As I have said in other threads, profit profit profit. What system has Nintendo ever sold for even or at a loss? A small amount if any. What Sony devices have sold for more than cost? The HW numbers may be close, but I bet you Nintendo made a lot more profit on each system sold total. Plus the majority of games bought for Nintendo devices are their games so they get more of the pie whereas Sony has (until recently and still a lot now) relied more on third party where they make less profit.

Comparing hardware sales between these two is like comparing sales of two cars, one with low profit margin and one with high.

Cool numbers, but I'd like to see it expanded into the realm of profit. Profit is the only thing that matters in capitalism.

Have they?  It's a bold claim, but lets look at the numbers.  Here are the top 10 first party titles from both PS4 and Switch with numbers included from the previous system if applicable:

Sales of top 10 PS4 and Switch games (in millions)

I don't think Sony has gotten near Nintendo level yet.  Given this is an unfair comparison.  PS4 was released about 6.5 years ago while Switch was only released about 3 years ago.  If we wait and see how the Switch does over the next 3.5 years, I think the story will become even more one sided toward Nintendo.

This is something that Sony apologists just don't understand.  Nintendo first party does not compete with Sony first party.  Nintendo first party competes with Sony third party.  Nintendo titles have to compete with GTA and CoD.  And based on hardware sales, Nintendo is successful in doing so, because Switch sales are tracking ahead of PS4 sales with launches aligned.  GTA and CoD are the big titles that move PS4s.  Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon are the big titles that move Switches.  Sony first party is small potatoes compared to all of this.  Given these Sony first party titles still help distinguish them from Microsoft.  And PS4 first party is doing better than Sony has ever done before.  It's still not on Nintendo's level though. 

It's like a sports team that graduates from high school to college level and thinks they can compete with the pros all of the sudden.  Nope.  You guys are getting better, but you still aren't top tier.  Sony first party is head and shoulders above Microsoft's first party, but it just isn't at Nintendo's level.  It's not even close.

Most of Nintendo's bundles lead to increase in prices, not necessarily selling them for free. The Mario Odyssey, Smash, and Pokemon bundles were basically a $300 + the game bundles. The only bundle that was a nice deal was the limited Black Friday Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle at $300, but it was the older version of the Switch when the newer (and better battery) version of the OG Switch was already out.

Sony recently had a PS4 Pro with three free games. Great deal, but I don't think those sales are equal to that of Nintendo's first party sales as Nintendo's games rarely get sales and the prices that are a sale are usually close to $40. You can basically get games like God of War or Spiderman for $20. So I expect better sales of Sony's first party games because they cut the price not too long after they get released. Nintendo's first party sales are impressive because they are still selling at $40-60 prices.

Here's my take. Xbox and Playstation system's biggest sellers and biggest drivers are the 3rd party games while 1st party takes a backseat. Nintendo systems are the complete opposite, where 1st party are the main drivers and 3rd party takes a backseat. Sony published games are still not Nintendo level, and it's not close. Some Sony games do sell millions upon millions but still don't come close to the amount of best sellers Nintendo has. What's really impressive is that most Nintendo games retain their $50-$60 price tag for years whereas Sony drops their games to $20-$40 after a few months. Part of the reason may be what I stated earlier about Playstation games are dominated by 3rd party sales, so Sony has to compete with those games since they drop in price fast also.

By this logic Amazon, Uber and Netflix are all losers who should have failed due to consecutive years of losses, yet in reality they are undisputed leaders of the market. 

Profit is only a measure of margins not marketshare. Revenue is a measure of marketshare. We define markets by their gross value.

Pretty much every single Sony game on there has outdated numbers, meanwhile we get regular updates from Nintendo.

The point of Sony getting close to Nintendo in terms of first party is in terms franchise power in sales not total output. Nintendo releases far more games than Sony and has far more devs. They are still the biggest dev in the industry by output and sales and its probably not even close.

Sony started the gen with only one first party title being able to sell 10 million+ (GT5)

They will end this gen have 6-7 games selling 10 million+.

TLoU, TLoU II, UC4, GOW, HZD, Spiderman (maybe GoT)

They might even have a couple of 20 million+ sellers (TloU/UC4/TLoU II/Spiderman). 2-3 of those will be new IPs (HZD, TLoU, GoT). Having new IPs sell 10 million+ is remarkable and definitely bodes well for SIE's continued expansion. 

This not true for Playstation. Apart from the handful massive games (that even outsell all of Nintendo's first party games) GTA, RDR, COD, Minecraft etc a lot of the best selling games on PS4 are in fact 1st party games. Not many third party games can sell 10-15 million on PS4 alone. 

Nintendo games do no retain their value in any free market value sense. They simply have stricter price regulations. Even poorly selling Nintendo games are sold at high prices, and multiplats are often more expensive on SW. Nintendo does this because their model relies heavily on software sales.

Sony's model does not rely heavily on 1st party software sales because they have the lionshare of third party sales, so they can afford to have big discounts. 

Third party software sales >> Nintendo 1st party software sales

Interesting thread and discussion. Good work on compiling the numbers StarDoor.

First-Party games that have sold more than 10M on NSW and PS4 (figures provided by Nintendo and Sony within 2019)

Mario Kart 8 DX (NSW): 22.96 million units as December 2019
Super Smash Bros Ultimate (NSW): 17.68 million units as December 2019
Super Mario Odyssey (NSW): 16.59 million units as December 2019
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild (NSW): 16.34 million units as December 2019
Uncharted 4 (PS4) : 16.2 million units as March 2019
Pokémon Sword/Shield (NSW): 16.06 million units as December 2019
Spider-Man (PS4): 13.2 million units as July 2019
The Last of Us (PS4) : 11.8 million units as March 2019
Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eeve (NSW): 11.73 million units as December 2019
God of War (PS4) : 10.9 million units as March 2019
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4): 10.0 million units as February 2019

Note that GT Sport 8.2 million figure given out recently is related to users, GT Sport sales should be noticeably lower.

I'm not sure why you think so.

I've just described the different approach used by Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft in regard on how they manage their consoles.

I've never said that Sony/Microsoft are incapable to deliver popular first-party games (that was untrue even on the first PlayStation when Sony was just at the beginning) nor that third-party games can't sell very well on Nintendo consoles.

Now think for a moment about a hypothetical PlayStation console that for some reasons won't receive strong third-party support.

No Call of Duty, no GTA, no Fifa and so on.

Sony first-party offerings' sales would be negatively impacted by those absence because those huge third-party hits aren't just" the big bulk that brings the most money" they are system sellers.

This.

Most buy a Sony/Microsoft console exactly for those games, and the first party exclusives are the cherry on top.

Most buy a Nintendo system for the first party exclusives, and multiplats are the cherry on top here.

Exclusives do have an effect on a Sony or Microsoft console, but it's slightly different to a Nintendo console: Good exclusives decide whether or not to buy a Nintendo console, but not with Sony or Microsoft.

Here, it's more of a decider of which out of the two the players will buy in the end and when, not if they would buy one. (these cases describe games who only will buy one system and don't care at all about the others once the choice is made)