Well, it did manage 17.7M the prior year
During its fiscal year going from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016, Sony sold 17.7 million PlayStation 4 consoles (several million more than the Wii U’s lifetime sales), which actually beat Sony’s 17.5 million expectation.
For the following fiscal year, which started April 1, 2016 and ends March 31, 2017, Sony thinks it will sell 20 million more units, crossing the 60 million consoles sold threshold for the system to date.
And there’s reason to believe it can do that. Or, rather, there’s not much reason to believe Sony can’t build on last year’s numbers aside from natural limitations (everyone who wants a PS4 already has one? Well, probably not).
Sony didn’t really have a huge exclusive in that 17.7M year (though Bloodborne did come out a week before it started counting sales), whereas this 20M projected year already has Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which on its own sold about as well in its first week (~2.7 million) as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is estimated to have sold (~3 million) across five systems. The PS4 should have a much stronger exclusive catalog this year plus some hardware stuff that will generate excitement (PlayStation 4 Neo, PlayStation VR). That could mean an even stronger year for the clear favorite this generation.
