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Nintendo Switch Outsells PS1 Worldwide - Sales

VolticArchangel

Gold Member
Anticipation Popcorn GIF
 

Kokoloko85

Member
The average Sony home console has sold 115 million units. The average Nintendo handheld has sold 107 million units. There was no reason to think that the Switch outselling the PSX would be a given, even if you consider it to primarily be a handheld.

(I didn't include the PS5 in my Sony average since it's still at the beginning of its life cycle. Nintendo's average is basically the same whether or not you include the Switch's unconfirmed ~102 million in sales.)



I mean, there's a substantial amount of evidence that this isn't the case—from the fact that the dockable OG Switch has massively outsold the Switch Lite to the usage data that Nintendo has released—but if you're feeling lazy, you don't have to look any farther than this thread from *yesterday* where 37% of those who voted said that rarely or never use their Switch in portable mode. Small sample size, yes, but at least now you've heard of someone "not using it exclusively as a handheld." And, if you really just want to meet one person, I only use my Switch as a portable about half the time. Hell, just minutes ago I was playing Metroid Dread on my TV.

I know alot of people who bought Switch Lite as a secondary machine to the Switch OG. The reason Switch OG sold more is because why wouldnt someone want a hybrid instead of just a handheld And its been out longer than the Switch Lite.

I dont think Switch is exactly a console, its a hybrid and is selling like a portable.

Id Guaranteed if these same games were on the Wii U or a new Nintendo Console ( which alot of them are ) it would sell nowhere the same as Switch. In fact the same games like Mario Kart, Pikmin 3, Zelda BOTW have sold nowhere like the Switch version.

The Switch is succesful because its a hybrid/portable, if it was a pure console it would be dead on arrival with those specs, even worse than the Wii U.

Makes no difference to me as my Switch barely leaves the dock and Im not a fan of portable gaming. I loved my Wii U too but if anyone actually thinks Switch would be close to successful if it wasn't a portable or hybrid than they are wrong.

Nintendo has only 1 console that sold more than 100million. The Wii, which again was a lightening strike where grandma’s were playing it.
Everything else sold less than Sony’s worse selling console the PS3. Nes, Snes, N64, Gamecube, Wii U all sold less than 70 million. You can even combine a few of those and the numbers wouldnt reach PS3
 

Lognor

Banned
You sound like the bitter one lol. PS2 wont be wiped from history. As much as I like the Switch, Switch exclusives vs PS2 exclusives dont compare
That's just like your opinion, man. I had to go back and look at what the PS2 exclusives were because the PS2 was soooooo forgettable to me, even though I owned one. MGS is trash (not a fan of giant robots). Ico sucked (you couldn't kill anyone). God of War was way too much of an edgelord (gameplay was decent, but his edgelordyness ruined it for me). See how these are my opinions? I think the Switch lineup is infinitely more impressive than what was on the PS2 and Nintendo isn't even done! We're still getting games that will be GOTY contenders (Metroid, BotW2, etc.). To me it's not even close!
 

Sojiro

Member
Not sure why there are some posters getting defensive about the switch surpassing the PS1, that happening doesn't make the PS1 shit all the sudden or anything. SNES and PS1 are my two all time favorite consoles, but good on the switch for course correcting Nintendo's success after the disaster that was the Wii U. It's a great device, and has earned it's success /shrug.

Nothing is stopping this train, I initially didn't think it could achieve DS/PS2 levels, but I think it will by the end of its life span.
 
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Not sure why there are some posters getting defensive about the switch surpassing the PS1, that happening doesn't make the PS1 shit all the sudden or anything. SNES and PS1 are my two all time favorite consoles, but good on the switch for course correcting Nintendo's success after the disaster that was the Wii U. It's a great device, and has earned it's success /shrug.

Nothing is stopping this train, I initially didn't think it could achieve DS/PS2 levels, but I think it will by the end of its life span.
In 1995 the world population was around 5.5 billion compared to 7.5 billion today. There's more gamers now. Videogames are more mainstream. The age of gamers is more broad. Both the PS1 and the SNES were amazing successes, the PS1 particularly compared to today. There's no shame in those numbers.

