• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Jim Ryan: PS2 sold 160 million units

Woopah

Member
We're seeing in the sales rankings that PS5 keeps enlarging their market share against Xbox. They keep enlarging their fanbase via PC, movies and tv shows.

In the leaked Insomniac numbers we saw that as of a year ago half of new PS5s sold were sold to new PSN users who didn't have a PS (at least with PSN) before, and that they still had a giant and record at this point of its lifetime PS4 active userbase (which can also be seen in the 123M PSN MAU record breaked in December) of people who would upgrade later.

As I remember, launch aligned as of December PS5 was only under 3M behind PS4.

According to Jim Ryan in this interview, PS5 is on track to end being the best performing console ever, not only in units sold.


Nintendo left the home console market after they realized with WiiU they couldn't compete, and has been kept alone in the handheld market, where they moved their home console resources.

So Switch is the successor of WiiU (13.56M) + 3DS (75.94M) + Vita (around 15M), so less than around around 104.5M since must have been overlap.

Or in the previous gen, Wii (101.63M) +DS (154.02M) +PSP (82.52M), so less than 338.35M since must have been overlap.

If you remove the Nintendo home consoles from the equation would be a portable market of around under 91M (there was overlap) in the previous generation and under 236.54M in the previous one.

So by adding their home console resources Nintendo is recovering is party recovering the portable consoles market lost in the previous generation but still far from the one portables had the DS+PSP generation.
They didn't leave the home console market, they just needed to find a way to appeal to the both the home console and portable markets with one software ecosystem (since it was no longer feasible to support two seperate ecosystems).

Home console experiences sell well on Switch, so its clearly still appealing to that market.
So basically years of retail figures putting the PS2 at around 155 million, then Jim quotes 160 million in a random podcast, but no big deal............ so why even say this in the podcast, in the first place.
The figures we had from Sony was that PS2 was over 155 million shipped. Now we know its at 160 million shipped.

This isn't a guess or an estimate, this is being said by someone who has access to the numbers. There's very little reason to doubt it.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Huh? Nintendo isn't immune from long development cycles either. That's why Switch had to rely so heavily on Wii U ports initially and for several years after too.

There is a difference between choice and necessity, however. Nintendo knew not to repeat the mistakes of the Wii U, so, they have been micromanaging release schedules throughout the life of the Switch. At least the Wii U ports were new to most, they weren't exactly cheap remakes of best sellers.

Why announce this now. Seems odd and a little desperate.

Maybe they are trying to get the highest number out before they get eclipsed by the Switch.
 
Last edited:

SirTerry-T

Member
There were some great great games on the PS2 but having owned one after owning a Dreamcast, the shitty image quality on the Sony machine took some getting used to. Personally, I think the PS2 slim was the best designed console Sony ever produced, at least aesthetically.
 

yurinka

Member
They didn't leave the home console market, they just needed to find a way to appeal to the both the home console and portable markets with one software ecosystem (since it was no longer feasible to support two seperate ecosystems).

Home console experiences sell well on Switch, so its clearly still appealing to that market.
I think Nintendo did a very smart move.

The figures we had from Sony was that PS2 was over 155 million shipped. Now we know its at 160 million shipped.


This isn't a guess or an estimate, this is being said by someone who has access to the numbers. There's very little reason to doubt it.
Yes. Specially knowing the "more than 155M units shipped" is from almost a year before discontinuing the console. 160M makes total sense, and for sure, if someone knows the data is their CEO, who also was in charge of the region where they did a better job with it.

There is zero chance the PS5 gets to 160 million sold. It was at 50 million sold last December, and with it being another 4 years until the PS6 likely launches (at which point PS5 sales will nosedive) it would need to do 27.5 million each year to get to that. Even assuming another year in the console generation that is still 22 million per year.

PS4 and Xbox One combined were at 175 million, Even assuming Xbox stops producing hardware entirely I highly doubt that means another +58 million to the number of PlayStations sold. Obviously a large chunk of that Xbox owners probably already owned a PlayStation, while others will migrate to PC or Nintendo.

