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Forums - Sales - Sony confirms PS2 has sold over 160 million

And finally,

Poor Vita...



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I think that puts to bed the idea of Switch having a shot at passing the PS2. Hitting 158m was already a big stretch unless they do major price drops on the Switch, which they seem to have zero desire to do. But with PS2 up at 160.X million I don't see Switch getting anywhere near that. DS is now the main target for the Switch, with the PS2 remaining the king.



Nice to experience this update since I wasn't keeping track of sales back when PS2 was a current gen system.

Shikamo said:

 Honestly, I'm certain that PS2 sold more than 160m + but I just dont understand why Sony dont give us the exactly numbers :X

Probably to have a milestone number that looks nice.
160,731,027 doesn't quite have the same ring to it.



Torpoleon said:

@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).

This is the only way to read this news. So it's official, PS2 160-160.99m



Alex_The_Hedgehog said:
Norion said:

Over 1.5 billion PS2 games were sold. Only the PS4 and likely the Switch have surpassed that so what do you mean by glorified DVD player?

Also, PS2 games were very easy to pirate. Here in Brazil a lot of people who bought a PS2 never purchased a original game.

But oh well, this is the excuse some people have to justify why the PS2 is still the best selling console.

This pirateing was rampant with the PS2... there has to be atleast 0.5 billion games on the PS2 pirated lol :p



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Hiku said:

Nice to experience this update since I wasn't keeping track of sales back when PS2 was a current gen system.

Shikamo said:

 Honestly, I'm certain that PS2 sold more than 160m + but I just dont understand why Sony dont give us the exactly numbers :X

Probably to have a milestone number that looks nice.
160,731,027 doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Just noticed it says "one of" the biggest selling video game consoles of all time. You'd think they would want to boast about being number 1 unless they're a bunch of chickens and are worried about the big bad Switch passing them. 

Bawk bawk



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Hiku said:

Nice to experience this update since I wasn't keeping track of sales back when PS2 was a current gen system.

Shikamo said:

 Honestly, I'm certain that PS2 sold more than 160m + but I just dont understand why Sony dont give us the exactly numbers :X

Probably to have a milestone number that looks nice.
160,731,027 doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

You're luck that we are talking about Sony and not Nintendo.

Just imagine, someone post on reddit that a mod from vgchartz said the exactly thing from a confidential thing from Nintendo, like the exactly day of Switch 2 launch and the exactly numbers, that Nintendo will ship from the stores, you dont know how you got  the exactly number because you are joking all the time and peoples distorces saying that you're a leaker from Nintendo and from someway that reach Nintendo and all is correct and the Ninjas go to Sweden and...

 



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PAOerfulone said:

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!

It was first when Nintendo announced 139M I think after the last holidays and then Shawn Layden went out and said 160M, after that Nintendo reported recently 146M and Sony now go back and reaffirming 160M again. It's like cat and mouse. And if Switch actually finishes in the 160-162M range, trust me Sony will go out and announce exact figures ONLY if PS2 is more. For example if the last given Switch numbers are let's say 160.8M, Sony will give exact numbers only if they are more than 160.8M. If they are below the given 160.8M Switch number, they won't go out and give exact figures.

PAOerfulone said:

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.

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.

Very good explanation of the Price situation with Switch. That's how should people approach it, like you here. Because yes, the Switch hasn't had official price cut yet, however the effect of a price cut has been there over the years with the Lite. Because what is the target of price cut ? The people who can't afford the original item at the full price. And the Lite model surely got a big chunk of people who couldn't afford the original model, but could afford the Lite model. In other words, it's not price cut, but it has taken at least half if not more of the effect a price cut would do on the sales. The second part you wrote, again reconfirms what I just wrote. The availability at all time of a cheaper model over the years, helps, and it's surely easier to afford for more casual people that are not so much into gaming, or even hardcore ones that can't afford the normal or the OLED model. Something that people don't often think about when talking about the " no price cut ever " thing.

And yes they still has the card of price cut to play, since they hadn't done it yet, and it will surely add more sales to it since Switch at 149$ looks really appealing. Personally given the economy and the latest prices of different tech items I don't believe they will do any, but time will show. I also agree with price cut, Switch chances of passing PS2 grow way bigger and it's probably a lock.

JackHandy said:

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.

I absolutelly agree.. But the conversation, debate, and the comparison is still here .. and not just here, but everywhere. So it may not be exactly fair, however PS2 can still win this one. Personally with the Switch performance lately in Europe and especially US market's I am seeing the end of the road and numbers around 155M for the Switch, when it's all said and done. Unless they don't put price cut out. Then it will be different beer.

Norion said:

So turns out the former president of SIE who will have had access to the sales data wasn't rounding up after all as some claimed. They shouldn't have waited this long to finally update the sales total but nice to at last get a confirmation of it reaching 160m though it's still annoying they finally updated it but didn't give an exact number to fully settle things. At least the range has been significantly shortened and Zhuge says while the theoretical maximum is 161.8m it's definitely below that so I expect it to be around 160.5m.

It was rounding after all ... He said 160M. Like exactly. Sony said over. What are the chances PS2 sold exactly 160.000.000 ? So it's rounding. But rounding down, not up.



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PAOerfulone said:

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.

OLED doesn't make much sense if you have the system docked.

As for the PS2, I'd imagine Sony to have the number of manufactured units somewhere. I'm not sure, however, if it's important for Sony to boast with a 25-year old system whether it's the best-selling or second best-selling of all time. It may be fun to watch on internet forums how the systems fare against each other, but I don't think it's important in the business sense of things.



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Nintendo games sell only on Nintendo system.

Honestly hoping PS2 keeps its crown. Switch is a great innovative device with stelllar support from Nintendo but PS2's Library is still leagues ahead