Nintendo Switch Shoves PS2 Aside To Become 2nd Best-Selling Game Console In The US
Nintendo's popular Switch console released in 2017 has been nothing short of a massive success, and it continues to rack up accolades. Its latest achievement (in a long line of them) is leapfrogging Sony's PlayStation 2 in lifetime console sales in the United States. It now only trails another super-popular Nintendo game console, the DS, which released way back in 2004.
The revelation comes courtesy of Mat Piscatella, Executive Director and Video Game Analyst at Circana (NPD), who provided some updated figures on Bluesky.
"Lifetime unit sales of Nintendo Switch have now exceeded those of PlayStation 2 in the U.S. market. With its 46.6 million sold life-to-date, Switch now ranks 2nd in all-time units sold across all video game hardware platforms in the U.S., trailing only Nintendo DS," Piscatella stated.
Separately, Piscatella told IGN that the Switch still trails the DS by 7 million units, so the older console remains in a comfortable lead. Given enough time, however, it's conceivable that the Switch could take the top spot. Either way, the sales figures are nothing short of impressive, especially considering that the PS2 was a monumental success.
In fact, the PS2 still ranks as the best-selling game console of all time when looking at global sales. Released in 2000, Sony managed to move over 160 million PS2 consoles during its lifetime, putting it ahead of the Nintendo DS at 154.02 million. In global sales, the Switch is in third place with 146.04 million units sold, a figure that includes all the variations (Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED).
It will be interesting to see how high the Switch can climb. We're in the midst of the holiday season, and that means another flurry of console sales will probably take place. At the same time, however, there's been plenty of chatter about a Switch successor, which Nintendo has confirmed on multiple occasions is coming. We still don't have a concrete release date, only that it will be here no later than March 2025 (barring a change in plans by Nintendo).
If you're a gamer, it's working digging into Piscatella's sprawling Bluesky thread, which lays out a whole bunch of gaming stats. For example, the analyst notes that the Sony's recently launched PlayStation 5 Pro console accounted 19% of total PlayStation 5 sales in November, and 28% of dollars. He also notes that dollar sales of the PS5 Pro during its launch month were more than 50% higher than the November 16 launch month sales of the PlayStation 4 Pro., while units were 12% lower.
There's plenty to digest in the thread, both on the hardware and software side.
