PlayStation 5
The PlayStation 5 is the home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the fifth iteration of their PlayStation brand. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea, and was released worldwide a week later. The PS5 is part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, along with Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S consoles, which were released in the same month.
The base model includes an optical disc drive compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. The Digital Edition lacks this drive, as a lower-cost model for buying games only through download. The two variants were launched simultaneously. Slimmer hardware revisions of both models replaced the original models on sale in November 2023. A PlayStation 5 Pro model was released on November 7, 2024, featuring a faster GPU, improved ray tracing, and introducing an AI-driven upscaling technology.
The PlayStation 5's main hardware features include a solid-state drive customized for high-speed data streaming to enable significant improvements in storage performance, an AMD GPU capable of 4K resolution display at up to 120 frames per second, hardware-accelerated ray tracing for realistic lighting and reflections, and the Tempest Engine for hardware-accelerated 3D audio effects. Other features include the DualSense controller with haptic feedback, backward compatibility with the majority of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games, and the PlayStation VR2 headset.
History
Development
The lead architect of the PlayStation console line, Mark Cerny, implemented a two-year feedback cycle after the launch of the PlayStation 4. This entailed regularly visiting Sony's first-party developers at two-year intervals to find out what concerns they had about Sony's hardware and how it could be improved in console refreshes or for the next generation. This feedback directly influenced the priorities of the development team. During the development of the PlayStation 5, a central challenge revolved around addressing the length of loading times for games. Cerny said several developers, including Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, told him that standard I/O speed of a hard disk drive was now a limiting factor in pushing game development. Slow data rates placed limits on the size of data being loaded into the game, the physical location of data on the storage medium, and the duplication of data across the medium in order to reduce load times. An important goal was to find ways to reduce loading time, particularly in games that stream or dynamically load new game areas as the player moves through the game world.Jim Ryan, then CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, stated that Sony had researched the feasibility of a "low priced, reduced spec" version of the PlayStation 5, like what Microsoft had done with its lower-power counterpart to the Xbox Series X, the Xbox Series S, and concluded that they believed such consoles do not fare well, becoming obsolete too fast.
Marketing and release
Cerny first publicly described the new console in an interview with Wired magazine in April 2019. In early 2019, Sony's financial report for the quarter ending March 31, 2019, affirmed that new next-generation hardware was in development but would ship no earlier than April 2020. In a second Wired magazine interview in October 2019, Sony said it intended to ship its next-generation console worldwide by the end of 2020. The current hardware specifications were revealed in October 2019. At CES 2020, Sony unveiled the official logo for the platform, which follows the similar minimalist styling of the previous PlayStation consoles and brand. Full specifications were given in an online presentation by Cerny and published by Sony and Digital Foundry on March 18, 2020. Digital Foundry spoke with Cerny in detail and published a "deep dive" on April 2.A major game library showcase had been planned for June 4, 2020, but was postponed until June 11 due to the George Floyd protests. This presentation was also the premiere of the PS5's external design.
Sony planned to launch the PlayStation 5 by the 2020 end-of-year holiday period.
The date and pricing was confirmed as part of a game showcase presentation on September 16, 2020; the release date in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea was confirmed for November 12, 2020, and for most of the rest of the world on November 19, 2020. The console was launched in the Philippines on December 11, 2020.
PlayStation 5's release in India was delayed, leading to speculation that a trademark dispute was the reason; the name "PS5" was briefly trademarked by a different person. Eventually, the dispute was resolved and the system released there on February 2, 2021. The console launched in Indonesia on January 22, 2021. The system launched in China on May 15, 2021.
The console launched with two models: a base version with an Ultra HD Blu-ray compatible optical disc drive for retail game support alongside online distribution via the PlayStation Store, and a lower-cost variant lacking the disc drive and retaining digital download support.
Following the September 16, 2020, presentation, Sony stated that pre-orders for the console were to open at various retailers on the following day. However, several retailers in the United States and the United Kingdom launched pre-orders that evening, causing a rush on pre-orders, including scalping as many stores' inventories were quickly sold out, and creating confusion. Sony apologized for the incident on September 19, 2020, and promised to increase more pre-order deliveries over the coming days and stock through the end of the year.
