The Road to 160m+ for Nintendo Switch

[Tober]

javi741 said:

Chicho said:

According to VG chartz

1	PlayStation 2 (PS2)	1,537,000,000
2	PlayStation 4 (PS4)	1,419,500,000
3	Nintendo Switch (NS)	1,266,460,000
4	Xbox 360 (X360)	1,008,030,000
5	PlayStation 3 (PS3)	999,400,000
6	PlayStation (PS)	962,000,000
7	Nintendo DS (DS)	948,760,000
8	Nintendo Wii (Wii)	921,850,000
9	Game Boy (GB)	501,110,000
10	Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)	500,010,000
11	Nintendo 3DS (3DS)	392,020,000
12	Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)	379,060,000
13	Game Boy Advance (GBA)	377,420,000
14	PlayStation Portable (PSP)	331,000,000
15	Xbox (XB)	271,460,000
16	Nintendo 64 (N64)	224,970,000
17	GameCube (GC)	208,570,000
18	Sega Genesis (GEN)	175,800,000
19	Atari 2600 (2600)	120,000,000
20	Nintendo Wii U (WiiU)	103,600,000

The PS4 sold more software than the PS2. Vgchartz latest software sales figures don't seem to be updated for the PS4. That or maybe Sony includes download-only titles in their software sales figure which Vgchartz may not count but I'm not sure.

But in 2021 it was confirmed PS4 outsold the PS2's software sales with its 2021 figure being at around 1.57 Billion sold and likely decently higher in 2024, maybe like 1.7 billion.

I do like the add the caveat that for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo does not count 'download only' titles. Not to be confused by digital sales of games that are also available as physical, those are counted.

Source Page 50: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2023/231108e.pdf

This is the November 8th 2023 report explaining the Switch life up until 31 June 2023 last year. The software numbers correspond what was reported at the time as software numbers for each Fiscal year., meaning up until FQ23.

Three times on this page it's explicitly mentioned that 'download only' titles are not included in these numbers. We have no idea how many those would be. The Switch is popular with indies that are typically download only titles. But again no clue how many.