Nintendo released their quarterly financials recently and the numbers don’t lie. 17M Switch 2 consoles in 7 months has never been done before and the Nintendoomed hate should be silenced (it won’t be, ‘cos haters gonna hate). And now Switch 1 has surpassed 155M (DS was at 154M) making it the best selling Nintendo console ever. This brings back the topic: will it outsell the “goat” PS2 that sits at 160M produced (not sold…produced)?
Sony *says* they sold through more than 160M PS2 consoles and produced 160,636,885 units when they showed off the aforementioned trophy last console (with shitty 3D printed stand). Actual financial reports Sony released in 2012 (the last time PS2 was being officially tracked for financial reports) put PS2 at 155M, but they did continue to produce the console until 2013. For over a decade the official count for PS2 was 155M…until Nintendo Switch was quickly catching up to that number. Many years later in 2024 Sony celebrated PlayStation’s 30TH anniversary by touting PS2 was “one of the biggest-selling” (notice the wording there) with over 160M sold. If it really sold through 160M consoles to consumers in the ad, wouldn’t that make it THE best selling console and not “one of” the best selling?
Yes, I am a biased Nintendo fanboy, and in the end this doesn’t matter…but…I don’t think they sold over 160M PS2 consoles. They have already committed to the 160,636,885 *produced* number…but produced does not mean sold. What were the manufacturing yields, how many of these were warranty replacements, how many were for giveaway prizes, how many were damaged/lost in transport, how many of these were for (retailer, event, trade show, etc.) kiosks…what are these numbers and were they factored in for sold or produced? If produced (again, not sold) actually means produced then the numbers for unsold bad yields, warranty replacements, demo kiosks, etc. should be subtracted to get sold numbers. The average yield for consoles back then were 2% to 3% which means you have to take out 3.2M to 4.8M right there…and that’s just the yields! Am I reaching for straws by saying that we have to subtract 3M to 5M consoles from their 160M number…no…’cos produced doesn’t mean sold!
For over a decade PS2 was recorded in the books officially at 155M sold. Magically, as Nintendo Switch approached that number, Sony says they sold over 160M all the sudden. Not knocking the PS2 as a platform, just pointing out the shadiness in how that happened…and the worst part is that everyone reported it as fact without asking important questions. Sony’s own wording of PS2 being “one of the biggest-selling” and that their trophy last console says produced and not sold does not mesh with them saying it sold over 160M units. If they were being truly honest at the time they gave this information they should’ve given an official sold number (not just produced) on their financial reports and they would say it was the best selling video game console, not just one of the best…but they didn’t (to avoid fraudulent claims against them with clever wording). Their last official numbers of shipped (also not sold, but shipped is better than produced) PS2 consoles have to be extrapolated by monkeying with numbers of all PlayStation shipped hardware in 2013 (by subtracting PS3, PSP, PS vita numbers) to maybe get PS2 to 158M.
Ignoring all the points I make above on why I don’t trust the 160M PS2 sold number, in the end, when Switch ends up passing 160M…the haters will just move the goalposts again to downplay Nintendo’s success and uphold Sony’s “goat” status, but Switch (sold) numbers won’t lie!