Nintendo Switch Outsells DS to Become Best-Selling Nintendo Platform of All-Time - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted 3 days ago / 10,041 Views
The Nintendo Switch has outsold the lifetime sales of the Nintendo DS to become the best-selling Nintendo platform of all-time, according to VGChartz estimates.
The Switch has sold an estimated 154.16 million units worldwide as of February 2026, while the DS sold 154.02 million units lifetime.
Up next for the Switch is the best-selling video game platform of all-time, the PlayStation 2, with just over 160 million units sold lifetime. The Switch needs to sell around another six million units to outsell the PS2.
The exact total number of units sold for the PS2 isn't known, however, Sony did announce the PS2 sold over 160 million lifetime, while the number of units manufactured is 160,636,885, according to former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden.
Breaking down the sales of the Switch by region, it has sold an estimated 53.84 million units in North America, 39.71 million units in Europe, 36.66 million units in Japan, and 23.95 million units in the rest of the world.
This compares to the DS, which sold 57.92 million units in North America, 51.84 million units in Europe, 32.99 million units in Japan, and 11.28 million units in the rest of the world.
Breaking down sales of the Switch in Europe even further, it has sold 7.44 million units in the UK, 8.98 million in France, and 7.70 million in Germany.
Shipment figures for the Nintendo Switch reached 155.37 million units as of December 31, 2025, while 1,500.1 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 December 2025:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 70.59 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 49.32 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 37.44 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 33.64 million
- Super Mario Odyssey – 30.27 million
- Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet – 28.08 million
- Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield – 27.08 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – 22.40 million
- Super Mario Party – 21.28 million
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 18.80 million
The Switch launched worldwide on March 3, 2017, while the DS released in North America in November 2004, in Japan in December 2004, and in Europe in March 2005.
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 follow the author on Bluesky.
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Well done! Nintendo Switch is arguably Nintendo at its prime. Here’s to hoping for even greener pastures for NS2.
this will be the best selling nintendo console ever! and if it passes the PS2 it will be #1 forever, if not #2 forever
" The Switch needs to sell around another six million units to outsell the PS2 "
You just dropped the mic there. lmao
What do you mean?
That the Switch is on it's dead bed, it's barely moving going forward, and this 6M feels like 60M more. A number that is almost impossible to do at the current pace. Not just current pace but the future pace it will have, since it's continues to drop each single month (holding February from January was just an outlier just like last year we had slightly higher February than January, only to then drop by 25% in April to 380k and then by another 100k by the summer months.).
Yeah, Switch would have had a chance if the world was more "normal" for the past five years lol. In that world, Switch Lite would have dropped to $99 and Switch Base to $199 probably during Holiday 2024, well ahead of Switch 2's launch in June 2025.
I think VGChartz considers February a five-week month, if I'm not mistaken, so that's why sales in February are usually higher, anyways. I only asked that question because I was confused by the "drop the mic" slang as I didn't see the context for its use
Ooh, I got it now. I said it, because beating the DS is a big achievement, however after this to want 6M more is a big ask, especially when the Switch is almost over.
Well deserved NS, for combining handheld home gaming.
Have you insinuated that manufactured number isn't essentially the same as sold eh?
The RotW really made a difference here. It was the same as with the PS2. As far as I remember, it had great sales numbers for the RotW
Funny how the NS kind of overperformed across all regions to make up for Europe doing "badly".
What happened there? if the sales reflected the other territories it would've already passed the PS2 worldwide.
I'm curious as to the relative time frame that each took to achieve their respective goals? NS1 I can figure out, as it was released in March of 2017. And this is March of 2026 so roughly 9 years. I guess it can be assumed the DS got there quicker due to being lower price and a dedicated portable. Plus it had variants like the DS Lite that really took off one it replaced the DS Fat.
Nintendo Switch sales broken down by region are way too low in this article.
They don’t add up to over 150 million. About 10 million below where they should be for North America. About 3 million below for Europe, and about 9 million below for Japan.
Rest of World seemed about right.
I've already gone and fixed the numbers. They now add up to the correct total.
Thanks. Was unlucky how they got jumbled up.
Like Japan’s number was give to Europe before.
Thanks for fixing quickly when it was pointed out by people.
No problem. The issue with writing an article during the weekend is a higher chance of making a mistake like this.
