Year on Year Sales & Market Share Charts - January 11, 2020 - Sales

If it would, then the 3DS and PS2 would probably get some serious competition at the top a couple years down the line.

Boff..... what? The 3ds isnt even in a competition with the switch. The 3ds needs the wiiu to even be close. The ps2? Now no other system will come close, aside from the ds. I'm not even sure the 3ds broke 15 million... maybe once. There is absolutely NO WAY the switch doesnt zoom by the 3ds. The ps2 and ds are going to be extremely hard to match or pass, if they ever do. The ps4 WILL NEVER PASS the ps2 or ds. Ps4 will crawl past 120 million. The ps5 will cut the legs off. No question about it.

That was a Typo, I meant DS and PS2, not 3DS. My bad.

What I meant to say ist that if the Switch would actually sell 26M this year, it's pretty much guaranteed to outsell the PS4, and thus coming close(r) to PS2 and DS in terms of sales.

Switch has been out nearly 3 years and the 3DS is nearly 9 years old. Nintendo at this point is just making whatever profits it can from the 3DS before they stop producing them.

3DS had it's day, it's time for it to die.

Man is it dominating the traditional handheld market

switch sales numbers are impressive, no doubt. but the market share is hardly surprising given it IS competing with two consoles in their twilight years.
now when the ps4 used to have this kind of figures against xbone and WiiU, THAT was what you'd call domination

Then you agree switch is dominating even more, because it's ahead of ps4 aligned.

BECAUSE the other two are much older products. their consumer base is already almost as big as it is going to get. switch is still building. someone thinking of getting a new console today is likely going to get the shiny new one. ps4 OTOH was a contemporary of xbone and WiiU was newer than both! not the same comparison. ps4 had much a higher hurdle to have that domination. you have to look at the whole picture bc the term domination here is inherently a relative one

it's like bragging about getting more votes in a popularity contest against two old geezers

"someone thinking of getting a new console today is likely going to get the shiny new one"
Same goes for the ps4 when it was new. And even though the ps4 and x1 were 3 years old when the switch came out, the competition presented by those two against switch was infinitely bigger than the one wii u and x1 presented against ps4. Despite facing stronger competition and starting with odds against it, it's still selling more than ps4 aligned.

@NU-13, well said.

the x1 presented an infinitely bigger competition to the switch than it did to the ps4? gross and unfair exaggeration.

Read his response again. That's not even close to what he said.

perhaps my last post has taken his message out of context. I got sidetracked by Nu's comments.

but to be clear, the reason for my original post to you was that not all 60% market shares are the same. the surrounding factors must be considered. Just the facts below:

• Sales figure alone does not determine whether something is dominating, but the sales figure RELATIVE to that of its competition (and the conditions therein).
• PS4 reached around 60% market share against competition that were its contemporary or NEWER.
• Switch did not reach this level of market share until recently (in fact, PS4 in its peak years outsold the switch iirc).
• Both Sony and MS are expected to launch a successor within the year. As a result, their sales are in decline ATM.
  Now some reasonable conclusions based on the above:
• PS4 reached 60% market share SOLELY based on the might of its popularity.

• Switch, while undoubtedly an amazing system, was helped in reaching this figure by its own popularity AS WELL AS its favorable position in its life cycle compared to its competition.
  
  A question for you: Do you think that if the Switch launched at the same time as PS4 and X1, the Switch would still have reached the 60% market share? I would even say that the Switch might still outsell the PS4, but would never reach this kind of market share. I would guess something like X1 (20%), PS4 (35%), and Switch (45%). Hence my issue with your comment about its domination.
  
  Let me know your thoughts

You compared the switch's dominance to winning against two old geezers. The ps4 had it even easier when against the wii u + x1. At this point it feels like you just want to downplay the switch.

um not any more than you're downplaying the ps4, I guess? i repeatedly spoke of the switch's merits, but I guess it's more convenient for you to ignore it.
yes, I compared 6 or 7 year old consoles to geezers bc that is what they are. past the prime, shadow of former selves, in terms of sales. I wouldn't call it easy, but yes ps4 dominated bc it was indeed superior (according to consumers) to its competition. the switch's market share "dominance" cannot be attributed to the same reason, as its competition is in their natural decline. jeez I'm not sure how many times I have repeat this point..

do you have issues with my last post?

um not any more than you're downplaying the ps4, I guess? i repeatedly spoke of the switch's merits, but I guess it's more convenient for you to ignore it.
yes, I compared 6 or 7 year old consoles to geezers bc that is what they are. past the prime, shadow of former selves, in terms of sales. I wouldn't call it easy, but yes ps4 dominated bc it was indeed superior (according to consumers) to its competition. the switch's market share "dominance" cannot be attributed to the same reason, as its competition is in their natural decline. jeez I'm not sure how many times I have repeat this point..

do you have issues with my last post?

Your very first reply up there says otherwise. First thing you did was downplay the switch and claim the ps4 was more impressive. I just pointed many times that if you think so highly of the ps4, you should also think the switch performance is better or else that's hipocrisy. It is a fact that ps4 + x1 post switch are much bigger than wii u + x1 at any point. Heck, 2020 was ps4's second worst year and it still sold more than wii u + x1 combined in any year.

please read the FIRST FIVE WORDS in my first reply. it's fine for you to argue your points but you need to STOP putting words in my mouth.

I also said the switch would outsell the ps4 even if they launched at the same time. I'm not downplaying the switch but it's so called "dominance" by OP.
Answer me this question: Do you believe that the switch would have hit 60% market share if all three current systems launched at the same time? I'm very curious.

I'm gonna stop entertaining you now or else it will just go in circles. You were very clear on your thoughts and I was very clear when pointing out the flaws in that logic.

The switch hardware didn't exist in 2013. If it did, in the scenario where the switch comes out in 2013 with equal exclusive lineup, it would have dominated the competition.

no I feel like you never really got my point. you think you did but you didn't. your replies show this. it's too bad you won't answer my simple yes or no question. that would have answered everything

The answer to your imaginary scenario is YES. happy?

thanks. your optimism is admirable. aligned sales do not support this. the switch only recently achieved this, and obviously a 6 or 7 yrs old switch would not sell as much as it is now. just how can you justify such a wild claim? like you yourself alluded, the ps4 + x1 performance would never be as weak as the Wii + x1 was. the answer was obviously a no, but that would prove my point

you should realize that, based on the current lifetime sales ratio of x1 to ps4, the switch has to MORE THAN DOUBLE the sales of ps4 to hit 60% market share. and you're saying this would still happen if all three were the same age... thanks for the good laugh. cheers

Since at least the subject changed, I'll finish by saying: You fail to take into consideration that in your imaginary scenario, a 2013 switch would be even more impressive hardware. By having the same exclusive lineup as the switch had from 2017 onwards, costing $299 as a hybrid vs the $399 and $499 home console only competitors and receiving many day and date multiplatform games would result in absolute domination.

listen, I hear you. those are good points. but double ps4? nah. that is way too much. they don't even cater to the same group of gamers, necessarily, so there wouldn't be much swing in sales imo. some overlap exists, but most people who like both will just get both

I don't expect anything close to 30m but there's no "unknown" reason here. Switch is a great platform with tons of great games. It's expected to sell a lot.

26m is a perfectly expected number for switch in 2020. Though that isn't necessarily 30% up untill we see how many units were sold in 2019.