New Delhi, Apr 28 (IANS): Sony has sold 38.4 million PlayStations 5 gaming consoles to date, shipping 6.3 million PS5 in the March quarter alone, the Japanese giant said on Friday.

According to the company's latest quarterly earnings, the company shipped 19.1 million PS5 in the fiscal 2022, beating its earlier forecast of 18 million.

The monthly active users of PlayStation Network went up from 106 million to 108 million. However, the number of PS Plus subscribers was flat at 47.4 million.

The company posted record annual operating revenue, helped by its chip division and sales of its PS5 gaming console. Sony reported 3.06 trillion Japanese yen ($22.5 billion) in revenue (up 35 per cent YoY) and 1.21 trillion yen in operating profit, a record for the company.

According to CNBC, the Japanese giant's gaming division was one of its biggest profit drivers for the year, bringing in operating profit of 250 billion yen, although that was down 27 per cent year-on-year.

For the fiscal year, Sony's gaming division brought in revenue of 3.64 trillion yen, up 33 per cent year-on-year.

Sony said that it aims to sell 25 million PS5 units in the current financial year. The company is competing with Nintendo's Switch console and Microsoft's Xbox.

Sony is reportedly set to launch its PlayStation 5 Pro (PS5 Pro) gaming console late next year. The new console will be the upgraded version of the current PlayStation 5 (PS5).

The tech giant is also expected to launch a PS5 with a detachable disc drive later this year because the company is planning to reduce the cost of the current-generation gaming console.

In January this year, the Japanese company had unveiled a customisable accessibility controller kit for PS5 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023.