it does have one of the highest software-to-hardware ratios of any video game system. i wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the PS2's success.

Switch should still easily outsell it, because I'm pretty sure Nintendo recently implied they'll continue to sell a lot of Switch consoles after the successor is launched. We're probably not getting an abrupt death situation like PS4's.

Still though, nothing is as big as the PS1 and PS2 were in the context of era. The domination and numbers were unreal. Gaming just wasn't nearly as big as it is today.

Weren't PS3 sales reported alongside PS2 for a while? So if the total number of PS2 sales is confirmed to be higher, doesn't that mean the number of PS3s sold has to be a few million lower too?

@Shikamo To be fair, we know that PS1 sold 102.49m and PS3 sold 87.40m, but Sony put "over 102m" for PS1 and "over 87m" for PS3. With that in mind, I'd imagine that it is safe to say PS2 is somewhere over 160m but still less than 161m. The PSP stating "over 80m" might be of lesser importance because it is in smaller text (I believe it was already confirmed that the PSP outsold the GBA's 81.51m).

Yesh. I was just having to debate this in the news section.

The Switch is not a home console. It's a handheld with a dock. If it was a home console, you could not natively play it using batteries in the middle of a forest. It would simply be a useless plastic brick, like the PS5 etc. So even if it hits sixty-one-mill, it still won't beat the PS2's home console record. It'll be the number-one-selling handheld of all time, besting the DS... which should be enough for people. After all, no one in their right mind ever thought Nintendo would release a handheld that could top that beast. Ever.

The dude didn't say the Switch was a home console. Why are you correcting him?

95% of the time I play docked like a home console lol

The last official number Sony themselves stated was “over 155 million.”

Meanwhile, Nintendo just revealed the Switch passed 146 million, bringing it within 10 million and now in striking distance, with the holiday season coming up and still doing respectively well.

And then, just like that, BOOM, Sony says, “Oh yeah, it’s actually over 160 million.”

If you don’t think that’s a coincidence, I got a bridge in San Francisco to sell you!

But even with that updated number, which I’m pretty sure a lot of us assumed was the case anyway, the Switch still has a shot at passing it. It’ll be back within 10 million and striking distance following the holiday season anyway. Even assuming that widely suspected 161.90 million number is true, it’s still got a shot.

I legit think it’s 50/50 right now on whether it does it or not.

It would certainly help if Sony would give us an EXACT number! Because if the Switch finishes within that 160-162 range and we don’t have an exact number from Sony, the debates will rage on forever!

Thinking about it more what's even more important than this is what exactly Jim Ryan said. He didn't say over 160 million, he just said 160 million so while it's not outright confirmed it being below 161m seems almost guaranteed based on the available information so 160.5m is what I'm gonna stick with until they finally give the exact figure.

The other interesting thing about this ongoing chase is that Nintendo still has several cards they have yet to play regarding Switch sales.
The obvious one being - price cuts. We are now in Year 8 of the Switch, and all three models are STILL selling at their launch retail prices of $199/$299/$349 respectively. If they were willing to ease up and drop the prices, I've no doubt in my mind the Switch will pass the PS2.

Take a look at their report from their latest Earnings Release. Specifically, their breakdown of Switch hardware this FY compared the last FY through the first two quarters

While shipments for the Switch OLED model are down almost 50% YOY, the regular Switch SKU and the Switch Lite are both flat or even up slightly YOY. And unless I'm missing something, that comes down to pricing. The two cheaper models are just easier to afford and invest in now that the Switch has such a massive and incredible library of games behind it. A library that will now by fully supported on Switch 2, so that way buyers of Switch 1 won't feel scorned for investing in one and buying games for it now, because they'll be able to play those games on the next system, when they're good and ready to make that jump. 
If they did it so that all three of them would be cheaper and more affordable, that's going to give the Switch the shot in the arm it needs to reach that finish line and take the PS2's place on the podium.