Switch vs DS Sales Comparison in the US - February 2025 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 April 2025 / 4,805 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 PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, as well as with older platforms. 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 Nintendo DS.
The DS launched in November 2004 in the US, while the Nintendo Switch launched in the US in March 2017. Therefore, the holiday periods for the two consoles do not lineup, which is why there are big increases and decreases.
Switch Vs. DS US:
Gap change in latest month: 27,800 - Switch
Gap change over last 12 months: 531,058 - Switch
Total Lead: 4,433,614 - DS
Switch Total Sales: 47,716,852
DS Total Sales: 52,150,466
February 2025 is the 96th month that the Nintendo Switch has been available for. During the latest month, the gap grew in favor of the Switch by 27,800 units when compared to the DS during the same timeframe.
In the last 12 months, the Switch has outsold the DS by 0.53 million units. The DS is ahead of the Switch by 4.43 million units.
The 96th month on sale for the Nintendo Switch is February 2025, while for the DS it is October 2012. The Switch has sold 47.72 million units, while the DS sold 52.15 million units during the same timeframe.
The Nintendo DS sold 53.80 million units lifetime. The Nintendo Switch is currently 6.08 million units behind the lifetime sales of the DS.
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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XtremeBG pointed out an error in the original article. The DS accidentally had an extra month added, so I've gone and fixed it.
The line flattens out and the Switch is losing even to non holiday month of the DS .. on top of that the successor was out for year and a half by that time.. The Switch successor is not even properly revealed .. the weekly and monthly sales are really starting to look ugly and will only become worse with each following month. I expect no more than 1.5M this year, and 500k after that till discontinuation. Anything between 49M and 50M when all is said and done.
I wouldn’t call that a fair assessment given it’s an empty February for Switch and an October with a mainline Pokémon launch for DS. This is an alignment with February 2025 with October 2012, but if you instead compares DS’s February 2012, Switch comfortably wins.
Nintendo plans to keep supporting the Switch, and it has yet to have a single price reduction. There is still plenty of opportunity for it to sell more than 2 million. It sold about 3.2 million last year, and sales are only down about 40% from last year on a week to week basis.
They are, but it's sales performance won't be the same as January and February through out all the year, I can guarantee you that. It will only get worse.
About the DS, there was an error and Trunks fixed it, it's actually slightly up from October 2012. Anyway, expecting close to the same drop it had last year from 2023, now in 2025, where successor is launching is ridiculous. If we have to be exactly fair, we should put not February 2012, but February 2011, where DS was about to be replaced just before the 3DS launch. Then the DS made more than 400k where Switch barely passed 100k. Switch is in way worse state the DS was at that point in time in the US. I doubt any price cut will happen, and Switch 2 will probably come at a reasonable 400$ price, will just finish the Switch 1. And outside of that again, just see how flat that line is .. the only thing that will grew it slightly up will be the holidays and that's it.
OK, I'm not sure you understood my post. So, let me put it another way.
Your argument is that Switch will sell less than 2 million more during its lifetime. Your basis for this is that DS's October 2012 + Pokemon outsold an empty February for Switch + Switch 2 coming out.
However, Switch actually soundly defeated DS's February 2012 in sales, and I'll add that DS still went on to sell nearly 2 million units that year in the US according to VGChartz, and Switch is currently on track to surpass that this year alone. The fact that it didn't beat an October + Pokemon (which is one of Nintendo's most powerful franchises) indicates that Pokemon was the reason - I don't see how this is a bad sign.
Nintendo has also said they will continue supporting Switch after the launch of the Switch 2 - this will include both a Pokemon and Metroid title. History shows that when Nintendo keeps supporting a console, it will continue to sell, this was particularly seen with the NES and 3DS.
Additionally, Nintendo still has yet to reduce the price of any of their Switch SKUs, they still have that card to play. History shows that a price drop will drastically increase sales in the short term if placed before a holiday launch - and more moderately and long term if placed outside the holiday season.
As I already stated in my previous comment, there was an error, that is now fixed, and Switch did outsold October 2012 of the DS. Also my basis of the estimation is not having anything to do with either beat or not the DS month, it was simply surprising for me.
Yes, DS has sold over 2M in 2012, but Switch is weaker in the US than DS, so the fact that DS sold 2M in 2012, does not mean the Switch will do the same. With successor coming, that shouldn't have weak launch like the 3DS, it will further weaken the sales of the Switch there. 2M is not happening. The sales dropped by almost 2M in 2024 compared to 2023, and you say it will drop only by 1M in a year where successor is launching ? where it's already dropping 50% for the first two months. Once April pass it will drop further and once the successor actually launches it will drop once more, it's the natural phase of how things work. It did 35% drop from 2023 to 2024. And you are saying it's going to have the same drop in 2025, it won't gonna happen. 50% for year 9 and a successor launching is reasonable. And I wouldn't be surprised if it comes short of 1.5M in the end.
