PS5 Best-Seller, XS Sales Drop by Nearly 50% - Worldwide Hardware Estimates for January 2025 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 March 2025 / 25,033 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console worldwide with 937,226 units sold for January 2025, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 72.97 million units lifetime worldwide.
The Nintendo Switch sold an estimated 563,868 units to bring its lifetime sales to 149.19 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 209,728 units to bring their lifetime sales to 32.20 million units.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2018 are down by nearly 385,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by over 265,000 units. PS4 sold 1,321,819 units for the month of January 2018 and Xbox One sales were at 474,819 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 423,461 (-31.1%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 199,089 units (-48.7%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 395,977 units (-41.3%). It should be noted January 2025 is a four-week month, while January 2024 had five weeks.
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are down by 3.03 million units, Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 2.05 million units, and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 0.74 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Global hardware estimates for January 2025 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 937,226 (72,971,396)
- Switch - 563,868 (149,190,137)
- Xbox Series X|S - 209,728 (32,200,387)
- PlayStation 5 - 301,863
- Switch - 148,401
- Xbox Series X|S - 146,342
- PlayStation 5 - 328,136
- Switch - 139,528
- Xbox Series X|S - 38,581
- PlayStation 5 - 274,929
- Switch - 263,170
- Xbox Series X|S - 13,044
- PlayStation 5 - 32,298
- Switch - 12,769
- Xbox Series X|S - 11,761
Weekly Sales:
Global January 11, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 267,617
- Switch - 166,611
- Xbox Series X|S - 58,835
Global January 18, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 226,828
- Switch - 142,752
- Xbox Series X|S - 53,290
Global January 25, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 222,938
- Switch - 130,277
- Xbox Series X|S - 49,200
Global February 1, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 219,843
- Switch - 124,228
- Xbox Series X|S - 48,403
VGChartz Methodology: Hardware estimates are based on retail sampling and trends in individual countries, which are then extrapolated to represent the wider region. This typically allows us to produce figures that end up being within 10% of the actual totals.
This data is regularly compared against official shipment figures released by the console manufacturers and figures estimated by regional trackers with greater market coverage than ourselves. We then update our own estimates to bring them into line with those figures. This can result in frequent changes often within a short space of time, but we feel it's important to prioritise accuracy over consistency.
Note that our estimates are based on sell-through data (units sold to consumers). In almost all cases the figures released by console manufacturers are based on shipment data (sell-in), where as soon as a device has left the factory and entered the supply chain for delivery it is considered a sale. This is why there is always a difference between the companies’ figures (sell-in) and VGChartz estimates (sell-through), even after we’ve made adjustments. The one exception to that is when a console has been discontinued and the remaining stock has finally sold out – at that point the figures will match.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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Should it not say “Nintendo Switch sales are down by 395,977” instead of -95,977?
Yeah, I wondered how 95,977 units can be 41,3 %...
Yeah, that was a typo. Switch is down 395,977 year-on-year.
With a 41% drop, if we assume a similar drop for the rest of the year, we are looking at almost 7M sold for Switch this year, putting it at 155.6 by the year's end. Now if sales drops increase by 15% each year until until it reaches 100% (discontinued in 2027, selling around 140k in 2028) then it points to a bit under 160M lifetime. Switch 2 might make this harsher while price drops/swansong releases can alleviate it.
The drops looks worse for all 3 because January 2024 had an extra week in it. Pokemon Legends Z-A coming out in late 2025 should help the Switch.
I fully agree, I wanted to make a projection with those numbers to have yet another idea. Separately, I wanted to add a full week (so assuming 704k for January and run the same projection) but only had a break at work. That also meant a 6% increase in sales for January and felt unsure about what I was doing, until now that I see that was a typo.
With the Switch 2 being backwards compatible with Switch games, I wouldn't expect software to drive the original Switch's hardware sales alongside the Switch 2.
Switch will be cheaper than Switch 2. It won't do wonders but i would not expect a system to die that sold 10 million+ the fiscal year before.
Ouch.
Guess-imating for the fifth week. YoY changes should look closer to -15% PS5, -27% NSW, and -39% XBSXS. PS5 looks to have held up pretty well, NSW is doing fine, and…XBSXS is now in Wii U territory: January 2013/2014/2015 saw Wii U move ~250k-300k units. (If not for GTAVI, this system would be done.)
gta 6 wont give xbox a boost.. MS has moved on from this gen, that's pretty clear. They're not doing price cuts/promos or bundles, they are limiting supply all over the world.. The only question is how will their future hardware sku deal with its multiplatform reality.. there is only one option really.. rog ally in the home console form..
you can say MS has moved on from this gen, but there does exist a large chunk of consumers who will still purchase an XBSXS over PS5 solely b/c pricing. How else you do you think XBSS is selling so well relative to XBSX? And PS5 Digital relative to OG PS5? And OG PS5 relative to PS5 Pro (during January and likely moving forward)?
