PS5 Sales Top 14 Million, Switch Tops 94 Million - Global Hardware Oct 31 to Nov 6

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Dulfite said:

You know what stinks about sales impacted by shortages? They don't get made up for in the future. Say people want a Switch now, but can't find one until June 2022. The device is now over half a year older, less new, less exciting. Maybe those people have lost their enthusiasm by then, or found another hobby they like more while they waited. Many will still have it, but a decent amount will have emotionally calmed down about the device. In truth, we will never know how well this gen could have sold because there are going to be millions, maybe even tens of millions of people that give up because they can't find a PS5/OLED Switch/Series XS/Steam Deck and spend their money on something else to amuse themselves.

We are already seeing this in other industries. I doubt movie theaters will ever bounce back to the numbers they once had annually. People drive a whole lot less now too, and fly a lot less. Hobbies change when you aren't able to do the thing you wanted in the first place.

I'm not sure if this applies if all consoles are in short supply.  A person could say, "PS5 is sold out, so I'll buy an XBox instead."  But XBox is sold out too.  So is the Switch.  There is really no alternative.

At the same time, a console is not like seeing a single movie.  When a person sees a movie that is 2 hours or so of entertainment.  When a person buys a console, that is years of entertainment.  Even if they don't buy one now, then they will probably buy one in the future if they plan to do any console gaming at all during the next few years.  Not buying a console ever would be more like someone saying, "All of the movie tickets for Spider-Man are sold out for opening weekend.  I'm never going to see another Marvel movie ever again."  That's actually a big boycott for something that is sold out for a limited time.