Nintendo Switch Outsells PS1 Worldwide - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 24 January 2022 / 19,160 Views
The Nintendo Switch has outsold the lifetime sales of the PlayStation (aka the PS1 or PSX), according to VGChartz estimates.
The Switch sold 341,662 units for the week ending January 15, 2021 to bring its lifetime sales to 102.81 million units. This compares to the PlayStation with sales of 102.5 million units lifetime. The figure for the Switch includes the combined sales of the original Switch model, the Switch Lite, and Switch OLED.
Nintendo's hybrid console has now become the fifth best-selling video game platform of all time. Next up is the PlayStation 4, which has sold an estimated 116.58 million units to date, then the Game Boy (plus Game Boy Color) at 118.69 million units.
The Switch is 13.77 million units away from the PlayStation 4, and 15.88 million units away from the Game Boy.
Breaking down the sales of the Switch, it has sold 34.67 million units in the US, 27.22 million units in Europe, and 23.43 million units in Japan. Breaking down sales in Europe even further, it has sold 5.21 million units in the UK, 6.11 million in France, and 5.93 million in Germany.
Shipment figures for the Nintendo Switch reached 92.87 million units as of September 30, 2021, while 681.00 million Switch games had been shipped lifetime.
Here is a list of the top 10 best-selling Nintendo Switch games, according to Nintendo's shipment figures through September 30, 2021:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 38.74 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 34.85 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 25.71 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 24.13 million
- Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield – 22.64 million
- Super Mario Odyssey – 21.95 million
- Super Mario Party – 16.48 million
- Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! – 13.83 million
- Splatoon 2 – 12.68 million
- Ring Fit Adventure – 12.21 million
The Switch launched worldwide on March 3, 2017, while the PS1 launched in Japan on December 3, 1994, in North America, on September 9, 1995, and in Europe on September 29, 1995.
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.
More Articles
will be close to #3 all time by the end of the year, Passing the PS4 and Gameboy
it'll be over 120m for sure by end of year so yeah it'll definitely dispatch with those two this year. Probably be at like 123 mil or so end of year.
PS4 is feeling a chill down the spine as if someone is getting closer and closer
Never gonna happen. That cliff's a-coming. IT'S COMING I TELL YA>_<!
It's gonna be the biggest cliff ever. Nintendo will have to rename the Switch to the Wile E. Coyote.
The craziest thing on that top 10 list is a work out game that wasn't bundled with Switch (like Wii Sports was with Wii) and didn't come out until 2.5 years after the console launched. Ring Fit Adventure continue to be, in my opinion, the most shockingly successful game of this generation across any platform.
The Switch will be number 3 all time behind the PS2/DS guaranteed by the end of this year. What an insane turnaround for Nintendo!
So GB and PS4 will be destroyed this year. But then there is a big gap for getting close to NDS and PS2...
Massive achievement! And still a lot of time left. Can it hit the numbers PS2/DS did!?
That's literally a pro model for the 3DS lol. Various games run better on it and some games are exclusive to it because the standard models cannot run them well.
A Pro (like PS4 Pro) has hundreds of games that run better on it. The New 3ds (which I owned) had like 5 games that ran better on it. It was definitely NOT a pro lol.
Meh, I doubt it. I think most that are that obsessed with visuals probably already exclusively play in docked mode, so they wouldn't receive a benefit to handheld mode being visually better alone.
The people that play handheld mode alone clearly don't view visuals as their driving factor.
Yup a couple price cuts and maybe a Lite OLED?? Keep the system going after this year until Spring 2025 with a new 3D Mario, a new 2D Mario, MK9, Pikmin 4, a couple more Pokemons, MP4, new DK, some new out of left field IP, and a bunch of the smaller series we're still waiting for. Definitely doable.
Agreed, but the chip market is so bad right now i doubt they will being production soon. The shortage will still factor in all of this year so the best we could have is a Christmas 2023 release. Switch would still have 2 years alone on the market. Let's say it sells 22 millions this year and 15 millions in 2023, it would be at 138 millions. It could still sell around 145 millions and that's with the successor launching in 2 years. If it releases in 2024, i feel like there is no way Switch doesn't take the crown of best selling console of all time.
my personal theory is that the OLED is actually the chassis of the planned pro, but then nintendo looked at the current chip market and was like, nope.
Quick answer - no.
I remember reading comments on videos and articles from 2016 and 2017 from people saying Nintendo would never surpass even the Xbox One, and when it surpassed it they changed their tune to "well it'll never surpass the PS4!" I wonder if those same people are still saying this.
Somewhere in the cosmos, Mr. Yamauchi is smiling about Nintendo beating the PS1.
Two weeks later than expected because of adjustments but still a great achievement.
It also makes me happy to see how well Breath of the Wild has done, as a lifelong Zelda fan.
Best selling console in 24-30 months, obviously.
That would be brutal that MK8 finishes at 50 millions
Switch should outsell PS4 around Black Friday this year.
"The Switch launched worldwide on March 3, 2017, while the Nintendo Wii launched in North America on November 19, 2006, in Japan on December 2, 2006, and in Europe on December 8, 2006."
Error. Change Wii's info to PS1's launch info
congrats Nintendo. And it did so without really a price cut. Granted there is the cheaper lite model but it is still double of what the PS1 was at the end of its run. If Nintendo ever does decide to start cutting Switch prices (to spark sales) then PS4 numbers wont be the only ones it will pass next.
Yea, it's crazy to realize they sold 100 million Switch at that launch price when some were calling it too high when it was revealed. Marketing is really everything and they NAILED it this generation. People underestimate Switch's power, if it can sell 100 mil without a cut, then i'm sure they can squeeze north of 55 millions with promos. The profit margin must be insane with every Switch.
I feel like they are probably going to launch Switch 2 in Spring 2024 because they want to keep hardware sales high and not just watch Switch start getting mediocre sales with no new system. BUT, it'd be cool if they just got real aggressive in 2024 and 2025 with price cuts and discounted games and another round of great games (MK9, 3D Mario, etc) and kept it going for a couple extra years just to obliterate the DS and PS2 sales. I don't expect it though. Probably next system Spring 2024 and Switch ends up with like 145 or 150 million.
They actually could do both. Not that Nintendo ever did that. But in theory they could release Switch 2 while heavily discounting Switch and playing hard on backwards compatibility by releasing a few cross-gen games in one package. That way Switch would still get new games, while the library for Switch 2 would be massive from the get-go. And in combination Switch could be the cheap entry option for a few years.
Love to see Switch doing well! PS2 really benefited from also being a DVD player at a time when they were really becoming popular. That was the first time I bought another system before Nintendo and it was because PS2 could also play DVDs. I know many others did as well. I'd live to see Nintendo have the best selling system, overall.. but I don't know if PS2 will be caught.
Something I never understood about the Gameboy. If the regular/pocket are considered a different generation from the color, why are they counted together?
Gameboy with Color is probably the most argumented gen in regards if they are the same gen or two different. I think the numbers are just simply put together, as Nintendo counts them together and it probably is hard to really find the correct number for each revision without Nintendo.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
Yes. That's my only guess. It's just a little weird to me to agree with the company rather than being more accurate. Obviously Nintendo counts in a way to be more impressive.
It will obviously pass the PS4. It will happen in 2022. But will it pass the DS and PS2? Possible, but up for debate.
I think it will finish years from now well above the PS4 and Game Boy/Game Boy Color but below the DS.
Still, PSX is a great console even Switch passed it in lifetime sales.
Essay Pro