This gen has peaked. GTA VI will of course move consoles but not as earth shattering by letting them peak again like some are dreaming of. With next gen arriving in 2027 and everyone needs to make a move for not getting outdated too much. Nobody can wait that long. Also Switch 2 plays a factor. If GTA VI really came to Switch 2 (some haters worse nightmare) there would be no argument anymore. Also don't forget that GTA VI is MULTIPLATTFORM and no exclusive!!
“Also don’t forget GTAVI is MULTIPLATFORM and not exclusive”…is exactly my point: XBSXS will be competing with PS5 once GTAVI releasing. All I’m saying is that it may not be as one-sided as “PS5 gets all the sales, whereas XBSXS gets none.”
Also, yea, this gen has peaked already…but GTAVI is going to be an unprecedented release. Over 200mil views on its reveal trailer, and over 150mil sales of GTAV, suggests to me that this launch will cause a short-term explosion in console sales going into 2026. It may very well add an extra 10mil to both PS5 and XBSXS.
Maybe something like 10 million extra sales over its lifetime. But not an extra 10 million in 2025! I would even take a bet on that! Views on youtube are only one part of the cake. There are a lot of people watching who won't buy the game... for example mums of Kids who want to know what they are talking about, teachers informing themselfes about what their pupils hot topics are and so on and so on. I don't want to destroy some dreams here but be advised that not every mum, teacher, dust cleaner is gonna buy GTAVI. It will be a short time up for consoles but not the way peoole think.
For that we need to wait. But Rockstar are quite dumb if they leave out a 150 million+ HW base by not even porting GTAV. This cannot be so expensive! They clearly hate Nintendo thats for sure. Xbox Series is the one that should not get GTA!! Spencer always says Consoles and their sales are not important and they do not care. So should Rockstar!! Do not care about a lousy 33 million users. The Switch's i stall base is close to 5:1!! Nobody can tell me that nobody's gonna buy the game there when over 50% of the Switch's userbase is over 18 and has some teenies too!
i agree with the first sentence: 10mil over LTD is what I’m referring to. (i prolly could’ve been a bit more clear….)
In your first reply you say that the XBS consoles are doing Wii U numbers, and then you go on to say there's a "large chunk" of consumers who are purchasing XBS consoles over PS5. If that was true, it wouldn't be doing Wii U numbers would it?
Not quite what I said: I didn’t say there is currently a “large chunk” of consumers purchasing XBS consoles over PS5; rather, there will exist (upon the release of GTAVI) a “large chunk” of consumers who will purchase XBS over PS5 b/c pricing. It’s a subtle difference, but it changes a whole lot of meaning, since I’m referring to a hypothetical future scenario where GTAVI has released, and consumers are considering purchasing a next gen system in order to play this game.
That all being said, I do believe there exists a non-negligible chunk of consumers who are choosing XBSS over PS5 for economical reasons. I do not believe this chunk is large, as the only situation where a consumer would be choosing btwn XBSS & PS5 on the basis of economics would be when they are interested in playing a 3rd party release. We can talk about the extent to which this discrepancy exists via examining third party releases such as College Football during July 2024, in which both systems saw a big boost during July 2024.
This is the exact quote "you can say MS has moved on from this gen, but there does exist a large chunk of consumers who will still purchase an XBSXS over PS5 solely b/c pricing". I know there might be an overarching topic of GTA6 in the background, but nowhere in that specific post does it directly mention GTA6.
With these numbers they're doing It will cost MS more to have Xbox's in distribution chains than it will benefit them to have them around for the time GTA6 launch.
Thats true! The Xbox Series is not even able to outsell the old Switch wich is about to be replaced. Imagine the Switch 2!
“you can say can MS has moved on from this gen, but there does exist a large chunk of consumers who will still purchase an XBSXS over PS5 solely b/c pricing.” I understand the confusion, being that I used the present tense “does” earlier in the sentence; however, if maybe this helps, I wasn’t trying to say that “there will exist a large chunk of consumers” since that’s too assertive. And this remark was directly responding to a comment about GTAVI: It’s redundant to restate the main topic every single exchange; hence, it’s appropriate to say it’s understood given the context, and the intended audience (i.e. the person i was responding to).
But it’s useless arguing about this: I may have been a little unclear in my presentation, you may have been reading a little too quickly. We’re on the same page now…so let’s move on from it. :)
anywho, to address your last sentence, i don’t rlly have much of a stance as to whether Microsoft has the personal interest to try to take advantage of the spike in demand. My gut tells me that, yeah, they’d prolly want to take advantage of that, since getting consumers hooked on the Microsoft gaming ecosystem is good for business…but idk.
p.s. this is FireBush03 alt. (currently locked out of main account until 10pm. I’ve already talked to Bandor abt this account btw, so…I think it’s fine? I told him to ban it, but he never did lol. I only use it to leave comments/access the site when im locked from FireBush03.)