Comparing sales of a system from over 20 to 30 years ago to today is like comparing the revenue of a box office hit to something that came out then. You have to adjust to really compare the numbers.
 

Trimesh

Banned
That's just like your opinion, man. I had to go back and look at what the PS2 exclusives were because the PS2 was soooooo forgettable to me, even though I owned one. MGS is trash (not a fan of giant robots). Ico sucked (you couldn't kill anyone). God of War was way too much of an edgelord (gameplay was decent, but his edgelordyness ruined it for me). See how these are my opinions? I think the Switch lineup is infinitely more impressive than what was on the PS2 and Nintendo isn't even done! We're still getting games that will be GOTY contenders (Metroid, BotW2, etc.). To me it's not even close!

I'm sorry, but if you can't find any titles you like on the PS2 then you obviously just don't like videogames. The PS2 had an amazingly large and diverse library, although admittedly part of that was because it was in the last generation before development costs spiraled entirely out of control. Just concentrating on high profile releases entirely misses the most important thing about the machine, which was the sheer variety.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
That's just like your opinion, man. I had to go back and look at what the PS2 exclusives were because the PS2 was soooooo forgettable to me, even though I owned one. MGS is trash (not a fan of giant robots). Ico sucked (you couldn't kill anyone). God of War was way too much of an edgelord (gameplay was decent, but his edgelordyness ruined it for me). See how these are my opinions? I think the Switch lineup is infinitely more impressive than what was on the PS2 and Nintendo isn't even done! We're still getting games that will be GOTY contenders (Metroid, BotW2, etc.). To me it's not even close!

Like you said, its your opinion. Switch is good but its alot of ports too. BOTW, Pikmin 3, Mario Kart, Smash are all on the Wii U. My favourite so far is Fire Emblem, Mario O and Octopath Traveler.
These are opinions but so is someone saying the Master System is better than the Nes…

If we’re going by average reviews and user reviews on games.
The PS2 had:
MGS3 ( theres only 1 robot at the end…)
Final Fantasy 10, 11, 12
Kingdom Hearts 1&2
Jak n Daxter 1-3
God of War 1-2
GTA
Gran Turismo 3&4
Dragon Quest 8
Devil May Cry 1-3
Onimusha 1-3
Katamari Damaci
Okami
Shadow of The Colossus
Silent Hill 2
Digital Devil Saga 1-2
Persona 3-4
Socom
Sly Cooper 1-3
Virtua Fighter 4
Yakuza
Tekken 4-5
And loads more, plus the non exclusives like the other GTA’s, Resident Evil 4, Beyond good n Evil, Tony Hawks 3, Guitar Hero, Burnout Revenge, Time Splitters 2. Lots of amazing games

By volume of top rated exclusives its not even close.
Yeah the Switch has more to come, BOTW2, the next Mario, Pikmin and Fire Emblem which I cant wait for. Metroid Prime 4 etc.

PS2 isnt my favourite Playstation but as a legacy console, theres a reason it was number 1. Yes alot of sales were DVD users, but it had loads of games for hardcore gamers.
Unlike todays machines, alot people only buy it to play 1-2 games, like Fortnite, COD, GTA for the PS4/Xbox etc. Same with the Switch, Ive seen people buy it that have never played a game before to play Animal Crossing and Minecraft and thats it
 

Stuart360

Gold Member
This reminds me of a convo i had with another user in nother thread a few weeks ago. Basically they were saying how Street Fighter 5 has sold about as much as Street Fighter 2, and how SF5 is a big success etc. To cut a long story short, i basically said how it was a different time back in SF2's day, and how console gaming was much smaller back then, PC had zero fighting games really, and SF2 was one of the gaming phenoms of the 90's, and was the biggest game on the planet along with MK for a few years. And you cant label any of that at SF5 lol.

