Sony officially confirms that PS2 sold 160 million units, Switch at 146

https://www.eurogamer.net/ps2-officially-surpasses-160m-sales-retaining-its-best-selling-console-crown

Nintendo's Switch might be nipping at its heels, but PlayStation 2 continues to hold the record as the best-selling console of all time - with Sony now confirming the machine has shifted a whopping 160m units since launching all the way back in March 2000.

This isn't the first time we've heard that figure, of course; former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan casually claimed a total of 160m PlayStation 2s had been sold during a farewell edition of PlayStation Podcast earlier this year, but Sony has now updated its PlayStation history page to reflect that number, finally making it officially official.

PlayStation 2's last major sales milestone was trumpeted back in 2011, when Sony revealed the console had surpassed 150m sales - although it only took another year for that number to jump up by a further 5m. So while sales have undoubtedly slowed - not exactly surprising seeing as Sony hasn't produced a PS2 since January 2013 - the fact the console has successfully managed to shift another 5m units in the interim is still pretty wild.

To put that into some sort of perspective, PlayStation 5 is currently at 65m lifetime sales, while PS4 has sold 117m units, PS3 is at the 87m mark, and PS1 was snapped up by 102m Vib-Ribbon fans. Nintendo's DS handheld almost came close to matching PS2's previously announced figure, shifting 154m units, but it now trails someway behind. As for Switch (currently at 146m sales), it could still reign victorious if Switch 2 doesn't get in its way.

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For all this competitive chatter, 160m PS2s sold is still an impressive achievement, and you can read more about the console's success elsewhere on Eurogamer. It's not Sony's only cause for celebration, of course, given the entire PlayStation brand is marking its 30th anniversary in exactly one week's time. And all this because of a falling out with Nintendo.

There were people who questioned Jim Ryan’s claim that PS2 sold 160 million units, so now it’s been officially confirmed by Sony! Congrats, Sony! More surprisingly is that Switch is at 146m and sales have slowed down considerably. And with Switch 2 coming out, it might not break the record! What do you think, SW? Will PS2 remain King?

Good thing the console market is growing and the newer consoles are easily surpassing the 24 year console.😉

You wish you got me 😎

Not sure Nintendo will beat it, I imagine Switch sales will slow substantially after they announce the Switch successor. But, who knows, it'll be a squeaker.

Imagine coming in here and bragging about how a 24-year old CPU or GPU sold a lot of units.

Luckily us PCMR demigods don't need to brag. Simply knowing we are PCMR, and above all others, is enough.

Congratulations to Sony, though.

Really like that console. But PS1 is my favorite.

@Pedro: Indeed. Considering that game budgets have been growing exponentially it’s a good thing the console market has been keeping pace otherwise it wouldn’t be beneficial to keep games exclusive to one system anymore.

How many Xbox and GameCube consoles were sold? I’m pretty sure we’re well past that generations console total. 😉

Switch will pass 160 million in the next 2 years. And will do it in less than 10 years. PS2 took 24 years.

Okay, there is something suspicious. When it discontinued (2014), they stopped taking note of sales at 155 Million (2012). Yet, it's when the Switch is getting up there, NOW it's fine to "find" an additional 5 Million?

I knew Sony gained an ego from beating Nintendo TWICE in a row (N64, GCN) in revenge for that display at CES, in addition to taking SEGA (who themselves have a bit of blame in PlayStation's creation) out the console race, but are they THAT desperate after Nintendo started kicking their asses again with DS and Wii?

Only Nintendo could stand against the dvd player.

160mill ps2, 25mill OG xbox, 25mill GCN, so just north of 200 mill approx, current gen PS5 at 60 odd mill, xbox series just shy of 30 million and switch at 146mill, so by that metric thanks to the switch we are past that total but the switch is a hybrid so we should probably count the DS or the gameboy with the earlier gen which means we are nowhere close to those numbers.

Where's my gamecube at?

What's that about?

Not sure whether the switch can beat the PS2 160 million is insane and remember the PS2, Xbox, GameCube gen was a different time in gaming.

You know how the current state of PlayStation was created? Sony and Nintendo were gonna work together. Yamauchi then found something wrong in the initial deal (it wasn't the "50/50 deal" as it was constantly claimed, Sony had somewhat of an edge in production including over Nintendo's own stuff), and ordered Howard Lincoln to abruptly and publicly cancel the "Nintendo PlayStation" at CES 91.

