Chips and high sales of the PlayStation 5 help Sony make its highest-ever annual profit.

• The sales of its flagship PlayStation 5 gaming console and the chip division helped Sony on Friday announce record yearly operating revenue.
• In the fiscal year, Sony reported selling 19.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles, exceeding its own projection of 18 million.
• An operating profit of 1.21 trillion yen, a record for Sony, was revealed.

On Friday, Sony announced record yearly operating revenue, aided by its semiconductor business and record-breaking sales of its newest PlayStation 5 game console.

Comparing actual results against Refinitiv consensus estimates for the March quarter, Sony did as follows:

• Revenue: 3.06 trillion Japanese yen ($22.7 billion) as opposed to the predicted 2.92 trillion yen. That is an increase of 35% from the prior year.
• Operating profit was 128.5 billion Japanese yen as opposed to the anticipated 124.34 billion yen. That reflects a decline of 7% year over year.

Sony had projected an operating profit of 1.18 trillion yen and revenue of 11.5 trillion yen for its whole fiscal year, which ended in March. The business achieved a record operating profit of 1.21 trillion yen, exceeding its own projection.

For the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024, Sony expects revenues of 11.5 trillion yen, or nearly flat from the previous year. It predicted that operating profit would total 1.17 trillion yen, down 3% from the previous year.

PlayStation 5 sales set a record

In the fiscal year, Sony reported selling 19.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles, exceeding its own projection of 18 million. In the prior fiscal year, when Sony was having supply chain challenges, 11.5 million PS5 systems were sold.

With an operating profit of 250 billion yen, despite that figure being down 27% year over year, the gaming sector of the Japanese company was one of its largest profit drivers for the year.

Sony's game section achieved 3.64 trillion yen in income for the fiscal year, an increase of 33% over the previous year. The industry generated the most sales for Sony.

For the current fiscal year, Sony predicted that its gaming division would generate an operating profit of 270 billion yen. The business is anticipating that sales of PlayStation VR 2, its virtual reality gaming device, would increase. The business predicted that hardware profits will increase the next year.

In the current fiscal year, Sony stated that it plans to sell 25 million PS5 systems. If accomplished, this would be a PS5 record.

Chips and music boost profit

Image sensor chips from Sony are sold for use in smartphones and other camera equipment. Profits from its image sensor business increased 36% year over year to 212.2 billion yen in the fiscal year that ended on March 31.

Despite this, the business anticipates a 5.7% decline in operating profit for the division in the current fiscal year due to a drop in demand, particularly from Chinese smartphone manufacturers.

The company's music division, which represents singers including Adele and Beyoncé, saw profit increase 24.7% year over year to 263.1 billion yen in the fiscal year that ended on March 31. By profit, it was Sony's largest enterprise.