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Switch vs PS4 vs Xbox One Global Lifetime Sales - October 2020

Switch vs PS4 vs Xbox One Global Lifetime Sales - October 2020 - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 November 2020 / 8,355 Views

Welcome to the latest edition of the ‘Switch vs PS4 vs Xbox One Worldwide’ article. This series compares the monthly and lifetime retail sales of the three main consoles - the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Switch vs PS4 vs Xbox One Global Lifetime Sales - October 2020

Looking at the total sales of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch through October 2020 shows the PS4 is currently ahead of the Switch by 46.02 million units and ahead of the Xbox One by 65.31 million units. The Switch has consistently outsold the PS4 to close the gap since the middle of 2019.

The PS4 is 4.90 million units away from outselling the Game Boy, which sold 118.69 million units lifetime. The Switch is 8.05 million away from outselling the 3DS, which has sold 75.82 million units to date. The Xbox One is 0.63 million away from outselling the SNES, which sold 49.10 million units lifetime.

The Switch passed the 67 million mark. The PS4 has sold 113.79 million units lifetime, the Switch 67.77 million units, and the Xbox One 48.47 million units.

Looking at the marketshare, the PlayStation 4 currently leads. The PlayStation 4 has a 49.5 percent market share, the Switch sits at 29.4 percent, and the Xbox One at 21.1 percent.

PlayStation 4 Total Sales: 113,786,725

Switch Total Sales: 67,766,535

Xbox One Total Sales: 48,472,546

Switch vs PS4 vs Xbox One Global Lifetime Sales - October 2020

During the month of October 2020, the Switch outsold the PlayStation 4 by 1.67 million units for the month and the Xbox One by 2.08 million units. The PlayStation 4 outsold the Xbox One by 412,474 units.

When you compare monthly sales to a year ago, the Switch is up, while the PS4 and Xbox One are down. The Nintendo Switch is up 1,062,001 units (+90.2%), the PlayStation 4 is down 230,381 units (-28.8%) and the Xbox One is down 55,209 units (-26.0%).

Looking at the marketshare, the Switch managed to achieve 75.5 percent of the monthly sales. The PlayStation 4 accounted for 19.2 percent of the consoles sold, and the Xbox One 5.3 percent.

PlayStation 4 Monthly Sales: 569,611

Switch Monthly Sales: 2,239,658

Xbox One Monthly Sales: 157,137

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched in November 2013, while the Switch launched three years and four months later in March 2017.

As a reminder, VGChartz tracks consoles sold to consumers and not units shipped.


A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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5 Comments
Kakadu18 (on 09 November 2020)

The Switch was sold 68.3 million times as of September 30th 2020. That means it most definitely hasn't sold 67 million units as of the end of October 2020 one month later. That are wrong numbers.

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Kakadu18 Kakadu18 (on 09 November 2020)

Is the gap that big though?

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Bofferbrauer2 Kakadu18 (on 09 November 2020)

@Kakadu18: Shipping takes a while, up to 2 months depending on where it goes. All those consoles are already sold for Nintendo, but haven't arrived at their clients stores yet. Add to this all the consoles that need to be on the shelves inside the stores (or in depots in case of online retailers), and you get a couple weeks worth of unsold stocks together that make the difference between shipped and sold.

And like Trunkswd explained, since there are so many sales during the holidays, orders are huge during that season and thus the gap between shipped and sold is even larger during the approach to holiday season.

And considering how much the Switch is selling right now and what's expected for the holidays, 2-3M could possibly not even be enough right now, meaning the Switch is more likely overtracked a bit rather than undertracked.

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