The Nintendo Switch Is Inches Away From Breaking PS2’s All-Time Sales Record
While it seemed possible the PS2 console sales record from the year 2000 might never be beaten, Nintendo has something to say about that. In its traditionally transparent reports, Nintendo has now confirmed that the original Switch has sold 156.69 million units, just behind the PS2’s 160 million units.
This comes after Nintendo added 660,000 Switch sales, and it still forecasts 2 million for the year. That would take the total to 158.69 million, just a million and a half away from the PS2. It does seem possible, if not likely it could surpass Sony’s console in another year or two, at most. The system has had an incredibly long tail, and though it should technically be “replaced” by Switch 2 purchases now, it’s still moving millions, nine years later. In this economy, being relatively cheap helps.
Nintendo reports the Switch 2 has now sold 23.68 million units. The console set sales speed records at launch, but has slowed since, with many citing the fact that it has few “must-have” titles right now (though Pokémon Pokopia is one of the highest-scored games of the year and one of Pokémon’s most successful spinoffs). However, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is coming, and there has still not been a new-era 3D Mario game.
I will note, however, that it’s interesting that the software disparity is enormously wide in favor of the original Switch. The Switch has sold 6.6x as much as the Switch 2, but 1,561.95 million software units to Switch 2’s 58.17 million. That’s a difference of 26x. Of course, the Switch 1 has been out a lot longer, and there are a lot more games for it. Notable, though.
How are Switch 2’s competitors doing? The only one we have firm data on is the PS5, which has sold 95 million units six years into its generation, behind the 117.2 million of the PS4 but ahead of the 87.4 million of the PS3. As for Xbox, we truly have no idea. Microsoft stopped reporting specific console sales years ago for fairly obvious reasons, and all we can see each quarter is the double-digit declines in hardware sales every time. Microsoft is now working hard to try to pull Xbox hardware out of a nosedive, but it is being thwarted by sky-high component costs that have dramatically raised prices of its hardware (that’s affected PlayStation as well), but also it is looking to the future for its next-gen console Xbox Helix, where many wonder if it could possibly arrive under $1000, given that a top-end Series X, now six years old, is currently $800, up from its launch price of $500.
Nintendo has been the least affected here, only raising the price of the Switch 2 by $50, though it didn’t want to have to do that either. We will see if its pace can end up matching the Switch, and if the Switch will, in fact, pass up PS2 to take the crown.
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