Nintendo has forecasted just 2 million more sales for its aging Switch 1 console over the coming financial year, leaving it still several million short of PlayStation 2’s record-breaking total.
PS2, first released in Japan on March 4, 2000, followed by North America on October 26, 2000, and Europe on November 24, 2000, officially remains the best-selling console of all time, with Sony’s count placing it at 160 million units sold. Switch 1, meanwhile, now stands at 155.92 million lifetime sales, with its annual total increasing at an ever-slower pace each year.
In its latest financial results, Nintendo revealed it had sold 3.86 million Switch 1 consoles during the past financial year. Switch 1 console sales have been falling every year since 2021, and this latest total marks a further decrease of 64% on the 10.80 million units that Nintendo shifted in 2024.
All of this places Switch 1 currently at 4.08 million consoles shy of the PS2, and still 2.08 million short even in a year’s time. Could Switch still beat PS2 in 2028? While technically possible, the console will then be well over a decade old and Switch 2 will have been launched for several years.
Nintendo, however, has shown no sign of discontinuing its aging hardware — perhaps with that PS2 lifetime sales figure in mind. Indeed, it’s hard to shake the feeling there’s some rivalry going on over that top spot.
Remember that Sony only upped its official PS2 sales tally a couple of years ago, when then-PlayStation boss Jim Ryan declared the 24-year-old console had actually sold 160 million during a podcast appearance. Prior to that, the machine had long been listed as only managing 155 million sales — a target Switch 1 looked close to eclipsing (and which it has indeed now surpassed).
Looking at the past year’s hardware sales in detail, a third of the Switch 1 consoles that Nintendo sold were in Japan. Roughly the same amount was sold across both North and South America combined, with the same amount again across Europe and the rest of the world.
It’s clear that Japan remains a hugely important territory for Nintendo — as well as being the company’s homeland, it is also a market which strongly favors handheld (or hybrid) consoles. But today’s financial results also brought word of price rises — including for Switch 1, specifically in Japan.
While Switch 2 console costs are set to be raised globally, Nintendo stated that it would also be increasing the price of Switch 1 in its home country. This, coupled with the fact that Switch 2 is now well-established in the region, makes the aging console’s sales future even less certain — even in a country where it remains hugely popular.
As for PlayStation, if Switch doesn’t beat PS2, Sony’s retro console may remain the best-selling gaming hardware for some time. PS5 sales are currently trending behind PS4 at the same point in its lifecycle, Sony admitted today, amid a gloomy global picture where console costs are only continuing to increase.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
