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Nintendo Switch’s sales momentum in the United States has pushed it past its most significant rival. The hybrid home/handheld’s lifetime sales have now surpassed the PlayStation 4, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group.
“Lifetime unit sales of Nintendo Switch have now surpassed those of PlayStation 4, making it the 4th highest unit-selling console in U.S. history, and the 6th highest unit-selling video game hardware platform overall.”
This is a major milestone for the Nintendo system. It puts it behind only a handful of the best-selling home consoles of all time.
“In the console segment, Switch unit sales trail only those of PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and Wii,” said Piscatella.
As usual, Switch led hardware unit sales in April and continues to outpace Xbox and PlayStation year-to-date. Xbox Series X/S is the No. 2 console in both periods while PlayStation 5 remains supply constrained.
In terms of dollars sales, however, it’s PlayStation that came out on top.
“PlayStation 5 led April in hardware dollar sales, trailed closely by Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch,” said Piscatella. “Xbox Series has generated the highest hardware dollars of any platform year to date, followed by PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.”
The PlayStation 5 has the highest average sales price due to not having a $300 option like the Xbox Series S. That is enabling it to generate more revenue while selling its very limited supply of consoles.
But overall, hardware saw a surge year-over-year in April thanks to increased availability. This is likely only a teaser of what’s to come as supply is still unlikely to return to sane levels permanently before the end of this year.
“Video game hardware dollar-sales increased 16% when compared to a year ago, to $343 million, due to improved supply of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles,” said Piscatella. “Year-to-date spending on hardware fell 9%, to $1.5 billion.”
But for now, the industry is enjoying its high tide. And this should help stage the big companies for the second half of the year … if they have any games to release, that is.
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