Switch vs PS2 Sales Comparison - April 2026 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 12 June 2026 / 9,262 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: 199,420 - Switch
Gap change over last 12 months: 3,932,080 - Switch
PS2 Lead (Low End): 5,350,485
PS2 Lead (High End): 5,987,370
Switch Total Sales: 154,649,515
PS2 Total Sales (Low End): 160,000,000
PS2 Total Sales (High End): 160,636,885
April 2026 is the 110th month that the Nintendo Switch has been available for and it has sold 154.65 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 0.20 million units. In the last 12 months, the Nintendo Switch has caught up by 3.93 million units.
The Switch is 5.35 million units away from outselling the low end sales of the PlayStation 2, while it is 5.99 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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Sell Switch 1 for $100 like PS2 at end of life and it'll blow past the record.
Sell the PS2 as a hybrid system, delay the 7th gen till 2008, throw in some pandemic and have Lite model in there, and you will have more than 200M sales. If we take things from the other console, the possible variants are infinite. Literally.
Yeah, but some variants make more sense than others. To be fair he just added one plausable hypothetical factor while you brought up a lot of them, some of which are really wacky and descharacterizes the PS2 as a whole, like "if the PS2 were a hybrid". If we go to this route, we could say "If the PS2 were a a hamburger, it would have sold more than 300M"
Yes. That was the point. Going with "ifs" is pointless. That goes both ways, for everything.
At the end of the day, the "ifs" don't change the reality indeed. But I don't think we should restrain ourselves from an imagination exercise once in a while, specially if the hypothetical situation makes sense and it is not far fetched
Like you said - once in a while. Not each single time. This specifically is in almost each article or thread about the matter.
Idk, man. Let people theorize all they want. We've had our fair shair of these conversations by now, but maybe this could be this dude's first time engaging in these "ifs" speculation. He, in particular, brought a reasonable hypothetical situation in my opnion
Yes, he may. My comment wasn't pointed to him specifically but in general, to everyone. Many people do it, and honestly it's pointless.
(How much is reasonable is another question, especially in this day and age .. we haven't had a 99$ console since PS2, more than 15 years ago when the price cut was made).
I'm personally kinda done with these "what if" conversations regarding PS2 and Switch. I see a post like this, I just ignore
Me too, most of the times. Indeed that is the right thing to do, I can agree.
PSP, VITA, and Steam Deck never got anywhere near 100M in sales. Switch was the weakest system on the market with no price cut and the lite was a stripped down version which has now gone UP in price. OLED, the most expensive variant of the Switch became it's biggest seller, NOT the lite!!
Relax..
You obviously didn't gоt my point.
No one wants an overrated dvd player in 2026, especially when more than half of the ps2 exclusives are out for Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Xbox. Nice try though
You're absolutely right. At this point launch aligned, the PS2 sold around 136 - 140 million, meaning the Switch would've had a 14.5 - 18.5 million unit lead. The price cut to $100 had been in effect for two months by this period.
India and an unexpected reversal of price cuts are the main hopes right now. But I got to say, it's a no from me dawg.
Switch is already the most profitable console in history thanks to a lack of price cuts, popular software, accessories, and subscriptions.
PS2 will likely stay the all-time king in units sold.
If the rumors are true that Switch 1 will be sold in India then there is a good chance at surpassing the PS2. Not because of any potential India sales, but because they'd likely keep it on sale in other markets as well for at least a few more years. I personally I don't understand why it would be so hard for them to produce 5 million measly more units lol. In 2020, over 28m Switch 1's were shipped. I doubt we'll have any year that has that many Switch 2 and Switch 1 units combined going forward.
I guess the problem lies in the fact that they want to sell more Switch 2 not Switches. They will get way more from revenue standpoint if the sales of S2 increases, while phasing out S1. Most of money come from subscription and software sales.
True, but it's just so close to the record and only needs a little bit more. I can't imagine they'd lose that much revenue, especially compared to how many Switch 1's were produced in 2020/2021.
The question that no one knows is not if the Switch can surpass the PS2, but if Nintendo will allow it to surpass it since it probably won't be very profitable to sell the Switch in 2027 and 2028. Will Nintendo stop producing it in 2028? 2029? 2030? Is it good for the company to continue to producing it in the middle of a RAM Crisis? I don't know.
I doubt it will make it on the hardware number, but i do have to say i think this is the most successful console of all time if you take into account the amount of game, accessories, etc that have been sold for it. The amount of first party games that surpassed 20 + millions is crazy
The best-selling PS2 game is GTA: SA, with 17.22m units sold.
If GTA: SA were on Switch with those sales numbers, it would be the 13th best-selling game on the system.
Yea that really puts it into perspective !
San Andreas is on Switch though
I meant as a first-run game.
As an actual switch game as part of GTA: The Trilogy, it's probably clinging to the bottom echelons of the top 100, at best.
160m install base and not one 20 million seller and 5 10 million sellers. Switch1 has 9 20M sellers and 21 10M sellers.