The support will continue no doubt, but that does not mean anything. Microsoft continue supporting the 360 well after 2013 up until 2017, yet it sold about 3M after 2013. Sony continued supporting the PS4 and games are still coming out for it to this day, yet PS4 sold just 3M after 2020. Wii was supported and sold till what ? 2015 ? and also sold about 3M after 2012. And all of these are worldwide numbers mind you, not for a specific region. Switch would have sold more after it's successor if the successor was launched in 2023 or 2024 no doubt since there were people who didn't have one. But as more time went on, the less it will sell after the successor. It's releasing after 9 years, and that will cut it's legs after the successor. Price cut is also not likely. I agree it would have nice effect, but the chances are very tiny they will do one.
Probably you have already said it but, in the end, what is your prediction for Switch's lifetime sales?
it depends on how everything is going to happen, but I think there will be good launch of the Switch 2, good games, reasonable price at no more than 400$ and I don't believe Nintendo will do price cut to Switch 1. Therefore with all of that said, I expect the final number to be anywhere from 155M to 157/158M.
Courage, i had a dream the other night where you change your pfp to the default user pfp (like the one xXMatapuercas3000Xx…in the comment section below). I was asking myself, “Is Courage no longer Courage?” and I was getting extremely confused. I remember reloading the page just to double-check that you did change your pic, and it wasn’t just a site glitch. This dream felt so real that it was only at this moment, upon finding you in this comment section, when I would recognize my memory as nothing more than a dream.
lool. What a random dream haha. I think I'll never change or remove this picture on profile, so maybe only in a dream that would happen
lol im back with another random comment…but there is a serial downvoter afoot. Every comment on this article/post, as well four/five different articles, received a downvote. Not sure who goes out of their way to do something like this, but apparently they exist...and on VGChartz of all places. Wild!
I was correct. March was up because it is 5 weeks instead of 4 like February or January. If you look at the weeks individually you will see that Switch sold between 125 and 135k per week and dropped to barely selling over 100k per week in March for each of the weeks. To be honest, even I didn't expect such a drop so soon. I though it would come in April or after that. I though it would still sell around 120k weekly in March. That is about worldwide.
The US is the same. It did weeks of 32-35k and for March is down to 27-29k. So I was absolutely right. But the biggest drops will be now from April onwards. Also just to remind you, my comment was about all the year not only March in particular, so there isn't how I can be wrong after just 1 month. It was known that till the showing of the Switch 2 at the Direct in April, the sales would be somewhat equal for the first three months. Despite that March even surprised me. The saving grace for March is the 5 week month vs the 4 weeks in Feb and Jan.
You're lying. February 1st, Switch sold 26K, February 1st, 30K for February 8th, March 8th it sold 32K and 30K March 22nd in the US.
Things are looking quite bad for your bleak prediction of just 1.5 million more (now, 1.35 million more) this year, and 2 million more lifetime. Even without any kind of a price drop.
Go to hardware by tool and see the data. There is no point in me lying. 1 or 2 weeks doesn't make a thing. Most of the weeks from Jan and Feb were over 30k. Don't nitpick. I am talking about the general trend here. From the peak week which ends on March 1st that is 36k is only down from there. Why there isn't other weeks of over 30k like there were in the previous two months ? Because it's down. So as I said the sales are down, It's slightly up monthly because those are 5 weeks not 4. Either way you rotate it, you are the one who is wrong. Go check the worldwide numbers too. Don't ignore most of the points I wrote in my previous comment.
Things does not look bad at all for the prediction. It will drop hard after April and once more after the Switch 2 launches in June. As I said, it's already barely passing 100k weekly, and it had weeks of 140 and 130k just a few weeks prior. By the way, in the NPD prediction thread I predicted 150K for Switch in March just 2 days before the data came out and I ended spot on (withing 2k difference). So explain me how I was wrong for the month again?
Tell me about Europe too. Am I not right there as well? It's finishing March with weeks of 22k where it had weeks of over 30k in January and February.
It's not exactly nitpicking when it's nearly half the data you lied about. And European sales aren't relevant to the US, that's a separate and smaller market for the Switch.
At this point, the only factor that could prevent Switch sales in the US from surpassing the folly of your prediction is that idiot Donald Trump keeps up his erratic trade taxation up. Even then, it's not particularly likely you'll be correct for this year, let alone the lifetime sales. The data doesn't support your assessment.
How is 1 off week half of the data tell me ?
I will write you here all the weeks, because you obviously can't
understand how wrong you are:
36k, 33k, 30k, 27k, 30k, 32k, 35.5k, 36k
Those are all weeks from January and February rounded up or down to the nearest 1k.
