PS5 Sells Over 1.1M, NS Nears 150M - Worldwide Hardware Estimates for February 2025 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 March 2025 / 35,598 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console worldwide with 1,174,391 units sold for February 2025, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 74.15 million units lifetime worldwide.
The Nintendo Switch sold an estimated 514,238 units to bring its lifetime sales to 149.70 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 261,462 units to bring their lifetime sales to 32.46 million units.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2018 are down by nearly 144,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by nearly 239,000 units. PS4 sold 1,318,264 units for the month of February 2018 and Xbox One sales were at 500,050 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 88,523 (-7.0%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 69,432 units (-21.0%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 233,483 units (-31.2%).
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are up by over 237,000 units, Xbox Series X|S sales are up by nearly 52,000 units, and Nintendo Switch sales are down by nearly 50,000 units.
2025 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 2.11 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 1.08 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 0.47 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Global hardware estimates for February 2025 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 1,174,391 (74,145,787)
- Switch - 514,238 (149,704,375)
- Xbox Series X|S - 261,462 (32,461,899)
- PlayStation 5 - 370,190
- Xbox Series X|S - 193,789
- Switch - 158,829
- PlayStation 5 - 406,714
- Switch - 118,953
- Xbox Series X|S - 41,321
- PlayStation 5 - 364,831
- Switch - 224,413
- Xbox Series X|S - 13,460
- PlayStation 5 - 32,656
- Xbox Series X|S - 12,892
- Switch - 12,043
Weekly Sales:
Global February 8, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 232,131
- Switch - 125,298
- Xbox Series X|S - 57,065
Global February 15, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 243,960
- Switch - 124,794
- Xbox Series X|S - 60,086
Global February 22, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 246,866
- Switch - 127,830
- Xbox Series X|S - 63,931
Global March 1, 2025 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 451,434
- Switch - 136,316
- Xbox Series X|S - 80,380
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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PS5 only down 7% year on year is better than i expected
I think the May 2027 end of financial year report covering up to March 31st 2027 will be the report that confirms Switch will have outsold the PS2.
But there is still people who thinks Switch will outsell PS2? are you sure Switch is going to sell more than 10 millions when Switch 2 is out?
Moreover, why people keeps comparing sales to a console that was born when videogames were not as popular as now? if PS2 generation would have been existed now, PS2 would sell over 200m consoles. Now there are more people playing videogames than 25 years ago, don't mix up things.
PS5 passing the 3DS soon
It is nice to see PS5 having nearly similar sales in multiple regions.
Nintendo projected the Swtich having 1.4 million units sold in 2025 Q4. Now, it just needs to sell 320k units to reach the projection
320k should be possible for March. I don't see any reason for another sharp decline in March, and we still have Xenoblade. 400k is the most pessimistic number I can think of. April could be different after the Direct, though.
they projected shipments. Just like the Q3 had sold over 5M and shipments were under that, I expect the same here. The difference between shipments and sold units will get less and less, therefore the sold units may be more than the actual shipped ones for the Q4. So even if Switch sells 1.5M for the three months, it's shipments can still be 1.2M for example.
Yeah, shipments. My bad
I don't get how sold units can be higher than shipments numbers
At the moment there is around 2M more shipped units sitting in stores than sold. Therefore over the 3 months if 1.5M are sold that leaves 500k left. Nintendo will restock that 1.5M sold but not with 1.5M since the demand for Switch is not so big anymore and they would not want to keep 2M shipped units in the stores anymore and instead ship less than what they sold since they already have more in stock left. Just like it was in the last quarter. Didn't you also question that?
why you always underestimating NSW? I remember having discussion with you back in November where you projected NSW would see like >50% YoY sales drops across Nov+Dec…when it came nowhere near that. As far as CTCD’s comment is concerned, I personally believe NSW should have around 1.6-1.8mil systems sold for Q1C’26 according to VGChartz estimates. If this holds true, then I see no possibility that NSW ships less than 1.3mil for the quarter (at which point, Nintendo pretty much hit their goal); but even that is incredibly pessimistic noting Nintendo had already vastly under-shipped NSW systems during the holiday quarter, i.e. they’ve already shrunken NSW supply. Supply should certainly match very closely to sales moving forward, and not too far below if I were to guess.
My estimation if you remember correctly, or if you don't you can return to the article and read, was almost 4M for the holiday November+December. In the end I was almost on point. It ended at 4.2M. So I wouldn't call 300k-400k short underestimation or pessimism. It was realistic, unlike many of the people here who are overly optimistic when it's about the Switch (and no I am not talking only lately, but during the full second half of it's life. I don't know where you have saw me saying 50% drop, Switch did 5.2M in the 2023 holidays (Nov+Dec) and I estimated a drop of just slightly over 1M. So 20% or barely over that but nowhere near 50% let alone more than 50%.
