The Nintendo Switch Is This Close To Beating PS2 As Best Selling Console Of All Time
Every millennial gamer remembers the Playstation 2 as the console to have. It debuted on March 4, 2000, and reigned as the premier next-gen console for an entire year. In September 2001, Nintendo launched the Gamecube, but it couldn't stand up to the popularity of Sony's console or Microsoft's first gaming console, the Xbox. Since its launch, the PS2 has reigned as the best-selling console, partly thanks to many of the games that are still worth playing, of all time.
As of February 2024, the PS2 sold 158 million units, with the Nintendo DS trailing by only 4 million units. While that's an impressive statistic on its own, the DS debuted only four years after the PS2, receiving almost as much time to accumulate those sales. What's an even more impressive statistic is that the Nintendo Switch, a console that launched in 2017, trailed PS2 sales by 19 million as of February 2024.
The PS2 remained on the market for 13 years while the Switch has only been out for roughly half of that, so it's feasible for Nintendo's flagship console to overtake the PS2's reigning title within the next year or two.
Why sales are so good for the Nintendo Switch
Despite the anticipated announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2, if Nintendo keeps the current Switch on the shelves for as long as Sony produced the PS2, it will be easy for the Switch to be the number-one-selling video game console of all time. Nintendo has some of the most prolific video game titles, many of which have become household names. Even non-gamers know the Pokemon and Zelda names.
Nostalgia plays a big role in the console's success, and it has a lot of nostalgia to offer. "Metroid" and "Zelda" are just the tip of the iceberg because gamers can even dive into titles most wouldn't have expected on a Nintendo console, such as "Doom" and "Skyrim." Additionally, the Switch launched with "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," the first open-world Zelda game, changing the game entirely (no pun intended).
When you combine those games with the Switch's ability to be played at home like a traditional console or on the road like the Game Boy, it's easy to see that it's a console for every type of gamer. Even in 2024, the Nintendo Switch is worth buying because it can be enjoyed as a party console when all of your friends are over or used when you're in the mood for a single-player RPG epic.