And those are the weeks from March:
32k, 30k, 30k, 28k, 28k
Do you see how there were weeks of 35 and 36k before and now there isn't such a weeks ? Is this not a drop ? What about the weeks of 32 and 33k ? Where are they ? Yes you have 1 low week of January, but that does not make March up overall. All of the weeks except 1 are 30k or more for the first two months. The last few weeks in March are between 28 and 30k. Therefore it's down.
Here is another take for you. All the weeks are around 30k right ? If we can say that the average week so far is 30k then why the difference between 5 weeks month like March and 4 weeks month like February is only 13k ? Because the weeks on average for March are lower than those from February (and January too). If you don't know math it's not my problem. If it was the same as the previous two months the difference would be the same 30k, since it's one week more, but it's far from 30k. Anyway, again March is up just because it's 5 weeks, no matter how you slice it you can't tell me it's up or even flat, it's down week on week. Slightly (in the US) but down. Next time please write your homework before confronting me. And also learn how the market works. You can't expect sales of 30k per week or 150k per month to continue to the end of the year in order for 2M or more year in the US. And even slight drop to let's say 25k weekly or 100-120k monthly is not likely in a year where a successor is launching. The only thing that can do 2M year or more in the US is a price cut, which I don't believe it will happen.
Of course... I'm the one with need of schooling in maths when 3 of your 5 values for March fall outside your 27-29K range, and your rounding to the nearest 1000 resulted in 31,756 rounding to 30K.
So continue prattling on about your so-called brilliant math skills when the basics elude you. At least when I was accusing you of dishonesty, while maintaining faith in your intelligence. Now the mystery, which virtue is it that you lack, honesty or competency?
For what it's worth, I do agree, the numbers will wane through Spring. What I don't agree with is that they'll continue to do so for a sustained period. The data doesn't show it. What data shows is sales ebb and flow through the year with consistent drops in March or April and substantial bump during the holidays. Nothing suggests a sustained slide. So, if you believe just 2 million more lifetime sales, despite numbers being too high for such a thing, despite Nintendo's commitment to continued support, despite still holding the price reduction card in their hand, then you're only fooling yourself.
The first week of March is that 31 756, and i did a typo, okay, it's 32k. Either way you got the picture, it's down since there were more weeks of over 30k in January and February and the 27-30k range are the last few weeks. You saw a typo and you jump the gun, what a foolish mistake. If you judge a person by a typo that he is incompetent then guess who is the incompetent ? You. Saying 5 weeks months is up over 4 weeks month is the other sign how smart you are. And not seeing how weeks of 28-30k is a drop from weeks of 30 to 36k is another sign how stupid your perception is about what is more and less.
Also nitpicking won't help you. 27-29k are 3 weeks out of the 5, the next one barely hits 30k, so 27-29k or 27-30k it is the same thing, the main point here is that is down, not up like you said. 4 out of the 5 weeks are in that range. The week of 32k is just a continuation of the peak week of 36k and it happens to be in April. I don't think my math is brilliant, but yours is even not here, when you tell the Switch is up, with 5 weeks month over 4. It's not there when you tell it's up with weeks of 28-30k in comparison to weeks of 30-36k. It's not there because you argue about 50% drop in a year where successor is releasing and you expect 30% drop. Just because I made a typo I am dishonest. Then what you are when you jump to attack on personal level and to accuse every time your precious Switch is in the discussion ?
Yeah they will drop once through spring and then they will remain the same, despite Switch 2 releasing and selling ? What m***n you are .. You don't have any knowledge or competency in marketing, sales or the economics at all. " data shows " ? What data shows is the first months of a year where the system wasn't reveal or released yet. And yet even with this it's down in March. Let alone April and the rest of the year. Yes I can believe whatever I want, and all the people have brains to think, they don't take advice from me or you.
Stop caring about if people will believe me or how they will take it or how I will fool them cuz this only shows your persona again.
The commitment to support does not mean anything. I already gave you examples of consoles who were supported for some time and sold only 3M lifetime after the year their successor launched. Switch may do a little more, but not that much more.
Also here is another point for you about the US sales of the Switch in 2025. I just updated my weekly sales thread, there are a chart where I compare it to the US years of 2M and 1.2M, the Switch is barely outselling that 1.2M and is tiny inch ahead and is way far away from the 2M year line. So your 2M prediction for the US this year, well it needs to have a big spike in the sales in order to be able to reach it let alone pass it. Again that is only the first three months (where Switch is supposed to be the strongest this year) after that we enter into April where was the direct and the preorder opened for the successor, and then June where the successor will launch. I am optimistic about beating the 1.2M year line but it will finish below 2M for sure.
I love how this is the most popular chart, lol.
its the one that matters right now, switch looking to pass the DS and then set eyes on PS2 for #1 all time
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