CTCD comment is on point. Switch will surely make more than 300k in March, I just said that going forward the difference between shipped and sold will get less and less, therefore we may get some quarter where sales are slightly more than the shipment units in order for the difference to get smaller, as it is normal since the console is about to get replaced. Just like the quarter we had with the holidays. 1.6-1.8M is very optimistic when we had almost 600k for January and almost 500k for February. March will continue the drop and if it was 4 weeks as those 2 months it would be closer to 400k, but because it's 5 weeks I can see it doing another 500k. So it will finish at 1.5-1.6M sold for the three months. Shipments though will be less than that as I already explained, and no 1.3M shipments is not pessimistic, is realistic. Pessimistic would be something like 1M, and optimistic would be something like 1.6M or the shipments to match the sales, which is not logical at this point since Switch is selling nowhere enough for there to be 2M+ shipped units.
Y'all can call me Courage, if you will
Your projection was a 28.8% drop YoY during Nov+Dec, when it only ended up being 17.2% drop. I would certainly argue this discrepancy is significant enough to claim that you were erring on the side of pessimism. (also, looking back at our old convo, it seems you said “50% drop from last year for november+december” though would quickly walk that statement back…seems i forgot that part abt you walking back lol. My bad.) My projection was broadly 4-5mil sold over Nov+Dec with 4.5-5mil shipped over the entire fiscal quarter…which wasn’t super optimistic, but was in fact spot on.
And yeah, I agree that shipped will be closer to sold moving forward; but what I’m arguing is that 1.5mil sold would likely not correspond to 1.3mil shipped, though I also wouldn’t say that it’s unlikely either. It’s just a little pessimistic is all. My 95% interval projection would be 1.1mil to 1.9mil shipped. And yeah, 1.6-1.8mil is very optimistic for sold figures. My range is intentionally broad so as to cover what I perceive to be a 95% likelihood range. (i.e. There is a 95% chance NSW will land in this overly broad interval, as my interval covers very positive and very negative case-scenarios.)
How do you see over 10% change in 400k difference I don't know. But 400k short is surely not pessimistic and it's surely not 10% difference drop from 17.2 to 28.8 as you called it. 3.8M from 5.2M is 26%. and 4.2M is about 20%. 6% is relatively close. and 400k is also close. So it's nowhere 11% as you explained it. And I have never said 50% or over 50% like you state. You are possibly mistaken by some conversation we had about the EU and US. There I said bigger drops, and I was right the drops from 2023 holiday were bigger. However I haven't said over 50% for sure. You mistake that somehow. So there wasn't statement for over 50% drop from which I to walk back from, I don't know what you are talking about there. The first and the only projection about holiday period I made was 3.8M it ended 4.2M that is very small difference and is no where close to pessimistic or underestimating. The Switch simply had better than many expected November, and expected December. You misunderstanding does not mean I underestimate or estimate it on the pessimistic side. My predictions for the Switch to date were realistic and have either come true to this point or very close, so this proves they are realistic not pessimistic or optimistic as most people here. Also talking about overly optimistic I am not saying it's directly you, you may have some optimistic predictions before I don't remember, but I was talking about people here in general, I have seen way more overly optimistic prediction about it than realistic ones or pessimistic.
Your projection was 3.7M, not 3.8M… -> “I expect Switch to finish at 138M by the year’s end. That’s 3.7M more for both months - December and November.” The actual was significantly closer to 4.3M than 4.2M…I believe it was 4.275M?? I’m rounding up b/c easier math.
5.2mil Nov&Dec’23 —(-28.8%)—> 3.7mil Nov&Dec’23 (Your Projection)
5.2mil Nov&Dec’23 —(-17.2%)—> 4.3mil Nov&Dec’23 (Actual)
This is how I’m getting the percentages: (5.2-3.7)/5.2 ≈ 0.288 & (5.2-4.3)/5.2 ≈ 0.172. And 600k is 11.6% of 5.2mil, so that discrepancy checks out. (I am the math man you, you can trust i did the calculations correct lol. However, i’m fallible, so don’t be shy to double-check.)
As far as evidence is concerned for your 50% drop remark? In one of my comments, I quoted you as saying: “So it’s about 50% drop from last year for november+december.” You responded to my comment not refuting this quote, but instead doubling-down on it: “Also when I wrote the 50% I saw the 2.5M number and got mistaken by it and said 50% drop cuz 5.2mil is what it did last year.” So, my best guess is that the OG 50% remark I referenced with my quote was edited out later on your end, tho idk. In any case, it’s kinda irrelevant to even be focusing on this lol: the 50% figure came from getting some numbers mixed up, not a genuine belief that there would be a 50% dip YoY. Not trying to argue that you believed that was going to be a 50%, but more giving an explanation as to why I had that number in the back of my head.
(im an argumentative fella today lol. I’m sorry!)
Yes I can recall that, and yes I remember by that point we had already done some conversation, and I simply got mistaken at the calculations at that very moment, since I was looking at the hardware by date chart, where it was 5.2M for the year, and for some reason I got mistaken my prediction with that 2.5M number which I expected for December only, not November included. December finished 2.6M so I was pretty close. But I got you know. Do you see how you are pessimistic here ? You remember the worst possible scenario, where I once mistaken the data, or you mistakenly understand 50% drop, I don't know which of the two, however you haven't remembered I always talked about number closer to 4M in the end, and you don't throw this for example but you jump the gun with the worst possible argument a mistake in the calculation made by me or you I am not even sure at this point ? So why you are pessimistic and going by the hate side here ? I mean taking one thing out of the contest, when you could simply say the real prediction and not call it underestimation or pessimism but simply almost on point ? Which I expained in the next paragraph.
