Maybe a hot take, but yes, I would say that Nintendo Switch is the most commercially successful piece of gaming hardware ever produced and its not even close. A low specs system selling without a single major price cut (on the base SKU) over a near decade long lifecycle, all while hitting annual hardware unit highs well beyond that of the Wii and rivaling that of the DS, through near total reliance on first-party software (especially at the start of its lifecycle), AND — in addition to all of this — coming off the lackluster 3DS/Wii U generation? I don’t see how any system could rival the Nintendo Switch

…though perhaps a big “DISCLAIMER!” is that I do have a Mario pfp. Lol!

What do you guys think? Is there any other system you’d say has been more commerically successful?

Strong Warning! Please keep console warring to a minimum. That is not the intention of this thread.

Very good and exact on point explanation there. That is how it should be done.

On the topic, how we can measure if something is the most commercially successful one ? by hardware sales, software sales, combination of both, or other criterias as well such as profit reports ? if so, is there some place we can see all the profits from a given generation on each console/manufacturer ? Since I can't make my mind without presented data.

Thank you. :) Also, there are many metric to take into account, though my perspective leans a lot on average price of system throughout the generation, the surrounding context to the system, software-to-hardware ratio, etc.

Yeah. Digital games, NSO, and lots of hardware and accessory sales.

Considering the Switch generated much more profit than systems that sold a similar amount of hardware (DS/PS2) and Nintendo software sold extremely well on the device, I would say yes.

If not, it's the biggest turn around in hardware sales history. Wii U to Switch. It also brought Nintendo fully in the 21st century how they approach gaming without losing their identity.

Yes. I don't even think it's close either.

156 million systems all sold at a profit mostly at $299.99+ in 9 years? 

There's no other system that could do that, sorry sit down DS and PS2. If those machines were in that price range they wouldn't have hit even 120 million. 

It will sell more software than any platform before it too, Nintendo can't really even stop that, it will be selling Switch 1 games for several more years no matter what. 

I think so, mainly for the fact it never got an official price cut, whereas other systems in its range spent most of their shelf life at like $99, combined with how much money it made. Economic circumstances never allowed it to get down to dirt cheap prices like say the DS.

As Leynos says, there's also the comeback from Wii U to Switch, where it took a brand that had stagnated and propelled it into the stratosphere.

I think this is an easy yes. Look at the software sales for some of the top selling games.

Undoubtedly yes. Nothing else even compares.

Selling close to 160m at full price the entire lifecycle (even raising the price at the end) and selling enormous software numbers (I think Switch is right around what Sony reported was the final software number for PS2). That alone makes it the most successful system ever.

Then considering actual profit made, PS2 isn't even in the running. I'm sure the Wii and the DS must have been the previously most profitable systems but ya gotta figure with Switch's vastly larger HW+SW sales numbers plus never dropping the price of the system or games makes Switch far more profitable than they were.

Add in the fact that the only competitor on par with it or even close to it in combined HW and SW sales was selling for $99 late in its lifecycle in order to hit those numbers.

Nothing even comes close to the Switch and probably nothing ever will with the way the industry is going these days with all three companies trying to price out as many customers as they can while at the same time the big dev studios are making their own business models riskier and riskier with ballooning 9 figure budgets and having to rely on pumping out the same few already popular series and constant remakes to keep afloat, while still shuttering employees.