Switch vs PS2 Sales Comparison - March 2026 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 11 May 2026 / 8,178 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 monthly worldwide sales of the Nintendo Switch with the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 2.
The PS2 launched in March 2000 in Japan, October 2000 in North America, and November 2000 in Europe. The Nintendo Switch launched worldwide in March 2017.
Switch Vs. PS2 Global:
Gap change in latest month: 237,954 - Switch
Gap change over last 12 months: 4,113,109 - Switch
PS2 Lead (Low End): 5,549,905
PS2 Lead (High End): 6,186,790
Switch Total Sales: 154,450,095
PS2 Total Sales (Low End): 160,000,000
PS2 Total Sales (High End): 160,636,885
March 2026 is the 109th month that the Nintendo Switch has been available for and it has sold 154.45 million units lifetime. The PlayStation 2 sold between 160.0 million and 160.64 million units lifetime as Sony announced it sold over 160 million, while 160.64 million is the number of units manufactured.
In the latest month, the Nintendo Switch has closed the gap with the PS2 by 0.24 million units. In the last 12 months, the Nintendo Switch has caught up by 4.11 million units.
The Switch is 5.55 million units away from outselling the low end sales of the PlayStation 2, while it is 6.19 million units away from the high end.
Note: Sony announced the PS2 sold over 160 million units lifetime, while an image confirmed by Shawn Layden to be real showed there were 160,636,885 units manufactured.
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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The Big One, for the longest time i believed Switch would end up passing PS2, now i'm not so sure, i probably lean towards the doesn't pass but gets close
The difference between shipped and sold will grow smaller and smaller over time, until the point where shipped and sold are the same.
So no, not unfair.
By that same logic we should be using the Switchs shipped sales in the comparison to level the playing field.
Something you should have no issue with given how fair you think the use of shipped on Sonys side is.
Well that's part of the issue. Given the forecast and it trajectory, shipments wont reach 161 (number needed to clear PS2) million until 2030 at the earliest. Then it would take a couple of years after that just to sell through all those. So while it is possible it is most certainly not likely.
No, that was the manufactured number, not the sold number:
https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/
As you can see, Sony lists its hardware to the 100,000 number, meaning that the PS2 sold between 160.0m and 160.1m. If the Switch does manage to reach 160.1m then it will have outsold the PS2.
No it doesn’t list them to 100,000. That’s just a collection of different number that have all been openly stated at one time. They are not all made by the same people, nor using
the same structure. They can only be taken as they are.
That page doesn’t even have the correct software numbers for PS4 and PS5 because it’s a collected number of all the financial releases with PS4+ PS5 software sales. So it misses out all software data that is just PS4 sales.
You said it yourself: "They can only be taken as they are". Where is your evidence that the PS2 managed to sell 100k over 160m? What we have is its own data on its own site, which concurs with my statement, and a final production total of 160,636,885. Until there is evidence to the contrary, I'll reiterate - If the Switch manages to reach 160.1m then it tops the PS2.
If Sony was transparent with its sales numbers in the first place we wouldn't have to rely on its ex-executives to set the record straight.
Taken as it is means it’s more than 160m. Anything else beyond that is merely speculation.
Still waiting for your evidence that my statements regarding the PS2 were incorrect. We can do this all day.
Prove what statement is incorrect? The number is "more than 160m". That's the end of factual information.
Simple. That the PS2 is not listed as reaching 100k over the 160m mark when other PS systems are, which is also a fact. Sony could just be terribly inconsistent but you haven't shown anything to the contrary of my claim: That the PS2 sold below 160.1m based on what its own site shows.
You need to prove it's right, not someone else proves it's wrong.
I can say the world was created by a giant pink space rabbit. Can you prove that it wasn't? It's basically impossible to disprove so therefore we should assume it's correct?
The page reads over 160m because it's a direct quote of the ex-ceo and therefore considered a financial disclosure. The number is also now published in the yearly accounts. The number is reported exactly as spoken. It's unlikely that he was speaking to the nearest 100k. People don't speak like that.
You'll see all the software sales are all rounded as well. All but one to an even million and then one of them is exactly. This is almost certainly because that number was officially disclosed in that fashion.
