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Forums - Sales Discussion - Nintendo VS Sony Fiscal Years: Global Edition

Shipments are measured in increments of 10k.

1 = 10k
10 = 100k
100 = 1M
1000 = 10M

Fiscal year format: FY3/1998 = Fiscal year ending last day of 3 (March), 1998

GLOBAL NES GB SNES PSX N64 PS2 GBA GCN Nintendo Sony
> 8/1985 [1] 433               433  
FY8/1986 434               434  
FY8/1987 428               428  
FY8/1988 757               757  
FY8/1989 1,097 109             1,206  
FY3/1990 [2] 652 284             936  
FY3/1991 1,043 806 144           1,993  
FY3/1992 799 1,067 659           2,525  
FY3/1993 353 780 1,303           2,436  
FY3/1994 111 747 1,106           1,964  
FY3/1995 [3] 40 558 441 88         1,039 88
FY3/1996 8 416 578 342         1,002 342
FY3/1997 8 709 330 920 611       1,658 920
FY3/1998 3 1,102 185 1,932 1,002       2,292 1,932
FY3/1999 5 1,355 153 2,160 796       2,309 2,160
FY3/2000 5 1,724 13 1,850 703 141     2,445 1,991
FY3/2001 5 1,886 9 931 285 920 107   2,292 1,851
FY3/2002 6 470 1 740 50 1,807 1,709 380 2,616 2,547
FY3/2003 6 27 1 678 1 2,252 1,565 576 2,176 2,930
FY3/2004 3   1 331   2,010 1,759 502 2,265 2,341

[1] Nintendo lumps together everything the NES sold from its launch to August 31, 1985. These are Japan sales only.

[2] Nintendo starts ending fiscal years in March rather than August. This fiscal year is technically only seven months long.

[3] Sony launches the PlayStation in Japan. We have shipment figures for December 31st, 1994 (roughly 300k) and May 27th, 1995 (1 million exactly). 880k is my compromise figure, assuming stronger sales in earlier months of the year.

GLOBAL PSX PS2 GBA GCN DS PSP PS3 Wii 3DS Nintendo Sony
FY3/2005 277 1,617 1,540 392 527 297       2,459 2,191
FY3/2006   1,622 833 235 1,146 1,406       2,214 3,028
FY3/2007   1,480 434 73 2,356 960 350 584   3,447 2,790
FY3/2008   1,370 159 16 3,031 1,380 910 1,861   5,067 3,660
FY3/2009   790 42   3,118 1,410 1,010 2,595   5,755 3,210
FY3/2010   730 4   2,711 990 1,300 2,053   4,768 3,020
FY3/2011   640     1,752 800 1,430 1,508 361 3,621 2,870

GLOBAL PS2 DS PSP PS3 Wii 3DS PSV WiiU PS4 NS Nintendo Sony
FY3/2012 [4] 410 510 680 1,390 984 1,353 175       2,847 2,655
FY3/2013   235 200 1,200 398 1,395 330 345     2,373 1,730
FY3/2014   13 50 670 122 1,224 355 272 750   1,631 1,825
FY3/2015   2   300 46 873 260 338 1,480   1,259 2,040
FY3/2016   1   90 11 679 265 326 1,770   1,017 2,125
FY3/2017       40   727 170 76 2,000 274 1,077 2,210
FY3/2018           640 60   1,900 1,505 2,145 1,960
FY3/2019 255 1,780 1,695 1,950 1,780
FY3/2020 69 1,360 2,103 2,172 1,360

[4] All shipment numbers for non-PS4 or PS5 Sony consoles after this point are estimates, because that's the point at which Sony stopped giving out any shipment data for them at all. I estimated by using VGChartz data from the end of April for each year.

GLOBAL PS4 NS PS5 Nintendo Sony
FY3/2021 570 2,883 780 2,883 1,350

Lifetime:
Nintendo - 799M total
Sony - 569M total

After PlayStation release:
20 Nintendo wins (668M)
7 Sony wins (569M)

After PSP release:
12 Nintendo wins (467M)
5 Sony wins (398M)

After PS4 release:
4 Nintendo wins (141M)
4 Sony wins (147M)

FY3/2022 projections (as of May 2021):

Nintendo: 25.50 million (Switch only)
Sony: N/A

Last edited by StarDoor - on 09 May 2021

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Since the PS2 launched its pretty much a tie though



Please excuse my (probally) poor grammar

Damn that's an impressive amount of work you must have put Into this! Quite an interesting comparison though. Even though Nintendo has "won" more often than not, Sony isn't far behind in total sales - AND they've har fewer consoles. I wonder if the Switch alone Will be able to turn the tides for Nintendo again, but I doubt it



I'm on Twitter @DanneSandin!

Furthermore, I think VGChartz should add a "Like"-button.

Really impressive for how long Nintendo kept selling the NES.



Keybladewielder said:
Really impressive for how long Nintendo kept selling the NES.

Yeah, Nintendo kept selling them in Japan until September 2003.



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Good work..... thanks.

I think if there is one thing this data makes really clear, its that Nintendo is a handheld company.



Intrinsic said:
Good work..... thanks.

I think if there is one thing this data makes really clear, its that Nintendo is a handheld company.

For curiosity's sake, what do you classify the Switch as?



this is a really good thread, good work man :D



     


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Sony is likely to win this year, but next year might be very close.



Flilix said:
Sony is likely to win this year, btu next year might be very close.

Yes, that's what I expect too.

FY3/2019 could look like:

Switch: 15 million
3DS: 2 million
PS4: 17 million