Nov 2024 USA Sales: PS2's Sales Toppled by Switch As College Football 25 Becomes the Best-Selling Sports Game Ever

Xbox look like they're pretty much finished as a major player in the console market and realistically, whether Switch passes PS2 worldwide or not, I doubt any future console will come close to either

@twitchy_emu92 a whole lot of people bought a ps2 just to watch DVDs, as it was cheaper than a DVD player. Hence why so many legendary games didn't sell anywhere near as much as many games do nowadays (well that and... piracy).

@AdamNovice yeah NCAA has been on people's wishlist in America for years. I got it when it came out(fell off it quick, but will get back too it one day). I am curious if the game next year will do better if it's the usual same ol same ol that EA usually does.

I do wonder if they'll eventually bring back NCAA Basketball too. That would sell too.

Congrats to the switch. Very impressive.

No Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered nor Lego Horizon? 🤡

It’s mostly the same people buying PlayStation.

How many people who had a PS5 didn’t have a PS1 or PS2,etc? Probably a tiny minority.

Well, the Switch has got to sell about another 10-11 million units to unseat the PS2. It could do it , but let's face it, we don't want it to. The PS2 is a legend.
Even if it does clear that 160.n million, the PS2 will still remain the best selling HOME console of all time as the Switch Lites won't count towards that.
Dunno why but I kind of hope that the PS5 lifetime sales fall short of the PS4s - perhaps it's a hope that Sony will realise that cheaper consoles sell better and will price the 6 accordingly?

@-Sigma- why would old game be in sales lmao u think that many people buy it most people probably own it just did 10 dollar upgrade lmao

Wow... Xbox is doing worse than in 2006 and that's AFTER they spent ~$80B acquiring two publishers that were profitable on their own and releasing Xbox and "Xbox" games on PlayStation? YIKES!

Game Pass wasn't a good idea after all.

Microsoft doesn’t care about Xbox consoles. Not anymore. Game Pass, PC, selling their games on Playstation and cloud gaming. The Switch is a beast. I wonder if Switch 2 will be as successful. PS5 Pro sales are in line with expectations I guess, which were rather modest.

Seismic. The PS2 still feels like THE console. Even so, Nintendo is worthy of their spot on the throne.

@Slayer25c Because of the mythical people that didn't play first game that was suppose to be out there apparently that we don't know about. It was "part" of the justification of why we got it instead this instead of other games that fans been asking for to be remastered(the games stuck on ps3). Instead, we keep getting bs like this.

Crazy that College Football’s the highest selling sports game ever. I know it’s the US but there’ve been so many sports games over the years that it’s a really big deal to set that record.

It’s ok I’m sure Sony will confirm another few million ps2’s have been sold in the US after this news 🤣

@nessisonett well we got starved of College Football for basically a decade lol so that helped plus that stat is dollar sales. It has been fun playing a football game again for me personally(haven't bought a football game since the last NCAA game) even with some of my major complaints about the game.

@Shad361 The vast majority of people under 25 probably didn't. I imagine a lot of gamers fall under that bracket, most people I know game less as they get older (more responsibilities etc).

@twitchy_emu92 How do you reckon there was more people years ago? GameCube and Xbox sold less than 50 million between them, so combined with PS2 sales that's approx. 200 million home consoles. Combine PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch and that's a lot more than 200 million.

@twitchy_emu92 part of the appeal was the disc drive. Families that weren't regularly gaming bought the PS2 because it was dual purpose. Heck, I even got a PS4 because the slim was only $50 more than a DVD player which was what I was mainly after at the time. Now with pc gaming becoming more popular and consoles being both expensive and pretty much exclusive to gaming (since everyone streams content now), Sony may never see the same numbers again. Even Microsoft is aiming to be exclusively a publisher and having the Xbox be able to stream from any device. Ultimately, I think Microsoft is right and hardware will eventually become obsolete. But that's a ways off I imagine. In the meantime, I think they're fine raking in game sales

If that Xbox part is actually true, given how Xbox news is handled on this site, they really just need to give up. There is no way they could ever hope to turn things around like Nintendo did from the Wii U to the Switch.

I do think it’s pretty impressive the Switch is now bigger than PS2 over here, I never thought anything could beat it in any country. I like Nintendo, I like PlayStation. If I can get one repaired, I’d even have a PS2 for myself.

@MrPeanutbutterz I think he meant there are more people gaming now compared to before. Than instead of then.

@Steel76 Back when you could just play a game, no DLC, updates, streaming, and nobody really ragged on each other for enjoying a different console than them?

@twitchy_emu92 The sole reason the PS2 sold that well was because of the disastrous PS3 launch.
The PS2 sat at around 100 million units when the PS3 came out. Due the countless isssue of the PS3 ( 1 Year after the 360, the high price point, unstable network, No First Party Support, third party games ran much worse than on the 360 etc)
People, especially, in Europe and Asia kept buying PS2s. And were waiting for Sony to fix the PS3 problems. So in order for Sony to beat the PS2 sales with the PS5, they have to mess up the PS6 launch

@-Sigma- I guess there’s not really an equivalent UK wise. Maybe if EA brought back Fight Night, similar starvation of a good franchise.

@Llamageddon someone in that age bracket would have grown up on PS3 Wii or Xbox 360 and probably had a PS4.

btw, this isn’t all that tbh. the ps2 has been discontinued for how many years now? it only took the switch (a handheld btw) nearly 10 years to outsell a 30 year old console slow clap

@nomither6 So this data implies that the PS2 lifetime sales have been surpassed.

That's 2000 to 2013. Surpassed by a system that has had no price cuts, in just shy of 8 years.

I'm not sure where you're getting the 30 years thing from, the system hasn't been selling for as long as I've been breathing.

