Circana (former NPD) Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella revealed in a BlueSky post that the Nintendo Switch has surpassed PlayStation 2’s lifetime console sales in the United States.
It’s undoubtedly a huge milestone. To this date, the PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling console of all time, with around 160 million units sold, although that’s a global figure. In the United States, the PlayStation 2 has sold 53 million units, which means the Nintendo Switch is now slightly over that number. There’s actually another console that sold even more: the Nintendo DS, with its 57 million units. However, the DS was a handheld-only console, whereas the Switch is a hybrid console, making it directly comparable with the PS2.
Globally, the Nintendo Switch is still a bit far from the PS2. Around three months ago, we learned that the hybrid hardware had sold 146 million units, and its sales have been slowing down over the past year or so. With the Switch 2 about to be announced, it’s unlikely the original will be able to gather enough momentum to push past the PlayStation 2 and sit on the throne of all-time console sales.
Even so, it remains a smashing success for Nintendo, and it wasn’t at all a given. Looking at Nintendo’s history, they’ve gone from successful consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which sold 61.91 million and 49.1 million units, respectively) to much less fortunate projects, like the Nintendo 64 (32 million units) and the GameCube (21.74 million consoles). The Wii returned Nintendo to its glory days and broke the milestone of a hundred million consoles sold, partly thanks to the motion control fad. But then the Wii U was another big flop, selling only 13.5 million units, the lowest ever for Nintendo.
It’s hard to gauge what will happen with the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, although the fact that it’s rumored to carry over the same concepts as the Switch makes fans hopeful it will be another success story. Analysts are already bullish about it, that’s for sure.
