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Forums - Sales - Will the Nintendo Switch overtake the PS4 in terms of sales worldwide?

To keep the thread on topic here is some data:

PS4 and Switch Quarterly shipments for the first 15 for PS4 and 13 for Switch. 

 Quarter  PS4  PS4 Total  Switch  Switch Total Difference
Q1 4.5 4.5 2.74 2.74 1.76
Q2 3.0 7.5 1.97 4.70 2.8
Q3 2.7 10.2 2.93 7.63 2.57
Q4 3.3 13.5 7.23 14.86 -136
Q5 6.4 19.9 2.93 17.79 2.11
Q6 2.4 22.3 1.88 19.67 2.63
Q7 3.0 25.3 3.19 22.86 2.44
Q8 4.0 29.3 9.41 32.27 -2.97
Q9 8.4 37.7 2.47 34.74 3.13
Q10 2.3 40 2.13 36.87 3.63
Q11 3.5 43.5 4.80 41.67 1.83
Q12 3.9 47.4 10.81 52.48 -5.08
Q13 9.7 57.1 3.29 55.77 1.33
Q14 2.9 60
Q15 3.3 63.3

edit: added Difference column 

The Switch has overtaken the PS4 3 times.

Edit 2: fixed error

Last edited by Chicho - on 15 July 2020

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RolStoppable said:

The back and forth is the result of the different launch timings. The PS4 starts each year with the holiday quarter while Switch ends each year with the holiday quarter. If you look at the numbers after Q4, Q8, Q12, Q16 etc. - because at these points both consoles have gone through each quarter of the year the same amount of times - you get a better idea.

Switch was ahead by 1.36m after the first year, ahead by 2.97m after two years, ahead by 5.05m after three years (PS4's Q7 was 3.0m, not 3.5m, so your table carries on an error of 0.5m). This shows a trend of Switch slowly growing its lead every year and this will continue in the fourth year. The PS4 already had its holiday season for the period Q13-Q16 and is only 1.33m ahead. A look ahead for the PS4's LTD:

Q16: 67.5m
Q20: 86.1m
Q24: 102.8m

Switch's lead after Q16 is bound to be greater than 5m and afterwards the PS4 begins its decline, so it will be a matter of which console will have declined faster, all the while Switch is allowed to do a bit worse than the PS4 because it has built a lead. The chances for the PS4 to come out on top will be slim if Switch beats it for five years straight (20 quarters); and Switch is likely to beat the PS4 in its fifth year too, because 2021 is a very probable year for a Switch revision and/or price cut to stabilize sales.

I did have have 3 initially and looking over i changed it. Must have made a mistake cause i just double checked and you are right. Thanks for pointing it out.

fixed

Last edited by Chicho - on 15 July 2020

Slownenberg said:
Pavolink said:

By 2024 the industry has already been moved on to new tech. We have already 2 gens showing us this.

Nintendo is comfortable enough by now having a ton of support, releasing third party games and ports between their own first party tittles, avoinding as possible the droughts. Even Nintendo has mentioned, proudly, the amount of games that the Switch is gathering.

They are not after the same tech race between MS and Sony, but after the games that the industry is producing, and having modern tech that allows those developers to port their titles.

By holiday 2022 it would have an almost-6 years life span. DS lasted from holiday 2004 to February 2011 (6 years+3 months) and its Nintendo's most succesful hardware ever.

Also, nobody is saying that the console is going to be discointinued or that it wouldn't get anymore games. I would like to also read why do you believe that Nintendo is going to hold on the Switch until March 2024, and I mean honestly. Maybe I'm missing something.

I don't know what your point of saying by 2024 new tech will have arrived, it seems you are agreeing with me. Yes new tech will arrive in 2024: Switch 2. Your comment doesn't even seem to be an answer to mine, I'm not even sure what you're talking about in the first part. Yes new tech will be here in 2024, yes Nintendo has plenty of support, yes Nintendo is not in an direct arms race with MS/Sony. Agreed on all accounts, nothing about that suggests that Nintendo will cut off the Switch super early.

