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Forums - Sales Discussion - PS4/XBO/NS - 2019 vs 2020; WEEK FIFTY-THREE!! GAME! SET! MATCH!

Also, we know that FF7R moved some serious hardware for Sony. This was mentioned by Benji way before NPD released. Sony also has TLoU2 next month which will influence shipments this quarter as well. FF7R+Last of Us 2+ Pandemic sales = Higher PS4 shipments.



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Marth said:
I believe we currently see a shift of sales towards Q1
Q2/3 will suffer more because of it.

At least for PS4 and XBO.
Switch is really hard to predict for me.

That's what I'm expecting too, especially for the PS4. The XBO will probably go down slower due to the announcement that cross-gen XBO games will get upgraded to XSX versions if you get that console.



trunkswd said:
kazuyamishima said:

Shipments for PS4 by 31st March 2020 were 110.4 million units, according to VGC sales by 16th May 2020 are 110.7 million units

Shipments for Nintendo Switch by 31st March 2020 were 55.7 million units, by 16th May 2020 sales on VGC reflects 57 million units.

so there are two options:

1) Sales on this site for those consoles are kinda accurate 

2) Both are over tracked

which one is it??

If we get more numbers out of Europe I'll make more adjustments. Right now we know sales have been up a lot since March for all three consoles in the US and UK. 

There is normally 2-3 million difference between shipped and sold for video game consoles. Right now it is likely under a million for all three consoles, as we are seeing reports of all of them being hard to find in the US. 

Well of course, and VGC is doing a fantastic job tracking console sales.

And yes, it seems that stock for both 3 are pretty low worldwide. 



Apologies for the delayed update, work has been QUITE busy these past few days. But now I have posted the adjustments along with Week 20 numbers and... WOW!

I knew COVID-19 had a positive effect on hardware sales, but I didn't think it'd be THAT much! All three systems are doing great numbers. The PS4 is now only down by just 6% YoY, the Xbox One is up by nearly 30%, and Switch sales have nearly doubled!!!
It truly is mind-boggling to see these kinds of sales... It's just an extremely sad shame that they are the result of some very unfortunate circumstances.



The Switch sales for 2020 are insane, Switch sales for 2020 are up 80% YoY which is nearly DOUBLE 2019 sales! If the Switch were to keep this 80% YoY growth for the rest of the year it would go on to sell 35Million in 2020 ALONE! Which has never been done by a video game system before in history with the closest one being the DS, which had 2 years of selling 30Million Consoles, in terms of Home consoles, the closest one was the Wii selling 26M in 1 year. The Switch having a chance to blow past these numbers selling 35M in one year is mind-blowing and would put it at not only one of the fastest selling video game systems of all time, but one of the fastest selling products in world history period.

However, it's likely foolish to think that the Switch will keep this YoY growth for the rest of 2020 especially since it's going to be difficult to top 2019's Holiday season since we saw the release of Pokemon which is a huge game. Plus it's uncertain whether this lock-down situation will continue til the end of the year since that's been a huge reason why Switch sales have been way up this year, plus shortages may be an issue, a lot of uncertainties make it difficult to believe this 80% growth YoY will continue through 2020.

However, even a more realistic amount like sales up 40-50% YoY would put the Switch between 27-29M for 2020, which is also insane and never been done by a Home Console.

If we were to take Switch sales YoY before the COVID-19 Shortages, lockdown, and Animal Crossing release, which was 23% YoY growth before all this happened, Switch sales would be at 24M for the year, which is also amazing despite being a conservative YoY growth rn.

So I think it's safe to say MINIMUM the Switch will sell 24M in 2020 and the Max is 35M, I expect the Switch to sell an insane 27M for the year, which would put the Switch at 75M sold by the end of 2020 with shipments likely at 78M, surpassing the 3DS while not even being 4 Years old yet.

What do you guys think?



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javi741 said:
The Switch sales for 2020 are insane, Switch sales for 2020 are up 80% YoY which is nearly DOUBLE 2019 sales! If the Switch were to keep this 80% YoY growth for the rest of the year it would go on to sell 35Million in 2020 ALONE! Which has never been done by a video game system before in history with the closest one being the DS, which had 2 years of selling 30Million Consoles, in terms of Home consoles, the closest one was the Wii selling 26M in 1 year. The Switch having a chance to blow past these numbers selling 35M in one year is mind-blowing and would put it at not only one of the fastest selling video game systems of all time, but one of the fastest selling products in world history period.

However, it's likely foolish to think that the Switch will keep this YoY growth for the rest of 2020 especially since it's going to be difficult to top 2019's Holiday season since we saw the release of Pokemon which is a huge game. Plus it's uncertain whether this lock-down situation will continue til the end of the year since that's been a huge reason why Switch sales have been way up this year, plus shortages may be an issue, a lot of uncertainties make it difficult to believe this 80% growth YoY will continue through 2020.