Also on the first paragraph. I use percentage calculator online cuz it's easier. And also I thrown rounded numbers so it's easier, but since you are throwing exact numbers to the point, I will give you ones. 4.275M is the exact number from now (if adjustments don't happen in future cuz it's not impossible). So with the online percentage calculator 4.275M is over 1M down from the 5.29M actual number from 2023 holidays. According to the online percentage calculator that is drop of 23.5% which is way bigger than your 17% estimate and is way closer to my prediction. Also keep in mind that I never predict exact numbers. So if you want I will return and copy the comment from that conversation but I am pretty sure I have said something like " around 3.7M" not exactly 3.7M which means anything that is 100/200k above or below can be taken in that prediction as well. So my projection was something around the 25% drop mark. In the end I finished very close I would say to the final number, and my prediction was realistic. Pessimistic would be for example 3M. Way far from what I gave as an estimation. Finishing in around 2% is sounding pretty close to me. Finishing within 500k range (and if you want to squeze it I can reach even to 300k with the 3.9M since around means anything around 3.7M that is close) when we talk of numbers over 4M, is also very close. And most importantly nowhere near the " underestimation " or " pessimism" that you talked about.
23.5% is incorrect, it should be 19.2% with those new numbers. And your projected YoY decline would become 30.1%…it doesn’t make a difference in the percentage discrepancy since you were still 575k off in either situation. I can explain it to you if you’d like, but you just gotta trust me here.
As far ad your exact remarks are concerned, I have a screen recording of our entire conversation from this morning. I’m quoting verbatim. You may have said “around” in other parts, though I haven’t personally checked, but in the part I’m quoting, you did not.
I have more believe on the online percentage calculator than your own calculator. Therefore it shows me drop of 23.5% not 19%. In the end some 400-500k are not so much as you initially make it look like in your first comment on this article here.
Okay, anyway it's still not underestimation or pessimism. because that words means giving estimation way below the logical outcome, which I haven't did since It's okay and it's normal to expect Switch's drop to be closer to 4M going from 5.2M the year before, and it's not pessimistic and most of all is very reasonable. The fact that in the end it slightly outperform that, does not make my prediction pessimistic or underestimated. And does not make my other ones too.
you have more faith in an online calculator than a fella who is quite literally studying PhD-level mathematics (alongside research)? I can explain to you the process, just give me a sec later tdy. My guess is that you’re inputting some numbers wrong on the calculator…
I am putting exactly the right numbers on the data here. 5.29M from 2023 and 4.275M for the 2024, and my prediction as well. Anyway this conversation here grew too big and maybe it enters in the realms of spam. If I knew we would discuss this so long here I would wrote you PM. If you want we can continue on PM, as I get notification every time here, and have to scroll a lot for our last few comments.
hmm, ok I got it now. I thought you were referring to shipments and sold units for the same 3 months period. You are talking about the shipments for the next 3 months, April to June, being smaller than the sold units of Jan to March
No I am talking for Jan to March, and maybe even the next three ones cuz that difference of 2M will shrunk for sure.
But you said that Nintendo will "restock that 1.5M sold but not with 1.5M since the demand for Switch is not so big anymore ..." so you're talking about shipments for the next quarter (April to June), not Jan to March.
Anyways, I agree that shipments numbers for April to June may be smaller than sold units from January to March
I talked about Jan to March. And those numbers are just example, just to explain it easier. For example if for those three months the sales numbers are 1.5M Nintendo may ship 1.3M , the next few quarters they should do the same, because untill the end of 2024 they had over 2M shipped units more than the sold. Since the demand from now on will only get smaller and smaller for the Switch, they will want to shring that gap of over 2M to 1.5M, to then 1M to then 0.5M by the end of it's life which is normal for every system in the end for there to be no gap since always sales are equal to shipments when it's discontinued. Therefore for every quarter going forward they should ship less than what they sold until they meet the difference in shipments and sold units to be what they want, I don't know what is their goal for the closer future for that difference but will surely be 1M or less, far away from 2M, or even 1.5M since demand is not 1M+ sold every month like it used to be, but far from that, and is only dropping every next month.
I wonder if there will be a month, where Xbox outsells Switch before the launch of Switch 2 or if Nintendos consoles will be able to outsell Xbox without a gap.
No. ms is carefully managing supply, no price cuts, bundles or promotions.. 5 mill last year, 3.5 to 4 this year. 2026 about 2 to 2.5 mill and about .5 to 1 mill in 2027 before next gen xbox which will be expensive gaming only windows with xbox skin on it.
MS should replace the Xbox branding with Surface.
why? they are about to sell 40-45 mill xbox and they havent even been trying since early 2024.. the surface cant sell nothing..
Maybe Nintendo switch will outsell PS2 by the end of 2026, but I am not sure with "Switch 2" around the corner.
It'll come pretty close. And I think it will at least outsell the DS.
