With the Switch 1 nearing 157 Million now but sales quickly slowing down, there's quite good chance it may fall short of PS2's mighty 160 Million Unit record. So that begs the question, if Switch 1 is unable to outsell the PS2, will any other console have the same chance in our lifetime in the future?

Let's look at the possible future scenarios:

One the most obvious consoles to look at is the Switch 2, the sequel to the borderline bestselling console ever Switch 1. There's no doubt Switch 2 will be another massive success for Nintendo and almost another guaranteed 100+ Million unit seller. However, while itll be a massive hit, I highly doubt it can sell near Switch 1 numbers again mainly due to price being the biggest issue, it's much more expensive than the Switch 1 was in it's prime and isn't as impulse buy cheap anymore like Switch 1 was, also just in general most of the world is dealing with more difficult times financially even outside of console costs than they were in 2017. I don't think with the Switch 2's price it can reach PS2 numbers like Switch 1 did. I also do think that it won't get the covid pandemic boost like Switch 1 did which did help the Switch 1 a decent bit in its peak, having millions of people stuck at home with nothing but time on their hands to play video games. Switch 2 likely won't have that. I also think the novelty of Switch 2 won't hit the same like it did for Switch 1, many people won't be as amazed with the hybrid concept to want to buy it again especially at that price.

However, maybe Switch 2 can find a way to reach PS2 numbers if Nintendo continues to expand to other countries and somehow gets big there, or maybe Nintendo can find even more new demand than we thought with more word of mouth expanding upon what the Switch 1 started or maybe the games will appeal to new audiences, but as of now I find it unlikely for Switch 2 to threaten PS2's record.

When it comes to Playstation, since PS3 we haven't really seen any PS console come close to PS2 numbers. And I think the biggest reason is primarily tougher competition from Xbox taking away those sales, and PS has naturally been phasing out their generations much quicker now then they did with PS2 (cause the PS3 was a disaster at the time). And for PS5, it seems like its going to be the same deal, while i think it likely will outsell PS4 since Xbox is much less of a threat now, I still don't think there's enough of a market for it to reach PS2 numbers, xbox still took a good chunk of sales away from PS5.

However, with Xbox becoming potentially non-existent in the near future, that leaves Sony to essentially have a monopoly on the 3rd party powerful console market, which could give future PSs enough of a market to outsell PS2.

But again, even if Xbox leaves the market, price will be another thing that may keep future PS from reaching PS2. Many more casual gamers may be more willing to skip console gaming in general with expensive PS prices. We have to remember that approximately 1/3rd of all PS2 sales came when the console was priced dirt cheap at 99$, I don't think any future PS console will ever get close to those prices again. I also don't think Sony will keep PS's around long enough to get the same opportunity that PS2 will.

So in general, I think if Switch 1 doesn't do it, itll be really tough in our lifetime to see another console do it.

But what do you guys think?

The only hopes in the next 14 or so years (the rest of this decade and the 2030s) is expanding into more markets aggressively and long lifespans.
PS2 was helped by a low price by 2004 and a long life, to name just a few things. Switch was boosted by the pandemic as you said among other reasons like popular games throughout the years.

I don't see it ever happening assuming the Switch 1 doesn't get here. Consoles have too much competition now with PC gaming continuing to grow every year, mobile gaming remaining huge and cloud gaming getting more viable. The Switch 1 basically needed to have everything go its way to even have a shot at beating the record.

With how market conditions are going the Switch 2 ain't getting there and Playstation and Xbox won't ever be so Nintendo basically needs to manage to build up a significant audience in countries like China or India for a future system of theirs to have any hope of doing it though even then consoles in general will need to retain enough popularity worldwide.