Sony’s Cheap Japan PS5 Still Lost Ground to the PS4

Japan’s PlayStation 5 fell another 71,410 units behind the PlayStation 4 on VGChartz’s aligned sales clock in June 2026, stretching the gap to 975,520. Analyst William D’Angelo’s monthly comparison lines the two machines up by months on sale, not by calendar year, and month 68 still belonged to the older box.

Sony already sells a cheaper, language-locked Digital Edition in Japan, and Hideaki Nishino, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has called that SKU a strategic investment it will recoup across the whole business. The June tally landed anyway.

How Far Is the PS5 Behind the PS4 in Japan?

The VGChartz aligned tally for June 2026, the 68th month of Japanese PS5 sales, puts the machine at 7,629,786 units against 8,605,306 for the PS4 at the same age, a 975,520-unit lead for the older console after the gap grew 71,410 that month. Over the trailing 12 months the PS4’s aligned pace still beat the PS5 by 640,565 units.

May had already left the PS5 904,110 behind, after a 14,228-unit swing to the PS4. June was the ugly follow-through, not a one-week blip. D’Angelo’s series has tracked that hole as it opened, and the June cut is the widest monthly step in this stretch of the ledger.

THE ALIGNED RACE THROUGH MID-2026

Those three months are the same dataset, not three trackers glued together. June’s PS5 add of 47,210 is also the Japan hardware figure D’Angelo posted for the month, so the comparison and the shelf count agree on the current machine.

Month 68 Is When the PS4 Crossed 8.5 Million

June 2026 is month 68 for the PS5 in Japan. For the PS4, month 68 was September 2019, and VGChartz’s earlier cuts in this series mark that age as the point the PS4 crossed 8.5 million Japanese units. The PS5, at the same birthday, is still 7,629,786.

The PS4 then kept climbing. It crossed 9 million in month 72 and 9.5 million in month 84, and D’Angelo puts its Japanese lifetime at 9.68 million. The PS5 is 2.05 million behind that finished total, with four months still to go before it even reaches the age when the PS4 first touched 9 million.

THE HOME-MARKET CLOCK

1. February 2014: The PlayStation 4 goes on sale in Japan.
2. November 2020: The PlayStation 5 launches in Japan, so the two holiday seasons never sit on the same month.
3. November 21, 2025: The Japanese-language Digital Edition launched at 55,000 yen, locked to Japanese as the system language.
4. June 2026: Month 68; the aligned PS4 lead stands at 975,520 after a 71,410-unit swing.
5. July 2026: Month 69; the PS5 trims 7,147 off that lead, which is still 968,373.

Nishino told Famitsu that last fiscal year’s global PS5 run was 16 million units, and that PlayStation Plus is still growing. Japan is the market where that global machine has not copied the last PlayStation’s local curve.

Switch 2 Moved 137,891 Japanese Consoles in June

The aligned PS4 comparison is a history test. The June shelf was a Nintendo month. VGChartz’s Japan hardware estimates put Switch 2 at 137,891 units, the PS5 at 47,210, the original Switch at 36,216, and Xbox Series consoles at 2,897. Switch 2’s Japanese lifetime in that cut is 6,164,532, already within shouting distance of the PS5’s 7,629,786 after a little more than a year on sale.

JAPAN HARDWARE IN JUNE 2026

Against the PS4’s own June 2019 month, which sold 98,485 Japanese units, the PS5 was down by just over 51,000. Year on year the PS5 itself was down 9,723 units, or 17.1%. Switch 2 was coming off its first birthday hangover and still more than doubled the PS5. The same estimates left Xbox’s thinner Japan hardware base under 3,000 units for the month and 705,244 for the generation.

Famitsu’s weekly mix shows where PS5 volume actually sits. In the week of June 15 to 21, the digital SKU sold 8,024 units, the Pro sold 1,165, and the disc PS5 sold 260. Switch 2 sold 26,435 that week and passed the disc PS5’s Japanese lifetime, 5,940,500 to 5,920,682. The PS5 family still totaled 9,449, because the cheap digital box is doing the work the disc model no longer does.

Sony Is Selling a Japan-Locked PS5 at 55,000 Yen

The volume SKU is not the global Digital Edition. It is a Japan-only model, CFI-2200B01, with 825GB of storage, and Sony lists the Japan-only Digital Edition at 55,000 yen including tax, about $340, which undercuts the language-locked Switch 2 at 59,980 yen after Nintendo’s 10,000 yen rise. The multi-language Digital Edition on the same shelves is 89,980 yen, the disc PS5 is 97,980 yen, and the PS5 Pro is 137,980 yen.

