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quickrick on 22 February 2018
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Shadow1980 said:
Lawlight said:

You cannot compare the Switch’s first year to the PS4’s 2014 because the Switch had 2 major selling periods - the launch and the holidays vs the PS4’s holidays only. On top of that, the PS4 was $100 more expensive.

And the only the PS3 and the Xbox360 peaked later so 1 generation doesn’t make it the norm.

@Bolded. Uh, yeah, I can, because that's the time frame that makes the most sense. The only other alternative would be to compare the Switch's 2017 to the PS4's 2013, and while those were both launch years for those systems, we'd be comparing the Switch's 10-month period with the PS4's launch holiday. Not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. That's why comparing the Switch's 2017 with the PS4's 2014 makes more sense. While the Switch did launch in March, it sold about as much that month as one might expect for the whole of Q1 for a system with its level of sales. The Switch sold 910k that month, whereas the PS4 has ranged from 874k to 1007k for Q1 sales. That effectively levels out. That leaves us with both system's first full Q2+Q3 period, and their first full post-launch Q4. It's as close to an apples-to-apples comparison we can get.

And if you want to bring up pricing, well, that pretty much invalidates most comparisons between any two systems, because we haven't had two systems in one generation launch at the exact same price since the PS2 & OXbox.

 

Hiku said:

Since you seem to be aware of these things, what did sales look like for 3DS? If I recall correctly, it sold the most in its first 12 months?

"First 12 months"? No. That still goes to the PS4 this gen. Even without a full post-launch holiday period (which would represent months 13 & 14), the PS4 still outpaced the 3DS launch-aligned. Even if we compare the 3DS's 2011 with the PS4's 2014, which is a more apt comparison for the same reasons I explained to Lawlight above re: the Switch vs. the PS4, the 3DS still loses. The 3DS had a lackluster launch month, and its baseline sales weren't all that great either until it got a price drop. I personally don't like doing straight launch-aligned comparisons of systems that were holiday launches with systems that launched in the first half of the year, but if you insist, then the PS4 still wins regardless.

Also, the Switch sold better last year than the 3DS did in 2011, as well, at least for the year as a whole. Here's a comparison of the Switch's 2017 with the 3DS's 2011, with the PS4's 2014 thrown in for good measure:

its the best comparison we have, although i think if ps4 launched in march it would have sold more consoles then switch, around 1.7 million for march and april, is what i would expect.

Last edited by quickrick - on 22 February 2018