There is no great reason or consistency beyond that.
My claim comes from the data of Sony's own site, which is based on some kind of evidence, not some arbitrary analogy about space rabbits. You disputing that says that you take issue with Sony's data as listed.
I'm using the only reference point we have and making a factual statement when I say that the PS2 is not listed as reaching 100k over the 160m mark when other PS systems are. You have yet to make any kind of factual statement that disputes that it didn't reach that.
You're inferring something that is not stated. That's not a fact.
Consoles are listed as they are because they were officially disclosed in yearly accounts.
PS2 sales were obfuscated at the time to hide the underperformance of the ps3. So no official number exists for it. It's the only playstation that doesn't have full hardware shipment numbers.
Therefore the only disclosure is from Jim's statement. Jim didn't clarify he was rounding to the nearest 100k.
That's the end of the story. There is no way you can prove that the number is rounded to the near 100k. Therefore it can't be accepted as a fact.
It is indeed a fact that that the PS2 is not listed as reaching 100k over the 160m mark when other PS systems are. Anyone can see that. Whether or not that data is accurate can be challenged, but again, you are taking issue with Sony's numbers as listed.
I agree that Ryan's statement would not include such specific numbers and if Sony updates its PS2 numbers to reflect higher than 160.1m I will gladly concede to that, but until then, we can only go by what our own eyes tell us from the data available.
Unless you were to claim that the PS2 sold 160.7m, then I'm not insisting that you're wrong. What I'm standing by is my factual statement that other PS systems are listed to the 100k mark while the PS2 is not, and using logic for my conclusion based on said information.
Even though other sections use different rounding within the same section? Alright, you do you then. I doubt the numbers reported here will reflect your opinions, but feel free to have them.
I just looked at other data and there is no internal consistency at all.
For the PS4+PS5 software you can add up all the yearly data they listed and it comes to 1,640.8m. They round it down to the nearest million and state over 1,640m. However PS3 software is stated as 999.4m. It's rounded to the nearest 100k.
That's inconsistent rounding within the very same table.
Doesnt work like that. Its important to remember that not all consoles manufactured transitions to shipped units.
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Some are held back at the console makers own warehouses to manage supply chain flow
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Some never make it to shipped as theyre used for q&a testing.
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Some excess units are produced to address units damaged during manufacturing, repairs and act as replacement units for consumers.
So with this in mind you absolutely cannot assert that the Switch 1 needs to ship more than the manufactured number to have beaten PS2. It just needs to ship in excess of the 160 million shipped figure. An officially reported 160.1 would suffice.
The exact number of PS2's manufactured is 160,636,885, as confirmed by this image, which Shawn Layden at Sony confirmed was real and is truly the last console manufactured.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DSjTmOFkZND/
Dude, do you have trouble reading and/or understanding the word "audit"?
An image is not an audit.
Dude, do you have trouble understanding who Shawn Layden is? If HE himself said that image is authentic, than that should prove that Sony made that exact amount of consoles.
The 160m number is stated in Sonys most recent Finncial Statment so it has in fact been audited, in the most literal sense possible.
I understand what you are saying...
but an audit would never take an engraving as proof of anything lmao
I agree but the word of a CEO of said company I think an auditor would take as evidence.
He was not the CEO when he commented on that picture.
Also an auditor NEVER takes evidence of a CEO. The job of an auditor is to check that a CEO is not talking nonsense.
LOL - Yes he was not CEO at the time of the picture comment. Much more importantly, he WAS CEO at the time that the final console would have been manufactured in early 2013, hence his direct knowledge of how many PS2's were made ;)
He was again not a representative voice when he twittered. That would be like a former Nintendo boss would twitter today that the Wii sold 180 millon units. It is meaningless
Manufactured units does not equal shipped units.
I covered this above. Some units are produced in excess to deal with manufacturing defects on the production line, act as repairs, act as q and a units for the production line to be quality tested etc.
All we can go on here is the shipped figure.
As I also mentioned above its unfair that Sonys shipped figure is being held as the threshold Nintendo has to cross with their actual sales. If vgchartz doesnt have Sonys actual sales then it should in this instance be shipped vs shipped.
