The Switch is one of my absolute favorite consoles of all time, so for me its easy. But they are both legendary consoles.

Well, let's list some of the things they have in common, and then let's list the things they don't have in common.

Common things.

1.) They were both culturally-significant devices.
2.) They both sold over 150 million units.
3.) They are both the highest-selling devices for their respective companies.
4.) They both offer the highest-selling individual games for their respective generations.
5.) They both were relatively unreliable hardware wise (stick-drift and fan issues for Switch, DRE for PS2).

Things they don't have in common.

1.) One is a handheld with a dock and one is a dedicated home console.
2.) One of them had a higher market share (PS2) than the other.
3.) One of them had a lock on third party support (PS2) and the other was inferior for third parties (Switch).
4.) One of them was a massive leap forward in tech (PS2), while the other only offered the power of the generation prior (Switch).
5.) One of them had free online play (PS2), while the other hid it behind a paywall (Switch).
6.) One of them used standard media, the other used (sort of) propriety media.
7.) One had full hardware-based backwards compatibility, the other didn't.

I think when you look at it on paper, the PS2 is more impressive. It sold more units and it did so as a dedicated home console. Its market-share was greater. Its games were more revolutionary, because they were doing things never seen or experienced before. It had full, hardware-based backwards compatibility. It had free online play. It had far more third party exclusives, AND great first party games. And most of all, it did all this in a market place that was infinity smaller.

For me, a harder debate would be between the PS2 and SNES, or NES. Now THAT would be a tough one.

You can look at this from a few different angles, If we're to ask ourselves which is the better console to buy today or in the future, counting late ports, and ignoring generational exclusives, the Switch and a few other systems would beat the PS2 comfortably, maybe unless you count backwards compatibility with PS1. Because many if not most classics have been ported and improved on modern consoles. But this wouldn't really be a fair comparison.

When you play DMC1 or MGS2 today vs when you first played them in 2001 are completely different experiences. The PS2 had a mindboggling leap in graphics technology and gameplay. It was also the first console to standardize dual sticks, the last groundbreaking hardware feature.

Frankly, Switch's 3rd party exclusive library is very weak even when compared to older Nintendo systems. Not Nintendo's fault, it's just the state of a an increasingly multiplatform industry. Even Playstation's 3rd party support sucks if exclusivity is the sole metric.

To put things into perspective... The PS2 had 7, and I repeat, SEVEN exclusive Shin Megami Tensei games. Basically, SMT alone puts PS2 well above the entire Switch 3rd exclusive (even when counting timed exclusives like Monster Hunter Rise) library as far as A-AAA games. Fortunately for Nintendo, their first party games can't be played outside their own systems, and this saves the Switch from an exclusivity standpoint and keeps it unique with a strong identity compared to modern consoles/PC.

PS2 had a very large quantity of quality games that you just couldn't play anywhere else, not counting PS1 games via backwards compatibility. And this is what differentiates it from anything that came after. But in the end, it's a product of its time.

The best one for me is the PS2.

It was an amazing system. It could play all PS1 and PS2 games. It was the place where a lot of great series had their debuts: God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Fatal Frame, Kingdom Hearts, the 3D GTA games, Jak and Daxter... All of them debuted on PS2.

In my opinion, the Switch is quite a good system, but also very overrated. If I had one, it would be only for Nintendo games, and even so, I already played the titles I wanted to. And I think even the SNES had more memorable Nintendo games.

Again, that's all my opinion.

Asking this on a site that heavily favours Nintendo? At least there isn't a poll, so people have to explain themselves.

I don't have experience with the Switch, but it's probably better, because things have improved in a lot of ways. It's probably a more interesting question if it's actually which one was better for its time. I suspect then the answer is PS2, because it got such a huge range of games from pracically everyone, including a lot of gems, but I'm not familiar enough with the Switch to be able to answer that question properly.

This,i also think a lot of gamers dont really know how MANY games sony released on the ps2.

5 ratchet games

4gt games ( gt3/4 prologe)

3 sly racoon games.

2 gow games

4 socom games

5 jak and daxter games

2 siren games

2 or 3 twisted metal games

2 ape escape games

And many many more.

And most of them where made for the ps2, not just a port of a older console

Not even talking about the HUGE amount of third party/jrpgs and dont forget if iam not mistaken about 40-50% of all ps2 games never left japan.

The switch is impressive in its own way, but to me it doesnt even come close.

⁷

And Wipeout, Genji, Everybody's Golf, goofy Eyetoy stuff, not to mention Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

They also published/owned JRPG's like Dark Cloud, Dark Chronicle, Rogue Galaxy, and Arc the Lad among others. I'm still kind of bummed that modern Sony is so much bigger than the Sony of old which published many quirky games and had more diversity and a wider budget range.

PS2 was a good cheap way to watch dvds as well as playing games. Switch offered a 360 degree gaming experience from docked to handheld, so in terms of Gaming console Switch was already better plus like anything new, Switch will be remembered longer as it has a new and younger generation on its side. Only who experienced PS2 (which was great at the time) thinks of it, not younger people. In 25 years time, people will start having similar conversations Switch vs "The Latest New King"

That doesnt make sense. No kid remembers the snes either,thats life. The kids of my sister knows what a ps2 is, you know why? Because they are curious why they had a ps4 and what a ps1, 2 and 3 where.

The questin ofcourse is for people who lived/played in both the ps2 and switch era.

Gaming will never truly forget a console.

In 20 years time people will call the switch" a product of its time"

Thats how it is.

During PS2 days it was THE console system, like if you want to only have a PS2 you could and would have no problem having acess to almost all the best games released in that gen. Even long after PS3/XBOX360 it still received some degree of support, specially from Japanese devs

On Switch side it has a couple of best Nintendo games, but it was not "enough" to hold my hook in gaming. It took me only 2 years to finish the backlog of games I was interested In. In fact since 2021 my Switch was getting less and less use, and I had to buy a PS5 and build a PC because many of the best games released in the last ~4 years are simply not there 

I now only use my Switch to replay a couple of games, and play when I'm not at home. The portability is certainly a lot less important for me now because since the pandemic I no longer need to commute and stay almost all my day at home. I have very few interest in the last games released on it, I think Switch is the modern console game that feel the least interesting in the late game life, since Nintendo already optimized and offered their best games since the early life (expert by TOTK, TOTK is special)