Not a good strategy at all on Nintendo's side for sure. It made them look like orgs of James Bond villains (Drax, Janus, Spectre) for two gens. However, it showed that Sony wasn't a "good guy" in that situation either.

Nintendo and Sony have been bitter rivals ever since. Nintendo showed it again when, after PlayStation bought EVO, they pulled Smash out of there in 2022.

It’s pretty silly that folks are seemingly ignoring the fact that PS2s sales numbers continue to grow 24 years after launch. The Switch will pass 160 million in 8 or 9 years regardless. And ignoring the abysmal sales numbers for the Xbox and Game Cube is silly too.

If either the Xbox Series or PS5 consoles only sold 25 million units, they’d be out of the console business. And PC gaming wasn’t nearly as big back then as it is now. And there were no mobile games. Gaming is MUCH bigger now than it was in 2000. If you look at the historic spending breakdown, the only area without much growth is software sales. The $30-$40 “b-tier” game market is completely gone. And we get hundreds of fewer console games than we used to. But, yes Phil, let’s blame console sales 🙄

@ghostofgolden: PC is irrelevant in the conversation since specifically we are talking total console units.

Well if Sony combined the ps2 fanbase with their psp fanbase the switch would be laughably behind.

I wonder If Nintendo will also release a cheaper switch model too next year. Maybe a revised Switch Lite for 199.99. Perhaps add the hardware needed for docking but sell the dock separately so people can choose. It may not be a bad thing to have in the pocket in case things go south for the Switch 2. Or the holy grail of 149.99. That's going to take some creative cuts though. Does the Switch need 2 sticks?

Hard to say if the Switch will Surpass the PS2 at it's current prices. But get it into stocking filler territory and it could really fly. Good way to sell more software too.

@osan0: I'm hoping for a DS sized, clamshell Switch Extra Lite for $150 at some point.

That would be very cool too. If it had the ability to dock also (have the dock separate, something like the old 3DS dock but with TV out too) that would be very neat.

Who cares? The cool PlayStation is long gone.

@SolidGame_basic: well, back in the days, ps2 had serious price cuts to like $100 at eol. Switch is still selling full price. If Nintendo kept selling the switch alongside the switch 2, but deeply discounted, they will beat the ps2 100%.

The explosion of PC gaming is going to impact the console market. How can it be irrelevant?

Sony's fragile ego in full display ... again.

@ghostofgolden: The question is, is the overall console market stagnant? I'd agree gaming is far bigger but looking at the total unit sales I don't see any evidence of a particularly dynamic console market, could be lots of reasons why that market has not grown at the same rate as the wider gaming audience has grown and greater PC adoption could be a part of that (almost certainly is), but that's not the point, is the home console market stagnant? and furthermore has it ossified? if the answer to those questions is yes then the MS strategy of fewer exclusives and increasingly the Sony practice of more PC ports makes far more sense compared to the traditional exclusive model seen for the last 30 years or more.

Sony’s probably still holding a grudge for Nintendo kicking their ass to the curb in the 16-bit era. 😂

The problem is gamers spending is flat. This article here explains it quite well. The amount of money the industry makes from each gamer is about $59 a year. That’s where the subscription service hesitancy comes in for many folks. If you compare the TV/movie services, and the metric “time per hour of entertainment,“ gaming comes in at $.07/hr. We see other services like Spotify ($0.18/hr), Netflix ($0.28/hr), or Disney+ ($0.49/hr making far more money. They also have WAY more subscribers and their high end content is cheaper to produce.

Console spending, even with the 2008 (Wii) and 2020 (pandemic) outliers, it’s still trending up. Software revenue has been relatively flat. We get fewer games now, fewer studios, more remakes and remasters… The reason gaming isn’t growing is because of the content. But the reason the content isn’t growing is because publishers can’t get gamers off 7+ year old games like Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox etc. The video game consumer has put the industry in a real pickle. But all it will take is a couple fresh, new games to boost the industry forward.

@mrbojangles25: You don't need to brag and yet you just tried to, epic fail 🤦‍♂️

So the PS2 sold 160 million units and the highest selling games were

San Andreas at 17.3 million

Gran Turismo 3 at 14.9 million

Vice City at 14.2 million

Gran Turismo 4 at 11.7 million

GTA 3 at 11.6 million

And they were the only games to crack 10 million in sales and only San Andreas had a 10% attachment and only just. So it just goes to show that most people bought the PS2 because it was the cheapest DVD player on the market.

