Switch 2 Best-Seller, PS5 Sales Drop - Worldwide Hardware Estimates for April 2026 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 May 2026 / 13,347 Views
The Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console worldwide with 877,493 units sold for April 2026, according to VGChartz estimates. The Switch 2 has sold 19.61 million units lifetime.
The PlayStation 5 was the second best-selling console, with an estimated 435,713 units sold, to bring lifetime sales to 91.95 million units. The Nintendo Switch 1 was the third best-selling console, with an estimated 199,420 units sold, to bring lifetime sales to 154.65 million units. The Xbox Series X|S came in fourth place with 98,377 units sold, to bring its lifetime sales to 34.67 million units.
Switch 2 sales compared to the same month for the Switch 1 in 2018 are up by nearly 242,000 units, as the Switch 1 sold 635,706 units in April 2018.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2019 are down by over 360,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by over 162,000 units. The PS4 sold 795,791 units for the month of April 2019 and Xbox One sales were at 260,523 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 312,154 (-41.7%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 113,799 units (-53.6%) and Nintendo Switch 1 sales are down by 181,029 units (-47.6%).
Looking at sales month-on-month, Nintendo Switch 2 sales are down by over 799,000 units, PlayStation 5 sales are down by over 422,000 units, Xbox Series X|S sales are down by over 42,000 units, and Nintendo Switch 1 sales are down by nearly 39,000 units.
2026 year-to-date, the Nintendo Switch 2 has sold 4.03 million units, the PlayStation 5 has sold 2.51 million units, the Nintendo Switch 1 has sold 0.84 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 0.49 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Global hardware estimates for April 2026 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- Switch 2 - 877,493 (19,613,598)
- PlayStation 5 - 435,713 (91,947,615)
- Switch 1 - 199,420 (154,649,515)
- Xbox Series X|S - 98,377 (34,674,529)
- Switch 2 - 332,796
- PlayStation 5 - 152,845
- Xbox Series X|S - 66,250
- Switch 1 - 39,705
- Switch 2 - 196,359
- PlayStation 5 - 135,985
- Switch 1 - 30,950
- Xbox Series X|S - 23,699
- Switch 2 - 319,265
- PlayStation 5 - 128,995
- Switch 1 - 122,562
- Xbox Series X|S - 3,284
- Switch 2 - 29,073
- PlayStation 5 - 17,888
- Switch 1 - 6,203
- Xbox Series X|S - 5,144
Weekly Sales:
Global April 11, 2026 hardware estimates:
- Switch 2 - 230,565
- PlayStation 5 - 124,369
- Switch 1 - 45,793
- Xbox Series X|S - 27,367
Global April 18, 2026 hardware estimates:
- Switch 2 - 207,620
- PlayStation 5 - 117,933
- Switch 1 - 56,925
- Xbox Series X|S - 23,170
Global April 25, 2026 hardware estimates:
- Switch 2 - 197,279
- PlayStation 5 - 98,879
- Switch 1 - 52,234
- Xbox Series X|S - 23,960
Global May 2, 2026 hardware estimates:
- Switch 2 - 242,029
- PlayStation 5 - 94,532
- Switch 1 - 44,468
- Xbox Series X|S - 23,880
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 follow the author on Bluesky.
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Honestly, crazy to see
There it is? The first month the S|X is estimated to have sold less than 100K globally (iirc).
Despite I personally claim that I still believe it's a rather optimistic estimation, I can't imagine the actual situation behind the scenes at Xbox.
However, Microsoft can pretty much afford to just shrug their shoulders, although it might still be a little pain in the ass for them that the Series generation will have lost the GTA(6) phenomenon to Playstation, proportionally. As we all know that, missing out on GTA 6, looking at the development time, is quite odd by chance. Can you imagine if both, X|S and PS5, would race head-to-head today?
Anyway.
Sony can't have any reasons of joy looking at these estimates, either. It's simply brutal, compared to PS4 numbers. April 2019 wasn't a big month for PS4 in terms of software, either. So that's pretty much an effect of the recent price bumps.
What a console generation for Sony and Xbox.
Xbox Series X/S first time ever with under 100k worldwide.
Aaaaaaand .. PS5 first time ever with weekly numbers under 100k.
This is trippy... it's like reverse Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One sales.
We are in a moment where the Switch 2 is outselling the PS5, Switch 1 and Xbox Series combined.
Nintendo is the only company on a comfortable situation right now. Let's see if the price hike changes that.
For Sony's sake, I hope that GTA 6 moves a lot of PS5 units at the end of the year.
And Microsoft needs divine intervention if they want to become relevant again. Such a shame since Xbox was so important to so many of us and for gaming for over 20 years.
"PlayStation 5 sales are up by over 422,000 units" - this should be down..
PS5 sales went straight to hell. They can prolly manage another 5-6 million this year bringing 2026 total up to ~10-11 million.
Then 4-5 million for 2028 and 1.2-2.5 million in 2029. Closing out with 500k-1 million in 2030, 3 years into PS6 lifecycle.
Total lifetime imo will be about 105-109 million for PS5.
After launch hype and limited availability hype it should drop to what we see are seeing now with PS5 for PS6. 1st 12 months possibly sell 12 million at $750-$800. Somethings don't change in this industry, you go above $600 and you have maybe about 25-30 million world wide willing to buy at that price imo. PS6 gen might be Sony's first sub 60 million lifetime gen.
Unless next gen is a reverse of this gen where price starts very high and spend the next 10 years droppin way down, like how it used to be.
We will see i'm just making napkin predictions.
Microsoft doesn't care. They abandoned their hardware years ago. Gamepass is king for them.
They don't really seem to be crowing about GamePass like they used to, either, and they're scaling back on its offerings.
They lowered the price and COD is no longer day and date on the service. looks like this is the new strategy of the new CEO due to price hike complaints. Lower the price of Gamepass while taking away the value of having Gamepass? I don't see how that will work.
They seem to think that a lot of CoD sales were lost to GamePass, and that there weren't enough new subscriptions to justify it. They spent the GDP of a small country buying Activision Blizzard. Call of Duty 2025 was outsold by Battlefield, a series which not long ago seemed to have one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel, for the first time in history. Microsoft is clearly not happy with that.
This will be a bad move. Take away the value of the only thing you got going. Unless they plan on pulling Forza from Playstation(which sold 5 million on the platform) along with all their other games, they won't be bringing xbox back from the dead.
Buckle up, gaming hardware is in for a few tough years. Although it is good that the price hikes are happening toward the end of the generation when there’s already a solid install base. And Nintendo seems like they will be able to keep prices at a more reasonable level.
It looks like $600 is really the breaking point for a lot of consumers. I think this is where Nintendo will succeed due to the Switch 2 being $450 until September and even then it will be $500. They also have the Switch 1 at cheaper prices at $230, $340 and $400.
Xbox should really market the Series S better to get the $400/$450 price across as this is the year a lot of big casual games/franchises ditches last gen (EA FC I think will be the only one still release on last gen). This could lead to a slight resurgence for Xbox consoles if they do it right.
Playstation unfortunately has no cheap option for their consoles like Nintendo and Xbox do, so they have to hope their brand recognition will get them through this.
Wow, Xbox numbers are really down
