- PS5 stock has been hard to come by since the console launched on November 12th, but a new report suggests that Sony plans to ship up to 18 million PS5s in 2021.
- AMD makes the custom CPU for the PS5, and according to industry sources, the chipmaker has secured capacity to ramp up production in the coming weeks.
- Now that the holidays are over, finding a PS5 should be much easier in 2021.
Finding a PS5 has been incredibly difficult due to scalper bots and sporadic restocks, but according to Digitimes, that didn’t stop Sony from shipping a record-breaking number of consoles this fall. The paywalled report claims that Sony managed to ship 3.4 million PS5 consoles in its first four weeks of availability.
That’s certainly an impressive achievement, but the holidays are over and countless consumers are still hunting for a console. The good news is that the report also says that Sony plans to ship between 16.8 million and 18 million units in 2021, which means that the consoles should be far more readily available in the coming weeks.
One of the reasons that PS5 restocks should start occurring more frequently is that the components needed to build a PS5 are starting to be produced at a faster rate.
As shared by Tom’s Guide, Digitimes explains that AMD has secured additional capacity from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to ramp up production of its custom 7nm CPUs for the PS5. Production will jump by 40-50% as a result, which means AMD will be able to manufacture 1.4 to 1.5 million CPUs in 2021. The more CPUs AMD makes, the more PS5s Sony can make, and the more of us can actually buy one online.
Earlier this year, reports noted that Sony wanted to ship 5 to 6 million PS5 consoles by March 2021, but that number was later revised to 10 million units as demand for the next-generation console grew ahead of launch. If the Digitimes report is accurate and Sony did manage to ship 3.4 million consoles in November and December, it should be well on its way to shipping 10 million consoles before the end of the next quarter.
In the meantime, now that Black Friday and the holiday shopping rush are officially behind us, finding a PS5 shouldn’t be quite as impossible. Target actually had a restock earlier this week, and consoles have been appearing on Amazon infrequently as well. If you want the best chance of snagging a unit the second that it goes live, follow Wario64, Cheap Ass Gamer, and IGN Deals on Twitter, all of which do a great job of providing instant updates on new stock. They’ve been incredibly helpful over the past two months, but hopefully their services won’t be necessary much longer as Sony ramps up production of the PS5 in 2021. Keep an eye on all your favorite retailers.