As to your second part commenting to scottslater, yes you are definitely missing something. The something that you are missing is that the Switch is the hottest thing in the gaming industry for the past 10+ years. It is GAINING momentum in year 4 and hasn't even had a price cut, and is likely to have another version (premium version?) come out at some point, and you suggest it will be replaced before it has even been on the market for 6 years. It is in the middle of its lifecycle and you suggest Nintendo will be replacing it in less than 2.5 years! That makes no sense. Assuming this is the Switch's peak year, it could still sell 20 million next year...and you think it should be replaced the year after it is likely to sell around 20 million (a number that PS4 never even hit and it was kept on the market for 7 years, not under 6). A holiday 2022 replacement means Nintendo decided they needed to cut the Switch's lifespan early because it didn't do that well, obviously we know reality is the opposite of that assessment. Nothing about how the Switch has done suggests there is any reason to cut it off early, rather the opposite, which is why a 2024 Switch 2 launch is likely.

I'm not saying that Nintendo is going to cut the Switch. Releasing a successor does not mean the Switch is going to stop getting games. The games that does not come to the Switch, may come to the successor. I don't believe that once the succesor comes, Nintendo and other developers are going to forget about the big userbase they already have, beacuse I believe the successor is going to be retrocompatible.

I don't like comparing Switch sales with PS4, when I know from past generations that PS consoles sells more than Nintendo ones at the end of their cycle. On top of that, I belive that part of the boost that the Switch and other consoles are getting currently is because of the pandemic, a boost that will not be sustained in future years. I'm not sure about the impact the current situation is going to have in the future sales for the Switch, or for the next gen consoles sales.

I don't believe that we need to wait until sales are pretty low to repleace a device. I don't believe that releasing a successor soon means that the current hardware was a failure (GBA for example). I don't believe that using the current hype for a new device is bad mvoe.

Finally I don't understand why 2024 it likely, when using the same logic I can go even further up to a 2025 or 2026 release.



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Drakrami said:

Nintendo was never able to keep up in the hardware department

Exactly, since they're only in the market since 2005 and the launch of the Wii.

Oh wait.



If sales keep on following current trend, staying on the market as long as PS4, NS would end up outselling it, but we don't know enough yet about the last part of NS lifecycle, how much it will sell in its last years as main Ninty console, when its successor will be launched, and how long and how many units Ninty will keep on producing NS after NS2 launch.



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A fart without stink is like a sky without stars.
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I don't get hwy people compare switch to past Ninty home consoles and not nity handhelds because handhelds have always been the stars of the show for Ninty and now switch is the only star. 3ds has has decent legs and o believe DS did as well. Don't know about consoles before that. And sketch will for sure have longer legs because Ninty doesn't have to choose between 3 consoles when releasing a new one and can focus on 2 which might be fairly close in hardware design. The switch will have 7 years at least for sure and anyone who thinks otherwise is kinda puzzling to me. Why would Ninty not take advantage of the harvest period of the switch as much as possible when that is the period where most profits for consoles are made.



Just a guy who doesn't want to be bored. Also

Didn't know where to ask but just what has happened to the weekly software sales?



DitchPlaya said:
Didn't know where to ask but just what has happened to the weekly software sales?

They stopped those last year January and now only use official shipments.



@ OP: You should really have put up a poll for this one

Chicho said:

To keep the thread on topic here is some data:

PS4 and Switch Quarterly shipments for the first 15 for PS4 and 13 for Switch. 

 Quarter  PS4  PS4 Total  Switch  Switch Total Difference
Q1 4.5 4.5 2.74 2.74 1.76
Q2 3.0 7.5 1.97 4.70 2.8
Q3 2.7 10.2 2.93 7.63 2.57
Q4 3.3 13.5 7.23 14.86 -136
Q5 6.4 19.9 2.93 17.79 2.11
Q6 2.4 22.3 1.88 19.67 2.63
Q7 3.0 25.3 3.19 22.86 2.44
Q8 4.0 29.3 9.41 32.27 -2.97
Q9 8.4 37.7 2.47 34.74 3.13
Q10 2.3 40 2.13 36.87 3.63
Q11 3.5 43.5 4.80 41.67 1.83
Q12 3.9 47.4 10.81 52.48 -5.08
Q13 9.7 57.1 3.29 55.77 1.33
Q14 2.9 60
Q15 3.3 63.3

edit: added Difference column 

The Switch has overtaken the PS4 3 times.

Edit 2: fixed error

And should now do so a 4th time, if not in Q14 then in Q15 latest. And from there, it should stay in front, at least for a while.

Last edited by Bofferbrauer2 - on 17 July 2020

Looking at how consistent the Switch continues to sell is crazy.



Nintendo with the Switch: