Nintendo Switch Surpasses PS3 and Xbox 360 in Lifetime Sales

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, remain notoriously hard to find nine months after their respective launches in November 2020, Nintendo is seizing its opportunity as the industry's not so dark horse. Ever since the pandemic hit in March 2020, the company's flagship console, the Nintendo Switch, has been selling like hotcakes, putting it on track to become the most successful home console ever in Nintendo's long history of hits and misses.

Over the past 18 months, Nintendo has sold more than 36 million units of the Switch, putting it within reach of surpassing the original PlayStation and the Wii to become the third best-selling 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 occupying the podium in the gaming hall of fame.

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.

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