarök was massive, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 sold millions, and Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7 were major launches. Astro Bot earned critical acclaim even if its sales were modest. But remakes and remasters — of which Sony has released several — haven't closed the gap. On the other side of the ledger, Concord was a catastrophic failure, shut down within weeks of launch alongside developer Firewalk. Canceled projects pile up too: The Last of Us Online, a Bluepoint-developed God of War live-service game that never even reached announcement, a Twisted Metal live-service title, and multiple projects at Sony Bend. Haven Studios' Fairgames is still officially alive but may have been renamed.

Several Sony studios simply haven't shipped a new game in years. Naughty Dog's last original release was The Last of Us Part II six years ago — Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is in development but has no release date. Bend Studio's last game was Days Gone in 2019. Media Molecule hasn't released anything since Dreams in 2020. Gran Turismo 7 launched as a cross-gen title four years ago and keeps getting updates, but a proper new entry is overdue. All those gaps and cancellations have left a visible hole in Sony's release schedule. It's worth noting that total PlayStation game sales — including third-party titles — have actually risen, so the platform itself is healthy. The problem is specifically Sony-published output.

Sony is banking on Marvel's Wolverine from Insomniac and Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet to reverse the trend more decisively. Not yet reflected in the data are Housemarque's Saros and Bungie's Marathon, both of which appear to have missed sales targets. Tonight's State of Play should give a clearer picture of what Sony's release pipeline actually looks like going forward.