However, even a more realistic amount like sales up 40-50% YoY would put the Switch between 27-29M for 2020, which is also insane and never been done by a Home Console.

If we were to take Switch sales YoY before the COVID-19 Shortages, lockdown, and Animal Crossing release, which was 23% YoY growth before all this happened, Switch sales would be at 24M for the year, which is also amazing despite being a conservative YoY growth rn.

So I think it's safe to say MINIMUM the Switch will sell 24M in 2020 and the Max is 35M, I expect the Switch to sell an insane 27M for the year, which would put the Switch at 75M sold by the end of 2020 with shipments likely at 78M, surpassing the 3DS while not even being 4 Years old yet.

What do you guys think?

I think you're being a bit too optimistic.  One note is that, while sales have been great for the past couple of months, there are definitely shortages happening, and while the pandemic is increasing demand, it will also not allow Nintendo to make significantly more units to meet that demand.  Keep in mind that Nintendo is forecasting to produce 19M Switches this fiscal year.  In order to produce enough Switches to sell even 24M this year it would require a massive increase in production that is likely not possible any time soon.

Another thing to note is that you have to factor in that at this time last year, the Switch Lite didn't exist.  While the Lite didn't sell quite as well as some may have predicted, it is undoubtedly increasing sales since its release.  Once we get to September and the anniversary of the launch of the Lite, the weeks that the Switch is up YoY will be much less common.



Switch: SW-3707-5131-3911
XBox: Kenjabish

javi741 said:
The Switch sales for 2020 are insane, Switch sales for 2020 are up 80% YoY which is nearly DOUBLE 2019 sales! If the Switch were to keep this 80% YoY growth for the rest of the year it would go on to sell 35Million in 2020 ALONE! Which has never been done by a video game system before in history with the closest one being the DS, which had 2 years of selling 30Million Consoles, in terms of Home consoles, the closest one was the Wii selling 26M in 1 year. The Switch having a chance to blow past these numbers selling 35M in one year is mind-blowing and would put it at not only one of the fastest selling video game systems of all time, but one of the fastest selling products in world history period.

However, it's likely foolish to think that the Switch will keep this YoY growth for the rest of 2020 especially since it's going to be difficult to top 2019's Holiday season since we saw the release of Pokemon which is a huge game. Plus it's uncertain whether this lock-down situation will continue til the end of the year since that's been a huge reason why Switch sales have been way up this year, plus shortages may be an issue, a lot of uncertainties make it difficult to believe this 80% growth YoY will continue through 2020.

However, even a more realistic amount like sales up 40-50% YoY would put the Switch between 27-29M for 2020, which is also insane and never been done by a Home Console.

If we were to take Switch sales YoY before the COVID-19 Shortages, lockdown, and Animal Crossing release, which was 23% YoY growth before all this happened, Switch sales would be at 24M for the year, which is also amazing despite being a conservative YoY growth rn.

So I think it's safe to say MINIMUM the Switch will sell 24M in 2020 and the Max is 35M, I expect the Switch to sell an insane 27M for the year, which would put the Switch at 75M sold by the end of 2020 with shipments likely at 78M, surpassing the 3DS while not even being 4 Years old yet.

What do you guys think?

I posted not too long ago that I think Switch will sell in the 21M-24M range for the current calender year.  35M is far too optimistic for the current calender year, because it's based on a comparison with 2019.  Sales in 2019 were very strong in the last 4 months or so and not as impressive before that.  On the other hand, anyone saying Switch sales will be flat compared to last year (or down) is being far too pessimistic.  We're almost half way through the year and Switch is up an incredible 80% YoY.  Those gains are not going to be magically erased by the end of the year.  

So right now I think 21M-24M for Switch.



The_Liquid_Laser said:
javi741 said:
The Switch sales for 2020 are insane, Switch sales for 2020 are up 80% YoY which is nearly DOUBLE 2019 sales! If the Switch were to keep this 80% YoY growth for the rest of the year it would go on to sell 35Million in 2020 ALONE! Which has never been done by a video game system before in history with the closest one being the DS, which had 2 years of selling 30Million Consoles, in terms of Home consoles, the closest one was the Wii selling 26M in 1 year. The Switch having a chance to blow past these numbers selling 35M in one year is mind-blowing and would put it at not only one of the fastest selling video game systems of all time, but one of the fastest selling products in world history period.

However, it's likely foolish to think that the Switch will keep this YoY growth for the rest of 2020 especially since it's going to be difficult to top 2019's Holiday season since we saw the release of Pokemon which is a huge game. Plus it's uncertain whether this lock-down situation will continue til the end of the year since that's been a huge reason why Switch sales have been way up this year, plus shortages may be an issue, a lot of uncertainties make it difficult to believe this 80% growth YoY will continue through 2020.

However, even a more realistic amount like sales up 40-50% YoY would put the Switch between 27-29M for 2020, which is also insane and never been done by a Home Console.

