This article is published in collaboration with Statista
by Felix Richter
While the latest generation of video game consoles, Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X have been notoriously hard to find since their respective launches in November 2020, Nintendo's flagship console, the Switch, has continued to climb the ladder in the video game hall of fame. Since its launch in 2017, the hybrid console has hit a nerve with customers, making it the most successful home console ever in Nintendo's long history of hits and misses.
As of March 31, 2023, Nintendo had sold more than 125 million units of the Switch, lifting it above the Wii, the original PlayStation and the PS4 to become the second best-selling home console of all time. As the following chart shows, Sony has been dominating the gaming landscape for the past two and a half decades, with three of its PlayStation consoles now in the top 4. According to official figures from Sony, the company sold more than 155 million PS2 units since its launch, making it the most successful video game console for the living room by a wide margin. Following its arrival in 2000, the PlayStation 2 was an instant hit and remained popular for a very long time. Even though its successor arrived in 2006, the PS2 remained in production until 2013 as an affordable entry-level system.
So will the Switch eventually catch up with the long-discontinued PS2 or even surpass it? At this point it looks very doubtful. Considering that the Switch still trails the PS2 by 30 million units and sales have slowed quite significantly in the last two years, the PlayStation 2 has a decent change to retain its title for now.
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