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Pixel P&L: PlayStation 5 Proves Consoles Don't Need to Die in Five Years

Pixel P&L: PlayStation 5 Proves Consoles Don't Need to Die in Five Years

AFK Gaming Editorial
February 06, 2026

Welcome to another Pixel P&L edition. This issue takes 5 minutes to read. If you only have one, here are the 5 most important things:

Sony's PS5 outsold Switch 2 last quarter despite launching four years ago.
Mobile gaming growth stalls at 0.2% as the industry hits saturation.
The Esports World Cup launches a 230-tournament qualification path with a $75 million prize pool.
Philippines Senate backs esports development after Mobile Legends championship win.
Valve delays Steam Machine pricing due to memory shortage.

Let's get into it.

Sony Stockpiles Memory as PS5 Defies Age, Outsells Switch 2

Sony's PlayStation 5 continues to defy console lifecycle expectations, moving 8 million units last quarter, edging out Nintendo's Switch 2 despite launching four years ago and lacking major exclusive releases.

The strong performance came without Grand Theft Auto 6, which remains on track for late 2026. Sony leveraged aggressive holiday discounts, pricing the digital PS5 at $400 versus Switch 2's $450. Nintendo sold 8.3 million consoles total when counting 1.3 million original Switch units.

In Sony’s latest earnings call, CFO Lin Tao told investors the company is securing memory supplies to avoid shortages during next year's holiday season. Rather than raise hardware prices again, Sony plans to protect margins through software and services revenue from its existing install base.

The strategy appears effective. PlayStation Network reached 132 million active accounts last quarter, up 2% year-over-year, suggesting significant PS4 users remain engaged. Ghost of Yotei outsold its predecessor Ghost of Tsushima in the same launch window despite online controversy, moving 3.3 million copies through November.

Cross-platform expansion also continues paying dividends. Sony generated $2.37 billion from PC and Xbox releases, including Spider-Man 2 and MLB: The Show. Helldivers 2's PC success likely inflated that figure, but the returns support earlier multiplatform launches for future titles.

Mobile Gaming Growth Stalls as Market Reaches Saturation

Mobile gaming revenue grew just 0.2% in 2025, down sharply from 3% the previous year, as the industry enters what data firm AppMagic calls "a more mature and competitive phase."

Downloads rose 4.6%, compared to 6.6% in 2024, signaling slowing momentum across once-hot markets. Growth among the top 10 mobile games has essentially flatlined, with modest gains in the UK, Germany and France offset by declines in South Korea and other Asian markets.

"These trends point to a maturing gaming market where competition is intensifying around a relatively fixed base of users and spending," AppMagic said.

Strategy games bucked the trend, with revenue up 16% and downloads rising 15%. Casino and RPG titles struggled—casino revenue fell 7.6% while RPG revenue dropped 16.6%.

Latin America shows clear saturation. Downloads declined 10% in Colombia and 8.4% in Argentina, though revenue climbed 33.2% in Argentina as existing players spent more.

Meanwhile, 56% of the top 100 grossing games now use AI in advertising campaigns, reflecting the technology's rapid adoption in mobile marketing.

⚡️Quick Bytes

Esports World Cup Launches 230-Tournament Qualification Path

The Esports World Cup Foundation unveiled a global qualification program featuring over 230 tournaments leading to its July event in Riyadh. The $75 million competition will run from July 6 to August 23, incorporating official leagues like Apex Legends Global Series alongside open qualifiers for grassroots players in games including Fortnite and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Philippines Senate Backs Esports Development After MLBB Championship Win

Following Aurora Gaming PH's Mobile Legends world championship victory, Philippine Senator Bam Aquino announced plans to integrate esports into education and economic policy. The initiative includes college scholarships for players, permanent inclusion in national student competitions, and incentives for local game developers to shift the country from consumers to creators of global titles.

Valve Delays Steam Machine Pricing Due to Component Shortage

Valve postponed announcing pricing and release dates for its Steam Machine console and Steam Frame VR headset as memory costs surge industrywide. DRAM contract prices jumped over 170% year-over-year following Samsung and SK's October agreement to supply OpenAI's data centers. Valve still plans to ship both products in the first half of 2026.

⚔️Side Quest

🤣Laugh:

This is not exactly gaming related, but I came across something so hilarious that I simply had to share it. A Reddit mod deleted this NASA astronaut's space photo for being "blurry." Yes, you are reading that right.

NASA's Don Pettit, the oldest active astronaut, posted this photo of a plane taken from the International Space Station to r/Aviation and a moderator promptly removed it for being "blurry" and "low effort." Perhaps next time they'll demand the astronaut use a tripod.

📺 Watch: Executive Producer & Vice President for World of Warcraft, Holly Longdale, reveals WoW's biggest pivot: player housing as a permanent third space where people host weddings and hang out, not just raid. Blizzard's building bite-sized content for aging gamers, shipping expansions faster without crunch, and leveraging Microsoft's resources while keeping creative control. The kicker: Midnight is their fastest expansion ever, supported by 8-week content drops to kill droughts.

🎮 Play: No, I'm not a Human delivers the most nihilistic horror experience in recent memory. Its unique art style amplifies the Lovecraftian dread into constant anxiety, and cleverly written characters pull you deeper into alienation. Fair warning: it's so demoralizing you might not replay it immediately. Still worth experiencing once, even if you never touch it again.

📚 Read: Polygon reconstructs Kojima Productions LA's brief existence through six former employees. Konami built a 30,000-square-foot Playa Vista studio to make Metal Gear multiplayer work, but Fox Engine struggles, Tokyo approval bottlenecks, and missing dedicated servers doomed the project. Then Kojima left. The studio pitched Silent Hill, Bomberman, and a parkour Snake origin story… all rejected before shutdown.

💡Did You Know

YouTube generates more revenue than Netflix. The former revealed its total revenue for the first time in Alphabet’s latest earnings report, and the number is staggering. Parent company Alphabet disclosed that the platform generated over $60 billion in 2025, combining advertising and subscriptions. That puts YouTube ahead of Netflix, which reported $45.18 billion in revenue for the same period. Among entertainment companies, only Disney reported higher revenue at $95.7 billion. YouTube now boasts over 325 million paid subscriptions across YouTube Premium, YouTube TV, and Google One. The platform also saw viewers watch more than 700 million hours of podcasts on TVs in October 2025 alone, while YouTube Shorts averages 200 billion daily views.