And for me its a similar situation here. Yes Switch has just beaten PS1, but gaming was a lot smaller in PS1's day, and PS1 was a cultural phenom, and pretty much changed the viewpoint of gaming being for kids, to gaming being for adults too, or for everyone.
Plus software wise, PS1 was leagues ahead.
 
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FStubbs

Member
I'm sorry, but if you can't find any titles you like on the PS2 then you obviously just don't like videogames. The PS2 had an amazingly large and diverse library, although admittedly part of that was because it was in the last generation before development costs spiraled entirely out of control. Just concentrating on high profile releases entirely misses the most important thing about the machine, which was the sheer variety.
I think a first person shooter or wRPG fan would find the PS2 library lacking.
 

Deerock71

Member
You sound like the bitter one lol. PS2 wont be wiped from history. As much as I like the Switch, Switch exclusives vs PS2 exclusives dont compare
Patently false. They are games, and they are comparable. Naturally, one might prefer one over the other, but you are factually incorrect.
 
In 1995 the world population was around 5.5 billion compared to 7.5 billion today. There's more gamers now. Videogames are more mainstream. The age of gamers is more broad. Both the PS1 and the SNES were amazing successes, the PS1 particularly compared to today. There's no shame in those numbers.

Comparing sales of a system from over 20 to 30 years ago to today is like comparing the revenue of a box office hit to something that came out then. You have to adjust to really compare the numbers.

Console sales declined heavily from 2008 to 2016:

Screen%20Shot%202016-05-14%20at%2011.17.04%20AM.png


What happened during these years is the casual audience moved from consoles to mobile and PC. Videogames became more mainstream, but dedicated gaming consoles were only temporarily more mainstream until games became more widely available on other devices.
 
Console sales declined heavily from 2008 to 2016:

Screen%20Shot%202016-05-14%20at%2011.17.04%20AM.png


What happened during these years is the casual audience moved from consoles to mobile and PC. Videogames became more mainstream, but dedicated gaming consoles were only temporarily more mainstream until games became more widely available on other devices.
Every generation, more consoles have sold. Let's just start with the 5th gen... The combined sales of N64, PS1 and Saturn was approx. 143 million. The 6th gen the combined sales of PS2, GameCube, and Xbox was about 200 million. The combined sales of PS3, X360, and Wii was about 275 million. And gen 8 isn't over.... But we're at 280 million with Switch (Wii U muddies this comparison).... And then there's ALSO mobile and PC. Sure there's overlap, there always has been. There's A LOT more gamers and people in general.... consoles sell more and more.... Well, they have the ability to.... The market is there

PS2 was a phenomenon.
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
Yeah. The entire point of them combining their console and handheld divisions was to make games faster, but they're just as slow now, but with less games overall.

I really wish Atlus would keep making 3ds level games. Of course look at all the people that complain about the Switch now.

We need another Radiant Historia.
the wire roland brice GIF

I completely forgot about that, good call.

WTF Nintendo!!??! lol.
 
Every generation, more consoles have sold. Let's just start with the 5th gen... The combined sales of N64, PS1 and Saturn was approx. 143 million. The 6th gen the combined sales of PS2, GameCube, and Xbox was about 200 million. The combined sales of PS3, X360, and Wii was about 275 million. And gen 8 isn't over.... But we're at 280 million with Switch (Wii U muddies this comparison).... And then there's ALSO mobile and PC. Sure there's overlap, there always has been. There's A LOT more gamers and people in general.... consoles sell more and more.... Well, they have the ability to.... The market is there

PS2 was a phenomenon.

You're excluding handhelds and years makes way more sense than console generations which vary in length of time and number of consoles.
 
There's a five million gap between the DS and the PS2. Sounds like you're threading a really fine needle there. :p
5 mil? Isn't it a 2 mil gap, imma go check.
edit
It might be by just 1 mil actually, getting mixed results searching though. I initially thought the PS2 did 156, seeing 155. one article claims 158. Either way/any who, the PS2 and DS sold bullshit numbers, lmao
 
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Lognor

Banned
PS2 has more top rated exclusives than Switch, deal with it
What was the dev cycle back in the PS2 days? One, two years max? Now games take 3-5 years. You will never see that quantity of games again.