Arguing against that would be like arguing that most people bought a Wii for the games also 🤣🤣🤣

So the PS2 sold 160 million units and the highest selling game was

San Andreas at 17.3 million

Gran Turismo 3 at 14.9 million

Vice City at 14.2 million

Gran Turismo 4 at 11.7 million

GTA 3 at 11.6 million

And there was only 1 game to crack 10 million in sales and only San Andreas had a 10% attachment and only just. So it just goes to show that most people bought the PS2 because it was the cheapest DVD player on the market.

Arguing against that would be like arguing that most people bought a Wii for the games also 🤣🤣🤣

So the PS2 sold 160 million units and the highest selling game was

San Andreas at 17.3 million

Gran Turismo 3 at 14.9 million

Vice City at 14.2 million

Gran Turismo 4 at 11.7 million

GTA 3 at 11.6 million

And there was only 5 game to crack 10 million in sales and only San Andreas had a 10% attachment and only just. So it just goes to show that most people bought the PS2 because it was the cheapest DVD player on the market.

Arguing against that would be like arguing that most people bought a Wii for the games also 🤣🤣🤣

So the PS2 sold 160 million units and the highest selling game was

San Andreas at 17.3 million

Gran Turismo 3 at 14.9 million

Vice City at 14.2 million

Gran Turismo 4 at 11.7 million

GTA 3 at 11.6 million

And there was only 5 game to crack a 10 million in sales and only San Andreas had a 10% attachment rate and only just. So it just goes to show that most people bought the PS2 because it was the cheapest DVD player on the market.

Arguing against that would be like arguing that most people bought a Wii for the games also 🤣🤣🤣

@last_lap: it sounds like you're still jelly from PS2 rekting the original Xbox

Funny how Sony only updated their PS2 number just as the Switch was approaching their record.

There's almost no doubt the Switch will eventually outsell the PS2, as the Switch is outpacing the PS2:

• It took the PS2 ten years to hit 146M sales. And that was including price drops.
• Switch reached 146M sales in 7 years. And that's without price drops.

Give it another few years and Switch should eventually surpass 160M, especially when it eventually gets a price drop.

@SolidGame_basic: You're the one who sounds "jelly"

Sorry, not sorry Solid but facts don't care about your feelings.

Oh by the way there were 9 games on the PS4 (which sold 48 million fewer consoles) that sold over 10 million copies, again further proving the point that people bought the PS2 for the DVD player.

Idunno, I thought it was obvious 😋😉

@mrbojangles25: C'mon mate you know I love to stir up the Hermits nest 🤣

PS, I know you're only half joking, but I'll keep your secret 😜

I dont think the switch will surpass it in sales. But man, 140 sales is still a very imprressive number.

You have to wonder though just how many of those sales are attributed to the system breaking down and people just buying a new one to replace it. Total sales numbers may be nice on some level but if it doesn’t equate to more unique users and higher software sales it all seems kind of moot.

And once the Switch passes 160 million, Sony will say that the PS2 actually sold 170 million. 😴

Can't argue the fact that PS2 was truly the best console mainly for it's inclusion of the DVD drive which DVD players are the time was still new to the world, buying DVD players were helluva expensive compared to PS2 which was a nice bonus to have a console gaming machine that plays DVD movies was icing on the cake. PS2 selling over 160 million is a huge milestone.

Lolololololololol 😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

^you crack us up. Almost thought you were serious 😂

@last_lap:

PlayStation says they sold over 1.53B units of PS2 software. That’s nearly 10 games per console and literally on par with the Switch. Care to explain how that makes sense?

@Nonstop-Madness: How many games were released on the PS2 compared to the Switch?

Because that math makes it sound crsp for Sony and great for Nintendo because every man and his dog was making software for the PS2 back in the day.

Edit: so after a quick Google search there were over 4k released on PS2 and 11k so far on Switch.

Sound actually great for PS2, but there were no Indies back in the PS2 days nor no subscription services, so it can't be an apples to apples comparison.

Touché

👍

@last_lap:

Why is the number of games released even relevant?

The fact is the PS2 moved a comparable amount of software as the Switch so this idea that it was a massive success solely because it was a DVD player and not a games console is nonsense.

The DVD portion of the PS2 was the cheapest at the time, that is a factor whether you like it or not, 155 million consoles sold and only 5 games cracked 10 million in sales, and only 1 game had an attachment rate of 10%, PS4 doubled that tally with some 40 million less console sales.

The Switch has almost 3x times the games that the PS2 had and has over 20 games with 10+nillion sales, just further proof that the DVD player in the PS2 was a big factor in its sales.

The stats don't lie.