For single product page, I tested it with the themes: ShoppingCart and Storefront and it works fine :
in function.php
:
function shoppingcart_setup(){
add_filter('woocommerce_short_description', function(){
global $product;
$units_sold = $product->get_total_sales();
if ( $units_sold ) return '<p>' . sprintf( __( 'Sold: %s', 'woocommerce' ), $units_sold ) . '</p>';
}, 10, 2);
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'shoppingcart_setup' );
Note: If you checked: Manage Stock, this code does not work