Why not compare the Switch to the PS4 or Xbox One exclusivies? The Switch blows both of those away, and even when you combine the Xbox Series and PS5 the Switch will still come out ahead by the end.
 

Deerock71

Member
5 mil? Isn't it a 2 mil gap, imma go check.
edit
It might be by just 1 mil actually, getting mixed results searching though. I initially thought the PS2 did 156, seeing 155. one article claims 158. Either way/any who, the PS2 and DS sold bullshit numbers, lmao
I know there's mixed results, and I'm convinced they're that way on purpose by Sony; there's no way there's not a concrete number out there.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
What was the dev cycle back in the PS2 days? One, two years max? Now games take 3-5 years. You will never see that quantity of games again.

Why not compare the Switch to the PS4 or Xbox One exclusivies? The Switch blows both of those away, and even when you combine the Xbox Series and PS5 the Switch will still come out ahead by the end.

Again I wouldnt say it blows the PS4 exclusives away. I love both but the PS4 has given me more exclusives plus some great 3rd party games. Bloodborne, Uncharted 4+ Lost Legacy, God of War, Spiderman, TLOU2, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon, The last Guardian, Yakuza 6, Street Fighter 5, Ratchet and Clank, GT Sports. Playstation has been on a great role since 2009 when it comes to exclusives.

Im not counting games like Persona 5, Shadow of the Colossus just like Im not counting Zelda BOTW, Mario Kart and Pikmin 3 etc as they are not exclusive to either PS4 or Switch.

For combining there portable and console divisions, Nintendo could be doing alot more, its just when you sell numbers like Mario Kart 8 and Animal Crossing its gonna make you lazy. Its a step up from the Wii U but personally I loved the Wii U. Wind Waker HD and Pikmin 3 were worth it for me lol.

And yes games take longer now but have you seen the games Nintendo release? They are closer to gamecube looking games than PS5/Xbox Series X etc
 

Lognor

Banned
Again I wouldnt say it blows the PS4 exclusives away. I love both but the PS4 has given me more exclusives plus some great 3rd party games. Bloodborne, Uncharted 4+ Lost Legacy, God of War, Spiderman, TLOU2, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon, The last Guardian, Yakuza 6, Street Fighter 5, Ratchet and Clank, GT Sports. Playstation has been on a great role since 2009 when it comes to exclusives.

Im not counting games like Persona 5, Shadow of the Colossus just like Im not counting Zelda BOTW, Mario Kart and Pikmin 3 etc as they are not exclusive to either PS4 or Switch.

For combining there portable and console divisions, Nintendo could be doing alot more, its just when you sell numbers like Mario Kart 8 and Animal Crossing its gonna make you lazy. Its a step up from the Wii U but personally I loved the Wii U. Wind Waker HD and Pikmin 3 were worth it for me lol.

And yes games take longer now but have you seen the games Nintendo release? They are closer to gamecube looking games than PS5/Xbox Series X etc
If you're not going to count BotW then you should not count Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy, GoT, etc. as they are all on PS5 and NOT exclusive to PS4.

PS4 exclusives surely are good. Won't deny that. But they just cannot compare to the breadth of amazing offerings found on the Switch: BotW, Mario Kart, Xenoblade 1 & 2, SMT V, Octopath Traveler, Splatoon 2 & 3, etc. The list goes on and on.

yeah, I suppose you could argue that Nintendo has gotten lazy, but that seems to be contagious because so has Sony. Not only has Sony allowed Microsoft to come in and swoop up some of their biggest third party developers, but look at their recent offerings. They are now charging to upgrade your PS4 version of Uncharted 4 to the PS5 version when it used to be FREE. HZD was definitely free. And Sony promised that PS5 upgrades would be free if you owned the PS4 version. Not anymore!! Not only that, they are taking features away. Uncharted 4 had online multiplayer on the PS4. Now Sony is charging full price and there is no multiplayer! They released TLOU1 with online multiplayer. In TLOU2 there is no online multiplayer. I can go on and on. Hopefully Microsoft stealing yet another big developer away from Sony will have them wake up. Not sure what can wake the sleeping giant that is Nintendo though.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
If you're not going to count BotW then you should not count Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy, GoT, etc. as they are all on PS5 and NOT exclusive to PS4.

