Year on Year Sales & Market Share Charts - December 21, 2019 - Sales

Considering its December numbers have been far bigger than the 2017 PS4, it seems almost definite that it will. Needs to sell about 600K more I think, which seems easy.

Yes, it seems Switch can beat the PS4 peak year, and I expect next year to be the peak for Switch, so even bigger.

@yo33331 The DS peak was 29.4 million in 2007. Two years later its sales were still above 20 million. Still higher than any other system besides the Wii ever reached. The Wii's peak was 24 million. Two years later its sales were 17.25 million. Which will almost certainly be higher than what the PS4 is doing now, two years after its peak. Neither "quickly went down and died within two years".

I don't even really know where to begin...

The peak refers to the year when it sold the most. If you're counting three years at the peak, and another 2-3 years of them "dying" then we're essentially talking about the console's entire lifespan. Of course sales are going to drop at some point during the console's life.

The DS sold over 20 million units for 5 consecutive years. It didn't drop below 20 million until a fully backwards compatible successor came out at 70 dollars more. And even then it still kept kicking for another few years.

If we want to talk percentages, which would be a bad idea, but what the hell, the DS dropped from its peak, 29.5 million, to 20.5 million two years later. Roughly a 33% drop. Wii dropped 29%.

The PS1's peak year was in 98 at about 21 million. Two years later, its sales had dropped to less than 10 million, a drop of more than 50%. PS3's peak was 14.4 million. Two years later, sales were 8.2 million. A drop of 43%. So not only did these console have just as large drops from their peaks, but they actually had larger ones. Even the PSP dropped 35% within 2 years of its peak. So, you're just factually wrong there. The PS4 looks like it will be down 24% from its peak now 2 years later. So, that's marginally better than the Wii, but not by a huge amount.

PSP sold longer than the DS, but that's really not a good thing. The reason that the DS wasn't selling was because the 3DS was out, was backwards compatible, and was 70 dollars more than the DS was at the time. The reason the DS sales dropped after the 3DS came out was because people wanted the newer system (after a massive price cut at least) which in general, is what developers want unless they're trying to sell one system as a budget option. And it's not like the PSP was selling in huge numbers anyway. Like 2-3 million a year, a significant portion of which were bought mainly to be hacked.

Using the Vita as an example of a console having legs is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, come on man. You don't even have to look on another page. Just scroll up for two seconds. Despite launching around the same time the 3DS has been outselling the Vita by a factor of about 9 to 1 since 2017, with the 3DS having an actual successor. Vita sales may not have dropped as quickly from its peak in terms of percentages, but that's mainly because it had nowhere to go. It's sales were below a million within five years of it's release. The 3DS still hasn't dropped under a million in its 9th year on the market. The 3DS actually has decent legs. The Vita is a double amputee.

The PS2, and to a MUCH lesser extent the PS1 were the only Sony consoles that really had exceptionally long legs. And from that people constructed a narrative that they're still believing despite the numbers not supporting it at all. There's nothing magic about Sony's systems. The ones that are good and popular keep selling well for a while. The ones that aren't as good and popular don't sell for that long. That's all it is.

@yo

So, first off you're just going to ignore the PSVita, and the PS3, which is 2/5 of the consoles that Sony put out. So... basically, Sony systems sell for longer. Except when they don't, but that apparently doesn't count.

Second, you're ignoring all of the Nintendo systems that did sell for a crazy long time. Gameboy sold for about 14 years. The NES also had a pretty long life at around 9 years. It sold better 4 years after the SNES launch then the PSP did after the Vita launch. GBA also sold for about 9 years before going below 1 million. Again, it sold more 4 years after its successor than the PSP did after the Vita. The 3DS is in its 9th year and still over a million units. The SNES was also still over a million in its 9th year which was 3 years into the the N64's lifespan. And the DS as well was still selling in its 9th years, 3 years into the 3DS life span. So, if you want to include the PSP as an example of an impressive console with long legs, then you have to deal with the fact that the majority of Nintendo's systems have sold for as long, and generally about as far into their successor's lifespan.

So you ignored the Sony systems that didn't have long lives, and ignored the Nintendo systems that did. You're ignoring most of the data we have.

Third, apparently going from 30 million to 20 million qualifies as falling off a cliff. But, as I pointed out to you just before, PS1 sales fell from 18.5 to 9.3 million immediately after its peak years (we'll use your definition of peak for argument's sake although it's an awful definition). Not only is this a near identical drop in terms of raw numbers, but it is even larger in terms of percentages. If DS sales dropped off a cliff, then the PS1 sales dropped off of a bigger one. Which means, by your definition, we're now at 3/5 of Sony's consoles dying soon after their peak years.

Fourth, the Vita in no way shape or form had long legs, or really legs of any kind. That's just straight nonsense. You could compare it to the Wii U, but sucking less than the Wii U isn't an accomplishment. All that means is that the Vita doesn't have the absolute worst legs of any major system. So, yay for that. And even then, the Wii U actually had a successor. Gotta figure at least some people would have bought a Wii U to play BOTW if they really had to.

