Kids play Fortnite on PS4 not Mario

This thread delivered many more baffling responses than I expected. While I did say in the original post that I would delve into a deep analysis, that was never going to happen. That's because the numbers show that Sony's dominance in Europe is a myth, therefore the premise is wrong, therefore there's no problem that needs to be addressed.

The original PlayStation launched over 22 years ago and since then Sony has beat Nintendo in consoles sales by less than 1m units per year on average. That's nowhere close to dominance when the size of the European market is considered.

Some may say that the presented data is skewed because handheld consoles are included, but since Switch is the successor to both Nintendo's home console and handheld console lines, it is mandatory for handhelds to be included. Otherwise it would be impossible to make any sort of competent and credible analysis of the European market.

The Switch's current hardware price (€330 in almost all countries that use € as currency) prevents it from harnessing the majority of Europe's handheld market at the moment, but it's a given that the price will go down eventually, so in the future Nintendo can fully exploit the monopoly they have obtained. Someone like fatslob may laugh at this thread (again, I don't believe that he believes what he says) because the PS4 sold 6m in the timeframe that Switch sold 3.9m, but so far Switch has sold first and foremost to the people who buy Nintendo home consoles, so Nintendo's full strength has yet to materialize in the European market.

And yes, Nintendo's home consoles may not have sold well in Europe when they were global failures, but that's a completely irrelevant point when Switch is already established as a global success.

Some may say that the presented data is skewed because handheld consoles are included, but since Switch is the successor to both Nintendo's home console and handheld console lines, it is mandatory for handhelds to be included. Otherwise it would be impossible to make any sort of competent and credible analysis of the European market.

They should sponsor a soccer team or cycling team (much cheaper).

Here are some observations I have made about the European market.  The UK console market is the largest market for any single European country, however it seems significantly different than the console market for mainland Europe.  In the UK Microsoft does fairly well and Nintendo has a harder time.  In the rest of Europe Nintendo does extremely well, but Microsoft has a much harder time.  Sony does well everywhere.  So when you lump all of these countries together it tends to put Sony on top, because it is doing well everywhere.

I would say if Nintendo wants to do better it needs 2 different strategies.  In the UK it needs to convince Sony/Microsoft consumers to "Switch" to Nintendo.  In the rest of Europe Nintendo simply needs to grow the market.  It's already #1 in a lot of European countries, but it can still bring in more people.