Worldwide supply of the console remained low due to a global chip shortage from 2020 to 2023. Sony expected a short retail stock until 2023; the company said that the supply chain issues were fixed. In August 2022, Sony announced a price increase by up to 20% in most of its markets except the US, citing global economic, inflationary, and supply chain pressures. A price increase in the US took effect in August 2025, citing a "challenging economic environment". Accessories were not affected.
Price history
Hardware
The PlayStation 5 features a custom system on a chip developed by AMD in collaboration with Sony, integrating both the CPU and GPU. The eight-core CPU is based on AMD's Zen 2 architecture and built on a 7 nm process, operating at a variable frequency up to 3.5 GHz. The GPU is based on AMD's RDNA 2 architecture, with 36 compute units running at up to 2.23 GHz, delivering a theoretical peak performance of 10.28 teraFLOPS. It also supports hardware-accelerated real-time ray tracing, a technique that simulates how light interacts with objects to produce more realistic lighting and shadows. The GPU is programmed via Sony's new graphics API named AGC. The PlayStation 5 includes a custom "boost" system based on AMD's SmartShift technology. This system dynamically adjusts the CPU and GPU speeds depending on what the game or application needs, balancing performance and power consumption.The console's cooling system uses a double-sided intake fan that is in diameter and thick, paired with a large heat sink utilizing a heat pipe design that Sony claims has a "shape and airflow make it possible to achieve the same performance as a vapor chamber". A layer of liquid metal between the chip and the heat sink improves heat transfer. The console uses a 350-watt internal power supply and is designed to consume less energy while in rest mode compared to the PlayStation 4.
The PlayStation 5 includes 16 GB of GDDR6 SDRAM connected via a 256-bit interface and capable of reaching a peak bandwidth of 448 GB/s. This unified memory pool is shared between the CPU and GPU. The console supports Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6. The console has a new audio processing system called the Tempest Engine, which supports hundreds of simultaneous sound sources, compared to 50 on the PlayStation 4.
Storage architecture
The PlayStation 5 features 825 GB of built-in solid-state storage, of which 667 GB is available to the user for game installation. The flash memory chips and controller are soldered directly to the motherboard, providing 5.5 GB/s of raw bandwidth via a 12-channel interface. A dedicated decompression unit supporting zlib and Oodle Kraken formats allows for typical throughput of 8–9 GB/s, peaking at 22 GB/s. An internal M.2-format solid-state drive slot supports user-installed NVMe drives up to 8 TB. SSD support was added in a system update in September 2021 following a public beta. PCI Express 3.0 and earlier M.2 SSDs are not supported by PlayStation 5.Games must be installed onto either the built-in SSD or an M.2 SSD. However, to save space, developers may allow selective installation of features such as a multiplayer mode. External USB drives are also supported; however, only PlayStation 4 games can be played directly from USB storage. PlayStation 5 games can be stored on an external drive but must be transferred to internal or SSD storage for gameplay.
The standard model includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive supporting Ultra HD Blu-ray, standard Blu-ray, and DVD formats, but not CDs or 3D Blu-rays. PlayStation 5 game discs can hold up to 100 GB of data, double the capacity of standard Blu-ray discs used for most PlayStation 4 games.
Form factor
The PlayStation 5's form factor was revealed during its June 11, 2020 presentation. The launch model features a two-tone design with a black central unit flanked by white side panels, matching the DualSense controller. Blue LEDs accent the edges. The console can be oriented vertically or horizontally. Long air intake vents run along the front, while heat is exhausted through vents at the rear. The console's large size in comparison to previous gaming consoles has drawn attention. This design allows for effective cooling management and reduced fan noise during operation. Senior Art Director Yujin Morisawa led the case design, balancing aesthetics with internal volume and airflow requirements.The side panels are removable, allowing access to components such as the SSD expansion slot and the optional Ultra HD Blu-ray drive. Two dust collection channels are also accessible for maintenance. Front ports on the launch versions of the console include one USB-C and one USB-A, while the rear offers two USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, Gigabit Ethernet, and power.
When in its vertical position, the launch version of the console with an optical disc drive measures high, deep, wide, and weighs. The digital edition is slightly slimmer at wide and initially weighed.