Switch1 is King!
Thats because there were far more quality games on ps2.. Switch sold around 1.4 billion software while PS2 sold 1.52 billion software.
This 1.52 billion is physical discs sales while the switch is both carts and digital plus all the small cheap indie games.
The ps2 has a deeper quality library while switch has a small selection of great games and the rest of the games out there on the switch to be very low quality. So ps2 gamers were buying from a larger deeper select of quality, while switch gamers like myself are buying only certain games fir it.
Switch has sold 1.52 billion software as well(To be fair, The PS2 sold 1.537B software but we're talking about a 10 million copy separation here). PS2 games were being sold for as low as $20. What is and isn't quality is your opinion.
There are more 30 million sellers on Switch than 10 million sellers on PS2. Switch did it in less time as well. PS2 was 12 years and 10 months on the market while Switch is only in year 9.
That's because there were way more variety of games on ps2 and way more quality games. I know you're gonna disagree with that.
The majority of games that get sold on the switch are 1st party. Games like Mario kart 8 deluxe sold so many like other 1st party because they are the only decent games on that platform. Gamers weren't buying a switch to play 3rd party games. Quality 3rd party was few and far between and when there was good 3rd party games, the quality was poor.
Again, what's good and what's bad is your opinion. Whether they're all 1st party or 3rd party games is irrelevant. Switch has 4 times more 10 million sellers than the PS2. Why would anyone think a system with no 20 million sellers and only 5 10 million sellers had more popular games than a system with 9 20 million sellers and 21 10 million sellers while selling nearly the same amount of software total?
Does not compute.
If any console deserves to outsell the ps2, Nintendo Switch totally deserves to be at number 1. Not only did Switch help me through a divorce (Breath of the Wild) and the pandemic (Animal Crossing New Horizons), Nintendo Switch also has Incredible Exclusives. And I mean so many incredible games. I can also play it anywhere and don’t have to worry about a failed disc drive (my original ps2). When I purchased a ps2 slim to replace the original, I only played a few games for it and of course used it to watch Horror Movies. Nintendo Switch >>>>> ps2 PERIOD.
As long as Ninty Makes 161 M units and stops after it. Guaranteed Switch 1 will outsell the Moving the Goal Post Without Hard Facts and Auditing PS2.
I know the odds aren't very high for the Switch to outsell the PS2, but the first article I posted on this last month performed really well. Plus, there are other comparisons that are over that I still post as they perform well (ie PS5 vs XS and PS+XS vs PS4+X1).
Well, if the India rumor ends up being real, the Switch still may have a shot
Yea, it should be close in the end no matter what.
Nintendo Switch is somehow boosted up to 160m units by sales in India.
Headline: "Sony announces that the PS2 sold 165m units over its lifetime."
" The Switch is 5.35 million units away from outselling the low end sales of the PlayStation 2, while it is 5.99 million units away from the high end. " ☠️☠️☠️
Switch1 isn't going to eclipse that alleged number and it doesn't need to. Let'em have it.
Let's see how things go May onwards. The price increase in Japan will make things for the Switch even harder. Let's hope we have some suprise in the future
I miss the PS2 days, I hope it stay's as No1
GameCube, Original Xbox, and Dreamcast were all so much better than the ps2 in every way. It’s pretty sad DVDs made an overrated console “number 1”.
I really hope a true gaming console dethrones a dvd player for sure.
Some of the games the PS2 had made it special - especially Gran Turismo 3/4 for me. I loved my GameCube and Xbox Original too. Just overall, the console was very good from PlayStation and also backwards compatible at the time. It wasn't just a DVD player, although that did lead to many more sales! I don't think the Switch has been as big as a success as the PlayStation 2 even if it overtakes it, as there's a lot more people around these days and it only matches the PS2 sales numbers
I;d argue that the Switch was a bigger success. The PS2's best-selling game sold 17 million copies. Switch's best-selling game sold 70 million copies, and it had 12 other games that sold better than the biggest game the PS2 had.
I think most people back then would have enjoyed playing PS2 more due to less options/distractions e.g. social media and it wasn't as easy to buy a console/games back then at a click of a button (impulsive purchases). Just different times and era but PS2 was a much more favoured and played console in my opinion. But obviously both are very successful but the Switch would have to clearly outsell the PS2 to beat it by a bigger margin. There's a lot more people these days and easier to purchase a Switch at a click of a button
This and the previous article became all about bias in the comments .. I don't know if this is the point, but this is the result ..
Now after the India release announcement, they need to set up a local factory in Brazil to bypass it's crazy import taxes. Or maybe they can make a deal with Tec-Toy like Sega did over 30 years ago...
This particular sales topic is literally psychosis.
It will certainly sell at least 155 million units, and there’s a high probability it will reach around 156 million units.
Also be interesting to see whether the Switch 2 can reach those sales units figures.
Switch 2 will outsell the Wii and ps4, but I doubt it will reach Switch numbers due to price increases and people living paycheck to paycheck due to corrupt politicians