PS2 sold for 13 years. Switch has been out for 9 years. Switch is actually outselling PS2 on a launch aligned basis. However, PS2 sold for a very long time even if those last few years it was only a little bit each year. If Nintendo decides to keep manufacturing Switch until 2030, it will likely outsell PS2, but that is a big "IF". Current Nintendo management seems like they want to transition customers to the Switch 2 as fast as possible, and therefore discontinue the Switch 1 as fast as possible.
PS2 was discontinued at beggining of 2013, and then were selling less than. 1K consoles weekly...remember than in 2011 reached 150M sales milestone, so I am not saying that It didn't reach 160M, I am pretty sure that Sony didn't sell more than 153M in a optimistic way. If they made 160M or 200M consoles is ok.
Although I believe Switch 1 will end somewhere between 158M and 159M, I will entertain the idea of going over 160M with some unlikely, but not impossible projection of the future shipments, and will even add salt to the matter, by having this fiscal year coming short of the 2M forecast:
By end of March 2027 - 157.8M shipped (1.88M for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2028 - 158.8M shipped (1M for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2029 - 159.4M shipped (600k for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2030 - 159.8m shipped (400k for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2031 - 160.01m shipped (210k for the fiscal year)
For the folks that do believe Nintendo will match and even exceed it's forecast, here is another one, with drops of around 50% each year:
By end of March 2027 - 158M shipped (2.08M for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2028 - 159.04M shipped (1.04M for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2029 - 159.6M shipped (560k for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2030 - 159.88m shipped (280k for the fiscal year)
By end of March 2031 - 160.02m shipped (140k for the fiscal year)
One key point to consider is that even after the Switch 2 launch the original Switch still sold nearly 3.8m units, a 65% drop versus the previous year. Now that it will hold steady in its own segment with no new consoles, the sales percentage is expected to have a lower 47.4% decline to reach 2 million.
This means to me that the Switch 1 still has a market and will continue to have one, increasing the probability that it will keep selling until Nintendo decides to kill it.
This will be a very fun one to watch! Gonna be very close… likely within one or two million.
The Switch managed to get a sales comparison chart with the PS2 here on the website. For that alone, it is already a winner
If we had estimates for the PS2 I probably would have done it sooner. But without I decided to wait until it passed the DS and for the latest forecast, which still gives it a small chance of topping the PS2.
I’ve been looking at historical data on Gematsu and the numbers don't seem to add up. In early 2011, the PS2 was at 150M units but selling less than 1K weekly. Given that production ended globally by early 2013, even a generous estimate of 5K sales per week would only add about half a million units over two years. Reaching 155M—or 160M—seems mathematically impossible."
This is Nintendo's battle to win or lose...
All they have to do is produce 5M and give it a price drop
To anyone that says "Nintendo doesn't care"... The Investors do care and that's really all that matters lol
The author shouldn't put the "PlayStation 2 sold between 160.0 million and 160.64 million units lifetime as Sony announced it sold over 160 million" as Sony didnt allowed any audit on those over 155 million sold. So there arent any proof of 160 million PS2 sold except Sony's word who very conveniently came right before Switch arrived at 155.
The only official number for PS2 is 155.
Don’t know why some people care so much about this. The industry is so different from 6th gen that comparisons seem pointless.
Eh, despite changing landscapes it is fun to talk about the best-selling console. And despite changing landscapes the Switch is actually close, something Sony couldn't achieve.
In the big scheme of things Switch and PS2 are so close, that the differences don't really matter for something serious, but we will talk in 20 years or 50 years still of who has the crown. Because people do. Does look like PS2 will keep that crown.
I think this are gonna be the the factor place to talk about the PS2 vs Switch war, since we can't talk about it in the Rol's thread. I'm just gonna say that the Switch 2 are not gonna have a new Mario, Pokémon and brand new Zelda game until next year, so this year may end up being a relative good year for the Switch, even despite Nintendo's 2M forecast
You can in my thread, and you could so since 2024.
You're right. I forgot about it >.<
And here we go.
PS2=king of dedicated home consoles. Switch 1=king of hybrids. DS=king of handhelds.
