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Switch vs PS4 Sales Comparison - Switch Lead Tops 8 Million in November 2020

This monthly series compares the aligned worldwide sales of the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4.

Switch Vs. PS4 Global:

Gap change in latest month: 2,524,090 - Switch

Gap change over last 12 months: 7,018,631 - Switch

Total Lead: 8,594,884 - Switch

Switch Total Sales: 70,903,631

PS4 Total Sales: 62,308,747

November 2020 is the 45th month that the Nintendo Switch has been available for. During the latest month, the gap grew in favor of the Switch by 2.52 million units when compared to the PlayStation 4 during the same timeframe. In the last 12 months, the Switch has outsold the PlayStation 4 by 7.02 million units. The Switch is currently ahead of the PlayStation 4 by 8.59 million units.

The PlayStation 4 launched in November 2013, while the Nintendo Switch launched worldwide in March 2017. Therefore, the holiday periods for the two consoles do not lineup, which is why there are big increases and decreases.

The 45th month on sale for the Nintendo Switch is November 2020, while for the PlayStation 4 it is July 2017. The Switch has sold 70.90 million units, while the PlayStation 4 sold 62.31 million units during the same timeframe. The PlayStation 4 did not reach current Switch sales until month 50.

The PlayStation 4 has sold 114.20 million units through November 2020. The Nintendo Switch is currently 43.30 million units behind the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 4.

This was a very interesting month for this gap chart. Looking at a month aligned comparison (basically comparing the fourth november for the NS and for the PS4), this was the first time since last november that the PS4 was able to outsell the NS in a month. 

Next month should go back to nintendo as the PS4 sold 3.9 million units and nintendo already sold 1.3 in it's first of five weeks. I wonder what games came out that holiday season or what deals became available to see such a great growth for the PS4.

The month aligned chart after 45 months of release for the NS shows the NS with quite a lead, and like I said, december should bump this lead really high for the NS.

These past 10 months have been brutal for this chart. But the PS4 did manage to win this month.

For November 2016 I see PS4 at 3,296,010, not 4,270,239.... I think you included the week ending 3rd Dec in with November instead of December. (or is that intentional, are you splitting the difference on those border weeks? or any weeks with 4+ days in that month go in that month?)

Hi @HigHurtenflurst I actually changed to include any week with 4+ days to count for that month. I was told that this is the way VGChartz counts it, therefore this december will have 5 weeks instead of 4, Is that correct?

This would make the switch gain november back. What is the correct way of analyzing this? Thanks for pointing this out.

Neither is correct, as long as you are consistant.

If you are looking at comparing months to historical months it might be best to do what NPD does, always have months with the same number of weeks where possible (I think last month of every quarter is 5 weeks, then every few years they have to have January as 5 weeks as well to reset it)

Thank you @HigHurtenflurst That is very insightful. Do you know if this is the way VGChartz decides how to do month totals?

I agree that consistency is the best thing. And comparing months makes sense that it is with equal amounts of weeks. This would work very well exept for the occasional January.

Pretty sure the graphs in the tools section of VGC use week-ending method for month (I havent checkes every 5-week month but those that I have consitantly include weeks ending 1st/2nd/3rd within that same month, so I believe the week ending 2nd Jan 2021 will be counted in the January totals when you arrange by month)

However Trunkswd mentioned in another thread that for yearly totals it might be different as some past years have had weeks ending in early Jan counted toward previous year totals... Which if true is kinda odd.

I have the same confusion, I think that is what is going on, which makes it a bit tough to easily compare consoles, specially when they are really close.

What do you think about trying  to divide the week by 7 and just multiplying by the days each month has for that week. It wouldn't be exact but it should be a bit closer to reality in all cases.

One down side of doing that is that it wouldn't match VGChartz values and it might make it a bit tougher for people to double check. In that case, trying to match VGChartz would be most appropiate (although tough when dealing with two different ways of sorting at the same  time).

What do you recommend?