If we were to take Switch sales YoY before the COVID-19 Shortages, lockdown, and Animal Crossing release, which was 23% YoY growth before all this happened, Switch sales would be at 24M for the year, which is also amazing despite being a conservative YoY growth rn.

So I think it's safe to say MINIMUM the Switch will sell 24M in 2020 and the Max is 35M, I expect the Switch to sell an insane 27M for the year, which would put the Switch at 75M sold by the end of 2020 with shipments likely at 78M, surpassing the 3DS while not even being 4 Years old yet.

What do you guys think?

I posted not too long ago that I think Switch will sell in the 21M-24M range for the current calender year.  35M is far too optimistic for the current calender year, because it's based on a comparison with 2019.  Sales in 2019 were very strong in the last 4 months or so and not as impressive before that.  On the other hand, anyone saying Switch sales will be flat compared to last year (or down) is being far too pessimistic.  We're almost half way through the year and Switch is up an incredible 80% YoY.  Those gains are not going to be magically erased by the end of the year.  

So right now I think 21M-24M for Switch.

I think 21-24 might be a little too low, for the Switch to somehow land in that sales range, it either needs to have 0% YoY growth for every week for the rest 2020 or start having a significant YoY decline in the Holiday Season which I find difficult to believe will happen unless there are major shortages. 

The Switch sales in 2020 Year to Date compared to 2019 is already nearly 4M units ahead of 2019, so the Switch would essentially need to have a 0% growth or a decline for the rest of 2020 to land between 21-24M sold for the year,which let's be honest, it isn't going to happen since week after week during this quarantine Switch sales have DOUBLED from 2019, to think that the Switch in the future anytime this year would go week after week having a decline or 0% growth at this point is unrealistic.

You brought up the fact that the majority of the Switch's sales came from the Holiday Season 2019 which may be hard to top, which is true. However, based on how much demand there currently is for Nintendo Switch's and even before this Quarantine and Animal Crossing Switch sales were up 23% YoY, it's hard to believe the Switch's 2020 Holiday Season will sell any less than 2019 since there's more overall interest in the Switch and this quarantine will only help spread awareness of the Switch even if it ends by the Holiday Season.

I believe 24M sold is the min for 2020, unless shortages become a problem



javi741 said:
The_Liquid_Laser said:

I posted not too long ago that I think Switch will sell in the 21M-24M range for the current calender year.  35M is far too optimistic for the current calender year, because it's based on a comparison with 2019.  Sales in 2019 were very strong in the last 4 months or so and not as impressive before that.  On the other hand, anyone saying Switch sales will be flat compared to last year (or down) is being far too pessimistic.  We're almost half way through the year and Switch is up an incredible 80% YoY.  Those gains are not going to be magically erased by the end of the year.  

So right now I think 21M-24M for Switch.

I think 21-24 might be a little too low, for the Switch to somehow land in that sales range, it either needs to have 0% YoY growth for every week for the rest 2020 or start having a significant YoY decline in the Holiday Season which I find difficult to believe will happen unless there are major shortages. 

The Switch sales in 2020 Year to Date compared to 2019 is already nearly 4M units ahead of 2019, so the Switch would essentially need to have a 0% growth or a decline for the rest of 2020 to land between 21-24M sold for the year,which let's be honest, it isn't going to happen since week after week during this quarantine Switch sales have DOUBLED from 2019, to think that the Switch in the future anytime this year would go week after week having a decline or 0% growth at this point is unrealistic.

You brought up the fact that the majority of the Switch's sales came from the Holiday Season 2019 which may be hard to top, which is true. However, based on how much demand there currently is for Nintendo Switch's and even before this Quarantine and Animal Crossing Switch sales were up 23% YoY, it's hard to believe the Switch's 2020 Holiday Season will sell any less than 2019 since there's more overall interest in the Switch and this quarantine will only help spread awareness of the Switch even if it ends by the Holiday Season.

I believe 24M sold is the min for 2020, unless shortages become a problem

You may be right.  At this point it is somewhat of a shot in the dark, because we don't know what kind of games they will have for the rest of the year.  Also there is still a chance of a "minor" title becoming a surprise hit like Clubhouse Games.

However, what I do know is that the last 1/3 of the year was extremely strong for 2019.  Switch Lite + Pokemon + a bunch of other titles gave Switch a strong boost.  I am skeptical that Nintendo will have a lineup anywhere near that good during this holiday.  So, given their strong current momentum + a weaker lineup for the rest of the year, I think an assumption of them being close to flat going forward is not unreasonable.

Of course if they have BotW 2 and another strong game this holiday, then they will probably sell even more, but I am skeptical their holiday titles will be as strong as last year.



Just added Week 21 numbers. All 3 systems are up again. The PS4 continues to slowly cut into its deficit, the Xbox One adds to its lead, and the Switch is closing in on a lead of over 4 million.