The PS2 did

2000: 6.40 million
2001: 18.59
2002: 24.60
2003: 19.87
2004: 11.93  there were very bad shortages this year
2005: 19.98

These are production shipments, Sony switched to reporting retail shipments in 2006.

In comparison the Wii did

2006: 3.08 million
2007: 17.07
2008: 24.82
2009: 22.48
2010: 17.20
2011: 1.36 in the first 3 months.  They are projecting 13 million for the next 12 months.  The PS2 didn't drop below 13 million again until 2008.

PS2 sold so much because it had some sexy legs. No first place console has ever fell this fast in gaming history. With that been said no first place console has ever faced such competition and dislike from the "hardcore" gam,ing community

The Wii will stop selling at 100-105 million. Lol at predictions made by Nintendo fans 2 years ago. I think PS3 will become first place if it finally hit 199$

It still has a chance. If Nintendo keeps the Wii out there for another 5 years and gets the price down to $99, it definitely has a chance. Nintendo is notorious for pulling their console off the market fairly quickly though. After the Wii came out the Gamecube only lasted another year and then that was gone. Mainly because the Wii could play Gamecube games as well. The PS2 is still on the market going into it's 11th year, which is amazing. I have no need to buy one since I still own one of the original PS2's and it still works great. Plus my 60GB PS3 plays all PS2 games.

If Nintendo does release a new Wii 2 next year, I think the original Wii will last maybe 2 more years and then they will put it. So it'll break 100 million, but may not make it to 140 mil. The DS has already surpassed the PS2 anyways.

I think "can" was the gramatically appropriate word for you to use. "Could" implies what Seece got out of it, "yeah, it could, in a pig's eye," or something like that. "Can" is more positive.

On topic: I always thought it would land somewhere between 100 and 120 million myself, and i never saw it getting up to PS2 levels simply because of market fragmentation. That's why Nintendo's going the way it is with Cafe, to see if they can conquer wider bands of the market and marginalize the competition in a way that the PS2 did (unless you liked Halo 2 or were a Nintendo fanboy, PS2 made the others irrelevent)

Absurdly enough, there were those who never thought it would...

Yeah... but that was because the Gamecube was unpopular.  The NES and SNES I believe were both on the market for 10 years.

And amusingly, likely see themselves as geniuses. 

There is nothing more deadly, then a right conclusion drawn by faulty thinking.

It's kinda like the guy who has never gambled in his life... goes to the Casino and wins big.

Or someone who wins an NCAA pool by picking the teams based on whos mascot they think would win in a fight vs the others.

Faulty thinking? I was one of those who maintained this belief, out of several reasons;

1: The "blue ocean" audience is fickle, every market shows this.

2: Third parties were never going to embrace the Wii despite good hardware sales.

3: Longevity, the PS2 was in the perfect postition on all accounts and is/was a wonder of the console generations that we likely won't see again (70% plus marketshares is a thing of the past).

4: Nintendo's contingency plan, or lack thereof, should sales start to taper off. And this one connects with their inability or unwillingness to lower the price of their console to maintain momentum, citing that price doesn't matter (allthough, strangely, they are now cutting the price to maintain momentum, or at least keep it from falling too far).

maybe Nintendo dont want to outsell the PS2 cause they are thinking the Wii is not good enough to replace the King ^^

But maybe the Wii will beat PS1 and will be the Prince! xD