I'm giving it until the end of this fiscal year before throwing in the towel. If Nintendo exceeds its forecast then the Switch is still in the game - and it could with Switch Lite Tomodachi bundles, holiday deals, etc. But if it doesn't, not only will the numbers be too low, but, most importantly, it will show that there is no effort from the company to keep the system relevant anymore going forward.
They botched their chance on this unfortunately. It wouldn't have taken too much different but it's definitely too late now unless something crazy happens.
Wow, awesome series of articles!
Stop buying ripoff switch 2 until Greedtendo release oled that should've been the model from launch and lower the price, also being back Nintendo Select/ Player's Choice.
Until then continue to boycott them!
Looking forward to this.
The PS2 holds the record for both cumulative hardware sales and software sales, but the Switch will likely overtake it in the next quarter for the latter.
https://www.vgchartz.com/charts/platform_totals/Software.php/
Nah, those numbers are not up to date. (Ask Trunks) The PS4 has overtaken the PS2 over 5 years ago in software. (1.56B to 1.53B) Since then, PS4 has still been selling millions of software and has extended this lead over PS2 substantially. Switch is not overtaking this next quarter.
source?
You are correct. The software is based on official numbers when possible and since Sony released the PS5 they have been combining PS5 and PS4 software figures in their reports. So PS4 software numbers are only until the PS5 released.
Just for clarification, doesn't Nintendo exclude digital-only sales in those numbers while Sony includes them? Or is this not true or not true anymore?
Not only does Nintendo include digital in their fiscal reports, they have majority sales in digital now rather than physical (54.6% digital)
https://www.shacknews.com/article/149063/nintendo-ntdoy-digital-sales-revenue-fy26
He means digital only titles, which Nintendo don't include. Although I don't think know if sony does either.
Sony probably does. All information in a financial report needs to accurately support their financial numbers. If there is a disconnect a disclaimer has to be given. Nintendo gives this disclaimer, Sony does not.
Therefore one must assume digital-only is included with Sony or their finance report would not meet reporting standards.
I think that PS4 sold between 2 billion - 2.2 billion software units. I think the Switch will fall short of the PS4 in software but will easily take out the PS2. I think the switch will end up about 1.8 billion to 2.0 billion software lifetime due to our current economic situation and switch 2 backwards compatibility.
That's 100% not true. According to sony themselves ps4 and ps5 software sales combined are 1.64 billion.
https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/
Oops ignore me. That is just the software sales since 2020
LOL Did you read the link I sent? If Sony sold over 1.6B games on PS4/PS5 back in early 2021 per their fiscal report (Back when PS5 was only out for 5 months) and if you look at their fiscal reports every year since then, they sell about ~300M games per year. Regardless of the March 31 date on your link, it's obvious the numbers haven't been added to that site since then. Ask Trunks who does the numbers on this site which is the most viable conclusion.
I edited my post above before you replied. Those are the combined sales since 2020. Kind of a bizarre way to do it. Since they don't give sales for ps4 before the launch of the ps5. I was pretty confused since I thought ps5+ps4 would be way higher. We can't really compare switch vs ps4 software sales since sony counts digital only titles and Nintendo don't.
Actually the PS4 software sales does not include Digital only titles, nor does it include pack- in titles. Sony only started including both of those in the 2021 accounts
Although sony do count digital only games while Nintendo only count game with a physical release as well.
So .. what were the final officially known software figures for the PS4? 1.57B by end of March 2021?
They started combining PS4/PS5 software after March 2021. So all we know is that it is more than 1.57B at this point. PS4 was still selling a lot of software over the last few years as total PS5 users just overtook PS4 users less than 2 years ago. With an average software sell through of 280-300M games per year from 2021 and beyond, it's hard to say where PS4 is at but definitely a lot more than 1.57B at this point.
Shadowlink must have table with the shipment numbers until 2021. I want to see that and possibly make any estimates
We also know that PS4+PS5 combined software from all accounting periods is over 3b units.
This gives a good idea on PS4 software sales.
Around two years ago or so, I thought it was a lock that the Switch would be able to top the PS2. I assumed Nintendo would've cut the price of all models, but since they did the opposite and increased the price, it'll fall short most likely. If Nintendo surprises us and decreases the price sometime in the near future, though, then I think it'll have a good chance. Time will tell.