PS4 exclusives surely are good. Won't deny that. But they just cannot compare to the breadth of amazing offerings found on the Switch: BotW, Mario Kart, Xenoblade 1 & 2, SMT V, Octopath Traveler, Splatoon 2 & 3, etc. The list goes on and on.

yeah, I suppose you could argue that Nintendo has gotten lazy, but that seems to be contagious because so has Sony. Not only has Sony allowed Microsoft to come in and swoop up some of their biggest third party developers, but look at their recent offerings. They are now charging to upgrade your PS4 version of Uncharted 4 to the PS5 version when it used to be FREE. HZD was definitely free. And Sony promised that PS5 upgrades would be free if you owned the PS4 version. Not anymore!! Not only that, they are taking features away. Uncharted 4 had online multiplayer on the PS4. Now Sony is charging full price and there is no multiplayer! They released TLOU1 with online multiplayer. In TLOU2 there is no online multiplayer. I can go on and on. Hopefully Microsoft stealing yet another big developer away from Sony will have them wake up. Not sure what can wake the sleeping giant that is Nintendo though.

Im not counting those because they were newly released exclusive to the console at the time and for a generation. What comes after is kinda pointless because that means most games get rereleased, so nothing is an exclusive lol.
From MGS to Ocarina of the time. They were still exclusives for the console at the time and the major hits.
Im not gonna not count Zelda OOT as being exclusive because it was rereleased on gamecube, wii, 3ds etc. It was an N64 exclusive at the time.

Yeah I totally agree with Sony getting lazy too. Not happy with there shows and game announcements. Not happy that we had more PS5 exclusives in the first 12 months than the 2nd year.

Ive been pretty happy with both exclusives though. Im hoping both Playstation and Nintendo keep up the good work and put more money into releasing more quality games and faster. I cant say either beats either, it just depends on what you like at this point.

Nothing on the Switch beats Bloodborne, God of War and TLOU2 for me but also nothing on Playstation beats Fire Emblem 3 houses, Mario Odyssey and Luigi’s Mansion 3.
The list goes on for both and it just becomes taste at that point and if you wanna nitpick then you count the games that are reviewed highly, both have many highly regarded games. ( But Bloodborn is the best :p )
Been a generation of amazing games for me
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Handheld is still a console. The Switch is a combination of a home video game console and a handheld console. It's a hybrid console. It's still a 100% console.

Ive never counted handhelds as consoles. Sure switch is a hybrid but Id never say PSP or 3DS are consoles
 

Bragr

Banned
Ive never counted handhelds as consoles. Sure switch is a hybrid but Id never say PSP or 3DS are consoles
PSP and 3DS are also consoles. Handheld gaming devices have always been known as handheld game consoles. I guess it's just a matter of terms and not that important, but generally, a game console is a device that outputs a signal to a screen, home consoles output to a TV or some sort of monitor, while handheld games consoles output to screens built into the devices themselves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_game_console
 

Kokoloko85

Member
PSP and 3DS are also consoles. Handheld gaming devices have always been known as handheld game consoles. I guess it's just a matter of terms and not that important, but generally, a game console is a device that outputs a signal to a screen, home consoles output to a TV or some sort of monitor, while handheld games consoles output to screens built into the devices themselves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_game_console

I personally just always counted them as separate things but I guess im technically wrong. Ive bought most the handhelds released but tbh Im just not the biggest portable gamer. I did love them at the time but now like to play on the big screen.