@sanderson72 Lite's sales count towards Switch's just like PSTV's did towards Vita's. As for PS2, it hosted a multitude of legendary games but I'm challenged to see anything legendary about the console itself. It was no milestone concept like Game Boy, NDS, Wii or Switch, just a followup expanding on its predecessor's appeal and hitting the jackpot with its own extras.

Holy hell! A 29% year over year decrease in Xbox Series sales?! How is this not top news like...everywhere! Sure am glad they abandoned most XB1 support and are going for a third party multi-platform approach.

A decline of only 3% in its eighth year seems wild to me. Makes me wonder how much gas Switch might have left in the tank if they cut the price after Switch 2 drops.

@nomither6 lol you're very confused

Switch outsold PS2 (in the U.S.) in 7-ish years vs the 13-ish years PS2 was on the market. With no price drops. With no killer multimedia functionality like the PS2's famous use case as a cheap DVD player.

Not all that my butt.

@sanderson72 Genuine question. Why do you care so much that the PS2 remains the best selling system?

My PS2 slim was broken years ago but i still have a couple of PS1 & PS2 games like Breath of Fire 5, Tenchu 1, and Onimusha. But after reading this news, i feel like i want to buy another PS2 slim along with some PS2 games since many PS2 games like Tenchu 3, Haunting Ground, Shadow Hearts, Kuon, Maximo, etc etc never get a remaster...

Anyway. It's nice to see Astro Bot and SH2 remake still selling. Both games possibly gonna pass the 2 million mark at the end of this year.

And Spiderman 2 has long legs huh? Back in April it has sold 11 million copies so right now i can see it pass 13 million copies.

@Ralizah Whats impressive is during its run the PS2 (160 mil) outsold the both consoles Nintendo had on the market GBA (81 mil) & GC (21 mil) by a large margin. While the Switch has done very well at over 140 mill, but its a noticeable drop from Nintendo's best gen even while consolidating its home & portable consoles. Also considering their Portables always outsold the home consoles by a large margin. 259 million sold with the Wii (105 mill) & DS (154 mil) was crazy. Plus like others have said. Adding Switch lite sale to that total is kinda BS since it can't you know...Switch.

@twitchy_emu92 younger generations generally don't play PS or XB... they're on phones / tablets / or Switch. Or they're just watching TikTok. Older teens (if like my son+friends are any judge) have moved to PC already. So I'm not sure there are actually more gamers now, because a lot of older gamers have dropped off consoles too.

There's just too much competition for our time, and wallets.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I dunno about that. Most people I know that have kids have Playstations or Xbox S for their kids. The average person just isn't dealing with a PC. Why do you think there have been multiple Fortnite bundles on PS. Those aren't for adults. Lol! Also remember that beef Epic had with Sony because Sony has crazy fortnite numbers and revenue and epic backended a storefront to get that cash. Plus CoD & GTA still pull crazy numbers on PS. Kids and Teens are a big part of that.

@NintenGuy fair points - however, I don't think you should mistake success with marketing... the fact that they are trying so hard to engage with what has been their traditional base is reasonable - but that base isn't the wider player base. It's the base of Fortnite players. I think (and I'm not going to go searching for this stat) that there's been a significantly large consolidation into the GaaS market. So - even if that market is "healthy" that doesn't mean the ecosystem isn't getting smaller.

There's a reason why Fortnite / COD / FF14 / <insert Hoyoverse title> are seemingly doing ok, whilst there's a lot of SP games that are kinda struggling to perform (people love to point at the culture wars - but I think it's more likely that if you don't have special sauce these days, it's hard to make money on a AAA+ game on consoles).

Anyway - that's just me shooting the breeze... quite likely entirely wrong. It's just my sense is that the gamer base is moving more and more into either a platform to play live-service, or a dedicated minority that love lots of different games. That's why you have both Sony and MS pivotting away from traditional business models, because they know there's no growth in it now - other than increasing prices.

Edit - and to your point... I think a lot of parents (like myself) are buying consoles for their kids (because they love gaming)... I'm not sure how well they are capturing their attention though.

@LavenderShroud no-one ragged on you for liking a different console? That craps been around as far as I remember.

I was there for the original console wars Mega drive Vs SNES. It's going nowhere and has been a thing

@nomither6 It's not a handheld. It's a console hybrid that can turn into a handheld.

@rusty82 I didn’t play games then and mostly know what my brother tells me he remembers. I know the whole Nintendo vs. Sega thing way back in the day. So I honestly can’t say much I probably should have phrased my comment better.

College football is a great game. Didn’t get a nomination at the video game awards which proves what a farce they are.

Damn now sony is gonna have to release the ps2 again cuz Nintendo fanboys r gonna be incorrigible 😅

@twitchy_emu92 I actually had to answer that question professionally, and yes it did impact, but no not to the extend where it would have significantly change the success story.

PS2 is one of my Top 3 PlayStation machines with games like Dance Dance Revolution games, K-1 games, Monster Rancher 4, FF X/X-2, FF XII, The Sims Bustin' Out, etc.

@__jamiie Nostalgia, I suspect!

Dunno really - might just be because Sony were more fun back in those days, rather than the Apple wannabes they've turned into.

@nhSnork "Lite's sales count towards Switch's just like PSTV's did towards Vita's"
Yes, they count towards the total Switch sales, but it can easily be argued they they aren't home consoles - that was my point about the PS2 being the best selling HOME console.

@sanderson72 I completely agree about the fun. I've owned every PlayStation but the PS3 is my favourite generation. I hooked my PS3 back up to my TV a few months ago and I've been playing it way more than my PS5 ever since.

@SlasherZ what’s the difference between a switch lite and a switch ? one comes without a dock .

switch is a literal tablet that can connect to a television like most modern devices can

One is hand held, not comparable.