It’s all about games folks.. PS5 did great because it has the best launch lineup in PlayStation history.
Looking at the 1st year exclusives, I'd say it will have the best 1st year line-up (and sales) ever in gaming history, not only PlayStation.
Considering all consoles are sold out doesn’t this just come down to how many were produced and available?
Yes
Could it be those people who said PS5 would sell over 200 million may have been onto something, or is this just an anomaly?
Launch aligned PS4 is outselling the PS2, the best selling console ever that sold ~155M.
PS5 fixed some issues PS4 had, started with a way bigger userbase from previous gen and a great BC to make easier the transition, its rival will release all their 1st party game on PC and way 'cheaper' because even will be included in a subscription there, so the people who will buy the rival due to exclusives this time will be way smaller. Multis look as of now pretty similar in both consoles but in PS5 have the extra of shorter loadings (soon with Oodle Texture should be even shorter) and extra features like the gamepad ones.
PS5 launch games outsold the PS4 and looking at the 1st year games line-up (specially to the PS exclusives) seems very likely that the 1st year sales of the console will be way stronger than the 1st year PS4 sales.
So if PS4 outsells that ~155M and PS5 outsells PS4 it wouldn't be too crazy to think PS5 may reach 200M or at least to end somewhere close.
Why isn't it adding up?
Supply issues are relative to their desire to supply even more PS5s than they could at launch, nothing to do with the production process or expectations of the PS4.
Both Sony and MS said they shipped all the units they could produce, and couldn't produce more units. So sales are constrained by production. With both consoles sold out worldwide -PS5 get sold out in a few minutes when a new retailer had more stock- it's pretty clear that if they were able to produce more units they'd sell them.