Sony’s decision to quietly increase the PS2’s sales to 160 million a few years ago may have proven a master stroke: the console should just about hang on to its status as the best-selling console of all-time.
While the Switch is agonisingly close to the PS2’s record with 156 million units sold, Nintendo only expects to sell two million units over the next financial year.
That’d leave it two million units short of Sony’s record, with sales likely to slump even further the following year. It’s going to be a photo finish, but with Nintendo’s focus on Switch 2 in a challenged economy, it looks like the PS2 should just about edge this one out.
If not, we wonder whether Sony has a few more PS2 units sitting in a warehouse somewhere? It’s not letting go of this record without a fight.
It’s worth remembering, while the Switch is now nine-years-old, the PS2 lasted for 13 years, so Nintendo’s hybrid has actually sold faster than Sony’s system.
In fact, the PS2 sold particularly well after the introduction of the PS3 in 2006 – it was a brilliant budget option for many families.
In those days, console makers were able to re-engineer their systems in order to sell them for cheaper. But as components have gotten more complicated, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for manufacturers to get the costs down.
Records are made to be broken, but if the Switch doesn’t beat the PS2, we honestly don’t think anything will.
Anything can happen, of course, but consoles aren’t the dominant force they once were – and we’re in an era of iteration and diminishing returns, which is going to make it difficult for current and upcoming systems to sell the same kind of numbers as their predecessors.
