Quoting this post as a reference point because my original post was terminated. Also got around to updating my spreadsheet with all the latest numbers, including the CESA White Paper.

When I created this thread, global Switch shipments had reached 103.54m units, so a little less than 60m to go to exceed the 160m mark and become the best-selling console of all time. IIRC, in a response to the above post I said that this isn't a regional prediction, but merely a rough guideline for what needs to be accomplished (the numbers tally up to ~164m to begin with). Already back then it was clear that Japan's goal would be much easier to reach than Other's, so it's no surprise that the most recent shipment numbers confirm this original assumption.

So right now, six fiscal quarters later, we have 129.53m globally. Breaking down the regions:

Japan: 30.79m, so ~5m more.
Americas: 50.18m, so ~10m more.
Europe: 33.53m, so ~11m more.
Other: 15.02m, so ~5m more.

The above guidelines add up to ~160.50m lifetime, with Europe and Other receiving more breathing room due to the good pace of Japan and the Americas. Even so, the goals for Europe and Other will be tougher to reach than the others in the above example. On the other hand, Japan is currently overperforming on a level that picks up the slack for Other; admittedly, Japan's overperformance is probably directly caused by sales of consoles that end up in Other eventually. But this thread has always been about global sales, so such odd regional discrepancies do not matter as it's just shifting sales from one place to another and we would count them all the same anyway. Europe is the big question mark: Still the most to go, but at the same time also the region with the most remaining growth potential.

In year over year calendar shipments for the first half of the year, 2023 is only ~0.5m behind 2022, resulting in a soft decline of under 10%. This happened under the condition of the average selling price going up with Switch OLED shipments increasing by a full million; the standard Switch decreased by ~1.5m units, Switch Lite remained flat, hence ~0.5m less in total shipments. What I find interesting about this is that it suggests that demand for Switch remains high, provided Nintendo actually makes use of SKU options.

Going forward, the year over year comparison is rather gentle with 3.25m in calendar Q3 2022. While I don't think that 2023 will beat that, it's not going to lose much ground. The holiday quarter will be the real deal with 8.23m in 2022, but Nintendo has lined up a little game called Super Mario Bros. Wonder that screams for its own special edition hardware just like Tears of the Kingdom got one. I don't consider it unrealistic to finish 2023 with quarterly shipments of ~3m and ~7m, if Nintendo doesn't mess up SMB Wonder. This would result in calendar year shipments of 17m units and an LTD figure between 139-140m. A more conservative estimate puts 2023 at 16m, the worst case would be 15m if we remain realistic.

Software-wise, the first half of 2022 was at ~97m, 2023 is at ~94m. All in all, 2023 looks to set things back on track after 2022 underperformed a little. We can look forward with confidence, because 2022's overshipments have already been normalized in 2023, so now 2023 can ship as much as it sells, rather than shipping below sell-through.

If it is delayed to early 2025 then overtaking the PS2 would become likely. A 3-4 month delay to presumably get software ready wouldn't be that big a deal but would still be a blunder from Nintendo cause holiday 2024 is the perfect time to make that quarter be big instead of weak so ideally launch software would be ready by then. Also from a personal perspective I want to see the new hardware as soon as possible by this point but at least it's only at most a year away.

Half a year later, we have these totals with targets of 35m in Japan, 60m in the Americas, 45m in Europe and 20m in Other:

Japan: 33.34m, so ~2m more.
Americas: 53.85m, so ~6m more.
Europe: 36.15m, so ~9m more.
Other: 16.03m, so ~4m more.

Japan continues to lead the charge and overall the two recent quarters performed in line with my expectations above, putting Switch's LTD figure between 139 and 140 million units (139.36m).

Japan should be able to hit 35m by the end of 2024, the Americas should be 1-2m short of 60m, Europe 4-5m short of 45m and Other about 2m short of 20m, resulting in under 10m left to go until Switch hits 160m. The now rumored Switch successor launch in early 2025 obviously makes it more realistic for Switch to become the best-selling console of all time, giving it one more holiday season all to itself.

2024 will certainly see a bigger percentage decline over 2023 than 2023 saw over 2022 due to fewer big games. 2024 will most likely be limited to a Pokémon release in November as far as big sellers are concerned. But Switch's back catalogue is loaded enough to have another 10m+ calendar year of hardware shipments in combination with the smaller new Nintendo titles that are coming in an almost monthly rhythm throughout the year.

I would agree with Rol here that really the #1 factor for the Switch 2's success is not whether its hardware is underpowered, or if it misses an "optimal" holiday launch window, or even if the switch has "weak" momentum in its last year, but rather entirely on whether it 

1) Has a strong launch year library of consistent and well-received first-party releases

2) Is properly priced and marketed as a successor to the Switch 

Those are the only big factors that matter, and any analysis suggesting otherwise is misguided

I didn't say it would negatively impact the Switch 2 to any notable degree, just that Nintendo would be missing the optimal release window for it. The ideal scenario would be them being able to achieve a strong launch year library with a late 2024 release date but unfortunately it seems they might not be able to.

Most consoles when launching near the holidays sell around 3-4 M.

The Switch in the first month shipped 2.74M and shipped around 5.96M for the holiday, so it seems like it found a better release window. At least that's what I think.

The keyword there is most, Nintendo is doing so extremely well right now that the Switch 2 should have a really big launch assuming they don't screw it up. Also you're not taking into account that if the Switch launched in late 2016 by the time the end of 2017 came around it would've benefited from two holiday seasons instead of just one. There's a reason the rumour is it getting delayed to early 2025 instead of that being the original target.