While the latest generation of video game consoles, Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X, remain notoriously hard to find more than 14 months after their respective launches in November 2020, Nintendo's Switch continues to climb the ladder in the video game hall of fame. Ever since the pandemic hit in March 2020, the hybrid console has been selling like hotcakes, making it the most successful home console ever in Nintendo's long history of hits and misses.
Over the past 21 months, Nintendo has sold almost 48 million units of the Switch, lifting it above the original PlayStation and the Wii to become the third best-selling console of all time. And it could have been more, had supply not been constrained by the global chip shortage, which forced Nintendo to cut its sales outlook for the second consecutive quarter.
As the following chart shows, Sony has been dominating the gaming landscape for the past two and a half decades, with three of its PlayStation consoles now in the top 4. According to official figures from Sony, the company sold more than 155 million PS2 units since its launch, making it the most successful video game console for the living room by a wide margin. Following its arrival in 2000, the PlayStation 2 was an instant hit and remained popular for a very long time. Even though its successor arrived in 2006, the PS2 remained in production until 2013 as an affordable entry-level system.