That 55,000 yen box is 34,980 yen cheaper than the multi-language Digital, and it is the one Nishino has to defend in a memory-price crunch. Famitsu sat him down in mid-May 2026, then published the interview on June 25, while June’s hardware month was still being counted.

We view the PS5 Digital Edition (Japanese-Language Only) model as a strategic investment. While I won’t disclose specific figures, we plan to recoup the costs through our overall business operations. Although the business situation differs from that of overseas markets, I’d like you to understand that this is an important and necessary investment for the Japanese market.

Hideaki Nishino, President and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Famitsu interview

He said the locked model exists because a weak yen was sending region-free Japanese units overseas, and a Japan-account SKU let Sony set a local price. He also said the company is putting money into Japan because it wants more PlayStation users there, not because it ranks the country above the United States or Europe. He called the early sales “a certain response” and said Sony would keep selling at that price to reach new buyers.

WHAT THE LOCKED DIGITAL ACTUALLY IS

• The language gate: The system language is Japanese only, and the unit is sold for domestic use.
• The account gate: Support pages limit the model to Japanese language and Japan accounts only, so a foreign PSN login will not run it.
• The disc catch: It ships without a drive, but Sony says a separately sold drive can be attached, the same as other Digital units.
• The date: Street date was November 21, 2025, with the GO! GO! PS5! promo around the fifth anniversary.

Nishino has been CEO since April 1, 2025. He also pointed to a Japan-only State of Play and said a global software pitch does not automatically work in a market whose charts move differently. The June aligned gap is what that pitch is up against.

The Holiday Calendars Still Do Not Line Up

D’Angelo flags the method’s built-in warp every month: the PS5 launched in November 2020 in Japan, the PS4 in February 2014, so Christmas never sits in the same numbered month. Anyone using the comparison as a courtroom exhibit has to hold that caveat. It does not invent the 640,565-unit trailing-year hole, and it does not explain why June, a non-holiday month on both clocks, still swung 71,410 toward the PS4.

Month 68 on the PS4 clock was a September. Month 68 on the PS5 clock was a June. If the missing Japanese New Year were the whole story, the 12-month aligned total would be the place it would show. That total still favors the PS4. The locked Digital has been on sale since November 2025, so June was not a pre-discount month either.

July Trimmed the Lead by 7,147 Units

July 2026, month 69, is the first later cut in the same series. The PS5’s Japanese total moved to 7,670,162 and the aligned PS4 total to 8,638,535, so the lead shrank by 7,147 to 968,373. The trailing 12 months still favor the PS4 by 575,249. One modest catch-up month does not rewrite June, and it leaves the PS5 2.01 million behind the PS4’s 9.68 million lifetime.

Month 72, when the PS4 crossed 9 million, is October 2026 on the PS5 clock. At July’s rate the current machine is not on a path that makes that mark look routine. Sony can still have a strong software quarter. The hardware comparison will keep printing the same columns either way.

Physical Charts Still Put Nintendo First

The locked Digital is a download box in a country that still treats Famitsu’s physical software list as the public scoreboard. Late summer did not change the hardware order. Famitsu’s week of August 24 to 30, 2026, put Switch 2 at 22,265, the original Switch at 8,847, the PS5 family at 7,351, and Xbox Series consoles at 298. The last-generation Nintendo handheld outsold Sony’s current living-room machine.

LATE SUMMER SHELF, WEEK OF AUGUST 24-30

• Switch 2: 22,265 units, still the weekly leader after the price rise.
• Original Switch: 8,847 units, ahead of the entire PS5 family.
• PS5 family: 7,351 units, with the cheap Digital still carrying most of that total in earlier June weeks.
• Xbox Series: 298 units, a rounding error on the same chart.

That mix is why a loss-leading Digital is a strange home-market bet. Japan still buys boxed games in public, families still default to Nintendo, and the PS5’s local volume SKU is the one without a drive in the carton. Sony will get some of those buyers if they add a drive later. The June aligned clock, and the August weekly order, both say most of them have not.

Nishino can keep calling 55,000 yen an investment. VGChartz’s month 68 still has the PS4 ahead by 975,520 units, and the original Switch can still beat the PS5 in a quiet week in Sony’s own market.