There is other thing here than just trying to guess the fifth week and the % decline for January if there was 5 weeks (despite not doing that for a number of months in the previous years when there was such a case) simply by looking at the 4 weeks period, we can get an idea how the system are performing this year, and where they are going.
PS5 is well above 200k, which is good, and is on the same level as last year (not for January since the sales till March were a bit higher than the sales after that, but on the same level as most of the year). Unlike Xbox and Switch, it's not falling under it's low point last year which was 180k but it's doing sales over 40k more for the weeks of January. So if we should judge by them, PS5 is good, it have a chance of doing sales on the same level as last year or close to it, at least for now.
Xbox is falling weekly into the 40s, which hasn't happened till now, the lowest point was into the 50s last year but only for a few weeks in the summer (the weakest period of the year) and for most of the other weeks in was in the 60-70k range, where now it's starting the year with those awful weeks which are like 30% from the main baseline of 2024 for the system.
Switch is bad. It's starting the year with a week of almost 170k and every next week is like 10/15k decline, which is not a good sign too (for example last year it dropped once from the first week in January, however it continued with sales on the same level long after that. By the 4th week it is already on 124k, number not reached since 2017. And again, just like the Xbox, this is continuation, from 166k to 142k to 130k to 124k. This is decline week after week. Of course this will not continue to insanely low numbers just yet, but it can put a baseline of weekly sales around 100k at least for the first few months of the year. Which is a decently down from the weeks it had in 2024 which were between 150-190k through out all of the year except the holidays of course. Once more info is shown for the Switch 2 in April, (of course if it's not too bad, I expect reasonable price and good number of games) with a launch by the end of the summer, the weekly baseline will drop once again to probably 60-80k, with the launch of the system, completely finishing the Switch 1 (well not literally, it will still sell something, but nowhere near that 60-80k baseline per week).
Addressing your last paragraph: You’re jumping the gun a little soon here. don’t you think? I can’t comment on how sales will be looking after the April presentation, since there are still many mystery factors: (i) If NSW2 is priced high or NSW receives price slash. then that could soft the current blow the system is facing; (ii) If NSW still has a steady lineup of solid releases in the pipeline. then consumers will still have reason to choose this system over NSW2; etc. I’ll be waiting on Nintendo’s own expectations revealed in their May financial briefings.
As far as January figures are concerned, everything is progressing about as I would’ve expected: The reveal of a successor systems combined with no new releases is going to gash at the system’s sales figures. An ~30-35% drop YoY is exactly what should’ve been expected: Hence. my remark that “Switch is doing well.”
As I already said in my post, this is all based on the January figures, if they can be enough. But obviously can't. I don't expect much different outcome for the Switch in the end, though, since I don't expect price cut, and I expect reasonable price for the Switch 2, as I already said. But if there is a price cut after all or good difference in the price of the successor and the Switch 1, then of course, the sales will be higher, than what I wrote in the previous post of course. I've already said that. The price cut and the price of the Switch 2 are the things that makes it or brakes it. I don't believe in the software however, since at that point in it's life I doubt the software can do any meaningful boost to the hardware sales, besides maybe only 1-2 weeks with a small boost.
Yes it's too early to make estimations about the whole year, that's why I underlined in the post that this is if we have to judge based on the January weeks. But specifically for Switch 30-35% would mean total number for the year around 8M which I highly doubt. Other than that, of course Switch is doing well, after all it will be starting it's 9th year, with sales of around 500k monthly, which is very good, the only system that has done it is PS2, and maybe the Game boy of it's late boost. Saying it's bad in my previous post, was about the state it is in now, compare to it's last 2 years, to a system going to sell close to 100k weekly, to dropping week over week in January, but it's normal to be at this point it's life. And not in last place, it's bad for the stamina that is required to reach the 160M. Maybe " it's bad " wasn't the correct phrase, maybe it was " it's getting ugly ".
I think we all agree that <4 million for 2025 is as good as impossible at this point for the Switch. And a million+ will be the minimum for the next FY. Thats the most pessimistic outcome there could be bringing Switch's total to 157 million+.
But if that year is only a bit better than this, i could update my prediction again and we could really start getting in 160 million airspace. But now its too soon to jump into asumptions/ wishes on both sides.
The Switch will be at ~152 million(+) by the end of march! If we are talking about shipped and FY this would bring the Switch to 157- 158 million by march next year. If that was happening, 2 million for 2027 would absolutley be in the cards. You seem to be quite optimistic- more than me, but actually i would not entirely rule it out! But i do guess Nintendo will forcast a minimum of 4 million for 2025/26 and another million for 2026/27.
what is your shipment prediction? 5-6mil sold would indicate around 3-5mil shipped, no?
5-6М for the calendar year of sold units is my prediction. And yes, because there is difference of 2M now between shipped and sold I expect shipments of around 1M less for the calendar year. Again if there is a price cut or big difference between the Switch 2 and 1 prices then I can see little higher numbers than that.
