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quickrick on 18 November 2017
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Shadow1980 said:
quickrick said:

 I agree with you. In the end its better to start comparing monthly sales starting this year for switch november vs ps4 november 2014. my issue was people comparing ps4 holiday WW shipments vs switch holiday post launch. we look at all the holiday launches with very successful consoles, and holiday launches have pathetic shipments for the quarter compared to regular holidays because of stock issues. while  launches in march even with way less days, are very close to shipments of holidays launches so advantages go both ways with numbers going back in fourth.

As for october i already explained, you make it seem like it's one of the best october's ever. many people don't find the numbers impressive, considering  the context. stock fully available, for a console that had limited stock for most of the whole year, mario bundle, and the biggest mario title since mario 64. i'm not seeing why the first October's matters. a console in its first year could the biggest month ever the whole generation depending the game released.

Moving this back to the proper thread.

Well, at least we're finding some common ground. LTD sales are never going to be a proper measuring stick for systems that launched way far apart on the calendar. That was the entire point I was trying to make. I think that by ignoring launch numbers altogether and finding common monthly/quarterly sales basis for comparison, we can gather a more accurate assessment of how the Switch stacks up against other systems. I think the Switch out to sell between 1900k and 2150k, for a total of 4.5M to 4.75M for the year. By eliminating March out of the equation and focusing on Q2-Q4, that gives us 3.6 to 3.85 million Switches sold in the April-December period. In the same period in 2014, the PS4 sold a bit over 3.78M (it probably would have done better, but Sony chose to not issue a price cut and left the PS4 at $400, while MS dropped the XBO's price to $350, giving it an advantage during the holidays that year). The XBO sold 3.66M that period. Only two systems sold over 4 million in the U.S. their first full Q2-Q4 period: the PS2 and Wii, which both handily cleared the 5 million mark.

Regarding the Switch sales predictions, most people were grossly overestimating what the Switch would sell. We were already given both a lower and upper limit on the Switch's potential sales range in October. The Switch was at a bit over 2.3M in the U.S. at the end of September, and a news article from a couple of weeks ago stated that the Switch's sales had grown to "over 2.6 million" by the end of October, meaning "more than 2.6M and less than 2.7M." That means the Switch had to have sold more than 275k but less than 375k in October. The actual result was at the lower end of that range. Everybody who predicted 400k or more either wasn't aware of that bit of news, or they forgot what the Switch had sold by the end of September.

well nintendo did announce 2 million sold, when they were at 2.3 million, but always looked at that as a mile stone.