My Switch never leaves the dock, apart from when I take it to another house to play on the screen lol
 

Trimesh

Banned
I think a first person shooter or wRPG fan would find the PS2 library lacking.

Why? It wasn't exactly deficient by the standards of the time - for shooters, you had the early versions of COD, Socom, Unreal, and I guess I should mention Timesplitters (what happened to that anyway?). I'll give you RPGs, although at that point they really weren't on consoles - slightly later, the OG Xbox had Morrowind, but the problems it had with slowing to a crawl in late game (and in extreme cases refusing to load at all) strongly suggests that even the Xbox didn't really have enough RAM to run it properly.
 

FStubbs

Member
Why? It wasn't exactly deficient by the standards of the time - for shooters, you had the early versions of COD, Socom, Unreal, and I guess I should mention Timesplitters (what happened to that anyway?). I'll give you RPGs, although at that point they really weren't on consoles - slightly later, the OG Xbox had Morrowind, but the problems it had with slowing to a crawl in late game (and in extreme cases refusing to load at all) strongly suggests that even the Xbox didn't really have enough RAM to run it properly.
Sure, but if you're, say, a 20 year old gamer right now, who is into first person shooters and wRPGs, and you see GAF threads saying "WOW PS2 had the BEST GAMING LIBRARY EVER", and you start diving into it, you'll probably be disappointed.
 

Lognor

Banned
Im not counting those because they were newly released exclusive to the console at the time and for a generation. What comes after is kinda pointless because that means most games get rereleased, so nothing is an exclusive lol.
From MGS to Ocarina of the time. They were still exclusives for the console at the time and the major hits.
Im not gonna not count Zelda OOT as being exclusive because it was rereleased on gamecube, wii, 3ds etc. It was an N64 exclusive at the time.

Yeah I totally agree with Sony getting lazy too. Not happy with there shows and game announcements. Not happy that we had more PS5 exclusives in the first 12 months than the 2nd year.

Ive been pretty happy with both exclusives though. Im hoping both Playstation and Nintendo keep up the good work and put more money into releasing more quality games and faster. I cant say either beats either, it just depends on what you like at this point.

Nothing on the Switch beats Bloodborne, God of War and TLOU2 for me but also nothing on Playstation beats Fire Emblem 3 houses, Mario Odyssey and Luigi’s Mansion 3.
The list goes on for both and it just becomes taste at that point and if you wanna nitpick then you count the games that are reviewed highly, both have many highly regarded games. ( But Bloodborn is the best :p )
Been a generation of amazing games for me

Yeah, you can move the goal posts any way you like in order to frame your argument. So by your argument, GoW 2 won't count for PS5, nor with HZD2, nor GT7, nor Miles Morales. So right now the marquee PS5 titles are Returnal and Ratchet and Clank. Wait, are you going to count Demons Souls? You really shouldn't because that is simply a remake of a PS3 game. And when/if Returnal or Ratchet and Clank launch on PC then they no longer count either, right? Shit, if that's the case what's the point of buying a PS5 if it has no exclusives?

I will agree with you on one thing - Bloodborne is the best! It got me to buy a PS4. LOL.
 
You're excluding handhelds and years makes way more sense than console generations which vary in length of time and number of consoles.
Mobile gaming has basically taken the place of dedicated handhelds. If you had those numbers then it still blows away the handheld sales from years and generations prior. The NES was on the market for over 10 years and only sold 66 million... Worldwide. It was said to be in one out of three homes in the US. If a console is in one of three homes in the US now... That would equate to about 50 million in the US alone, nevermind worldwide sales.
 
Not surprising, handhelds are becoming more popular, especially in countries with small living spaces.

There is no evidence to support this claim. The 3DS sold less than half of the DS. Vita sold less than a fifth of the PSP. Nintendo even had to emergency cut the price of the 3DS to help boost sales.

There has been a clear and significant downward trend in the sales of "handhelds" since the start of the iPhone era until the Switch came around.
 
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