Switch vs PS4 Sales Comparison - Switch Lead Grows by 5M in December 2020 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 February 2021 / 5,864 Views
The VGChartz sales comparison series of articles are updated monthly and each one focuses on a different sales comparison using our estimated video game hardware figures. The charts include comparisons between the 7th generation and 8th generation platforms, as well as comparisons within the 8th generation. There are articles based on our worldwide estimates, as well as the US, Europe, and Japan.
This monthly series compares the aligned worldwide sales of the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4.
Switch Vs. PS4 Global:
Gap change in latest month: 5,006,710 - Switch
Gap change over last 12 months: 7,781,437 - Switch
Total Lead: 13,658,594 - Switch
Switch Total Sales: 76,989,289
PS4 Total Sales: 63,330,695
December 2020 is the 46th month that the Nintendo Switch has been available for. During the latest month, the gap grew in favor of the Switch by 5.01 million units when compared to the PlayStation 4 during the same timeframe. In the last 12 months, the Switch has outsold the PlayStation 4 by 7.78 million units. The Switch is currently ahead of the PlayStation 4 by 13.66 million units.
The PlayStation 4 launched in November 2013, while the Nintendo Switch launched worldwide in March 2017. Therefore, the holiday periods for the two consoles do not lineup, which is why there are big increases and decreases.
The 46th month on sale for the Nintendo Switch is December 2020, while for the PlayStation 4 it is August 2017. The Switch has sold 76.99 million units, while the PlayStation 4 sold 63.33 million units during the same timeframe. The PlayStation 4 did not reach current Switch sales until month 53.
The PlayStation 4 has sold 114.83 million units through December 2020. The Nintendo Switch is currently 37.84 million units behind the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 4.
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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There's the cliff™
It's just going up, not down.
If you hold the graph upside down, then they were right.
If 2021 is anything like 2020 it should pass the PS4 next year. Since PS4 is selling a lot less now than what people expected I don't think it will do more than 120 million life time (maybe less).
I think it'll do 122mil max, more likely 120mil. The Switch will sell at least 140mil life time imo.
Edit: Yeah, the PS4 might even stay below 120 million.
Back then maybe a year or 2 ago that's what everyone was saying, but seeing the sales of the PS4 drop hard is making people think differently. The PS4 might have the worst legs for a PS system after it's successor is out.
the legs are because multimedia device plus low prices.
The PS4 sold out of so much inventory, and now the PS5 is on the market. Sony won't be ramping up PS4 manufacturing to meet demand of the previous generation. Especially not when they are trying to ramp up manufacturing for the new toy.
Switch will outsell PS4 by Q1 2022
Yeah. I kinda figured the only way the ps4 would continue to sell well is if the ps5 didn't have a good launch. Ps4 will sell 5 million this year max. And that's probably generous.
I don't see PS4 doing 5 million this year but I could be wrong
Yeah. You never know about price cuts and bundles. But 5 million is on the absolute high end.
Around there. They'll be announcing shipped through the end of December soon if they haven't already.
Yeah. Guessing closer to 24 months.
Nintendo will publish their Q4 sales on February
My goodness that lead...
I was expecting that lead by watching the weekly sales but still impressive to see when the PS4 was dominating the market for a whole gen. We might have a potential "best selling console of all time" candidate here with the Switch and it is a healthy sign for the industry. Feel like PS2 and DS had their time. First hybrid console to make it on top would be exquisite, even more knowing it was Iwata's project.
I don't think the PS4 will ever recover from this deficit, it is more likely than not the Switch will eventually outsell the PS4.
This is like the switch and PS4 are two cyclists talking to each other and the switch just went. 'alright this next turn is mine.' PS4 never catching upto the switch again unless switch forgot his water bottle or something
It wasn't that long ago when this race was back and forth and could have gone either way...
Remember that the PS4 was very long the leader of the 8th Gen.
Still is. Beat the Wii u and xbone. That's wrapped up.
That´s right, Switch is 9th Gen.
Yeah. I think the releases will tighten up for gen 10. So there won't be much debate after that.
I don't think Gens matter anymore, for example, a New Switch 2 in 2021 Would be Gen 11??
No. It would have to be 10 I suppose. It's like the Saturn and dreamcast. Sega was actually defining the generations in the 80's and 90's due to their odd release schedules. But it's more about the collective releases so you can define time periods. It's like generations of people. Some people don't fit the traits of their generation, but it is defined by time periods.
Does it matter? No. It's like any categorization. It just needs to be logical so it's easy to talk about groups of things together.
Right. Gen 7 started in 2004 because of the ds. 2011 for gen 8 because of the 3ds.
Interesting that Nintendo puts sell-through for Switch for end of December at over 74 million. Will be interesting to see how vgchartz revise down their numbers over the next three months to get closer to the truth for when Nintendo next reports.
Rest easy old champion. The Switch will overtake Sony's 8th gen champion the PS4. Congrats Nintendo. Hey VGChartz, get that PS2 and PS5 comparison charts ready for next year please. Things are only warming up now.
Bruh....
Can you please not talk about the PS5 in every article regarding the switch? Also we don’t have sales number by month for the PS2 so your asking for the impossible, unless you want us to make loose estimates 20 years after the facts based on older articles, less centralized databases, and irregularly planned shipped by quarter.