As for the rest of what you wrote, I'm not trying to be rude, but I honestly don't understand what you're saying. Without paragraphs and line breaks to separate the points you're trying to make, I'm really not sure what you're getting at, especially with all of the numbers being thrown around.

This is a textbook example of trying to massage facts to fit your narrative when they simply don't. As I said in the last post, the PS2 was incredible. The PS1 sort of was to, but to a far lesser extent. From this people constructed the narrative that Sony consoles had extraordinarily long lives. There were even people arguing that the PS3 would wind up outselling the Wii in the end because of the mythical Sony legs. But since the PS2, their next three systems simply haven't had exceptionally long lives. The numbers clearly show that none of their other systems (and even the PS1 is debatable) had more impressive lifespans than Nintendo's average systems.

The 3DS launched in February of 2011. February of 2019 marked 8 years. We are now about 3/4 through its ninth year. At this point, you're not even getting the most basic facts right.

Your PS3 example is just further demonstration of your determination to make the facts fit your narrative. Even when the PS3 lost it somehow won. In your imaginary example, maybe the PS3 would have had the legs to beat the Wii. Here in reality, where there are things like profits, material costs, shipping, retail shelf space, and so on, the PS3 in fact did not have the legs to catch the Wii. We're talking about actual sales, not hypothetical sales.

As a point of fact, the Wii did not have "2-3 years of big drops and then the end". Nor did the DS. The DS sold for 5 years after its peak, or 4 if we're using your bizarre definition of peak. The Wii continued selling for 7, or 6 if you want to use your definition of peak. The numbers are on this site, there is no excuse for being this wrong.

Of course, none of this is remotely relevant to your initial claim of Wii sales dying 2 years after their peak. But, once I demonstrated that was wrong, you moved the goal posts. Now apparently we're talking about the drops that happen after the big drops or something. At this point you're just continually redefining things to make your wrong claims somehow right, and I don't have any more time to waste on that.

"Also don't mistake 3DS life - it is 8 years now not 9, this year is it's 8 year."

"DS sold more than 1M units in its 8 year not in its 9th year, dont change the fact"

Here is you, in the most literal way possible changing what you're talking about and moving goal posts. Whether intentional or you just can't keep track of what you're saying, it's impossible to have a coherent conversation.

Are we talking about the 3DS or the DS now? And, dude... can you like not count?

Launched in February 2011.

2/2011-2/2012 Year one.
2/2012-2/2013 Year two.
2/2013-2/2014 Year three.
2/2014-2/2015 Year four.
2/2015-2/2016 Year five.
2/2016-2/2017 Year six.
2/2017-2/2018 Year seven.
2-2018-2/2019 Year eight. THIS ENDED ALREADY.
2-2019-2/2020 Year nine. YOU ARE HERE

So, you said something obviously wrong. You admitted it which was a good start. Then you added a ton of new rules to somehow try and justify it. We haven't been measuring things from the exact launch date, but now we have to do that, and not only that, but we have to use the global launch date despite the fact that we haven't done that for any other system. That's goal post moving. And somehow people are thumbing all this stuff up within minutes, so either people are hanging on our every word, or you're thumbing yourself up from multiple accounts.

And apparently now, we're no longer concerned with how well things sold after their peak, but we're concerned with how well systems sold in their absolute last year of relevance. I can't anymore. PSP sold better in its literal last year of relevance after its successor flopped than the 3DS did with a viable successor on the market. Clearly this is an incredibly relevant stat which is now how we measure things, and this proves Sony is the bestest in the world or whatever.

@jweincom, that's alot of awesome information you gave here. I didnt realize how long all of Nintendo systems sold for. I always knew the fact that people said their systems never lasted long was total BS, but wow, they really did go for as long, and longer in some cases, than the competition. Thanks for all the great information and numbers.

Jweincom..... man. I dont know how you do it. You have the patience of a saint. My goodness.

Nintendo never had just one console on the market like Sony and Nintendo handhelds don't fall off as quickly as you are pretending. Nintendo switch will have far better legs than you are imagining, even if PS4 edges out at the end and the battle will be far closer than you think

Sony consoles are indeed known for continuing to sell for years after their peak years. Switch is no doubt a bigger mega seller than PS4, as its already gonna beat PS4's peak year this year, and will very likely have an even bigger year next year. But yeah sales will probably fall off more quickly for the Switch than for PS4. I think part of that is just that Sony makes really expensive consoles so some people wait until the price comes down to a reasonable amount to buy it, whereas Nintendo makes affordable systems so there aren't as many people waiting for the price to hit like half the launch price. Also of course Sony systems continue getting games support once they are replaced whereas Nintendo completely moves on to the next system and drops the old system entirely immediately.