PlayStation reached a record 127 million monthly active users in September 2026, according to Sony data, pushing past active boycott campaigns over physical disc phaseouts.
User Growth and Digital Sales
Monthly active users on the PlayStation Network rose by eight million compared to the previous year, while adding two million users over the prior quarter, Gamekapocs reported.
Sony interactive business data and sales figures showed that the total gaming hours on the platform increased by four percent during the quarter. Digital downloads accounted for 78 percent of total full-game software sales. That figure marked a six percentage point jump over the previous year, according to GSPlus.hu.
Revenue from digital software reached 330.8 billion yen, representing an increase of 60.5 billion yen over the prior year. Physical game sales also climbed to 43.1 billion yen, rising by nearly eight billion yen compared to the same period. Total hardware shipments for the PlayStation 5 reached 97.9 million units globally by the end of September, according to Prohardver.
Campaigns Protest Sony Plans to Phase Out Discs
The user growth occurred despite months of public backlash, including the No Disc, No Buy and PS5 Blackout campaigns. Organizers launched these efforts to protest Sony’s plans to phase out physical game discs by 2028.
Protest groups, such as Does It Play, urged players to keep their consoles offline between August 23 and 30, and to cancel active subscriptions. PC Guru reported that participants also flooded social media channels with comments demanding an end to digital-only transitions.
Sony’s financial reports did not track exact participation numbers for the boycott. Push Square evaluated the situation and concluded that the protests failed to generate any measurable impact on PlayStation performance figures. Circana data from the United States similarly showed no changes in consumer behavior during the targeted weeks.
PlayStation 5 Shipments Fall as Profits Surge
Between July and September, Sony shipped 2.6 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide, which was 900,000 fewer than the same quarter in the previous year. Insomniac Games released Marvel’s Wolverine on September 15, 2026, and the title sold 2.4 million copies in its first fifty days, according to Prohardver.
The company reported that its video game division saw overall sales rise by nine percent, while operating profit surged by 83 percent. Sony absorbed rising memory component costs by cutting expenses and raising select prices, securing necessary hardware components ahead of the next fiscal year.