Maybe the PS6 can do it assuming no next Xbox. But unlikely in a market that has not grown its userbase in two decades.
PS5 is pretty close to be the fastest selling console ever, Xbox is dying, there's a giant PS4 userbase who still didn't jump to PS5 because still are eating good there and around half of the PS5 units sold are to new users, meaning they are enlarging the userbase, something can be seen in their record active userbase (123M MAU).

They are getting new fans from movies, tv shows or PC gaming, stuff they use to grow in markets where weren't that strong with PS, also partnering with devs from these countries (as is the case of Stellar Blade). They are have been working to highly grow all these areas, with many projects in the works in these areas (plus also a record number in the traditional ones) that should be released in the next few years.

You also have to remember that PS consoles don't stop selling when the next one gets released, they keep alive for over 10 years. 13 years in case of PS2. In case of PS4, 11 and counting, probably 12 years.

It is possible. Very difficult specially because with hardware costs rising apparently can't price cut it, but possible.
 
Last edited:
iu

Which of the launch titles did you get? I got Timesplitters and SSX
 

Deerock71

Member
Would be interesting to know how much they sold until the generational switch to PS3 cause the PS2 sold great numbers in emerging markets long after the west switched to a new generation. Kinda seems like it's the only console to have ever done that at that scale.

Edit:
Oh, apparently by fiscal year end 2007 (post PS3 release) it had sold about 118 million units. About 7 years after PS2 release. PS2 sold beastly up until 2011 it seems, being on the market for 11 years. Technically time over time then the Switch is more successful I suppose.
Let's also recall the PS2 was $99 for ages, and the Switch hasn't had a price cut that hasn't involved the yen/euro exchange fluctuation yet. If anything, the advent of the OLED Switch spurred a price increase.
 

Mozza

Member
They didn't leave the home console market, they just needed to find a way to appeal to the both the home console and portable markets with one software ecosystem (since it was no longer feasible to support two seperate ecosystems).

Home console experiences sell well on Switch, so its clearly still appealing to that market.

The figures we had from Sony was that PS2 was over 155 million shipped. Now we know its at 160 million shipped.

This isn't a guess or an estimate, this is being said by someone who has access to the numbers. There's very little reason to doubt it.
A little bit late in the day to be giving figures of a console that is three generations old, and exactly 160 million, as you say no real reason to doubt these figures, but the timing is a little strange.
 
Last edited:

Xaeroxcore666

Neo Member
I dont know....Doesnt seem strange they dropping this humbers just now and not anytime during 11 years? Just when Switch is getting closer and closer to PS2? Suspicious...Are really Sony numbers transparent? And this is coming from someone who has PS from 1 to 5....

Dreamcast is half of GC. Not bad, just needed another half to not be an utter failure.

Dreamcast sold almost half what GC sold in just 2 years and 4 months of lifespan (and just around year in a half in the west) vs 7 years of GCN lifespan....Aaaand, had a library of very influential games til this day!
 
From InstallBase:

By giving the final PS2 numbers, Jim Ryan has also basically given the final PS Vita number:

Cumulative worldwide sell-through of overall PlayStation hardware as of July 22 2018
  • PlayStation®: 102.49M
  • PlayStation®2: 160M
  • PSP® (PlayStation®Portable): 82.52M
  • PlayStation®Vita: 11.5M
  • PlayStation®3: 87.4M
  • PlayStation®4: 81.2M
Total give 525.11M while Sony give 525.3M in the PR so this is close enough.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Introduces “PlayStation®4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition”

August 9, 2018 – Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) today announced that it will introduce a specially designed PlayStation®4 Pro (PS4™Pro) “PlayStation®4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition” (HDD 2TB) from August 24, 2018, and will be available at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of 49,980...
sonyinteractive.com
sonyinteractive.com

Given it's sell-trough and not sell-in and that PS Vita was not yet discountuned, PS Vita final number is slighty over that so the best number to keep would be ~12M (1.5M less than Wii U).

And since PS Vita was the last hardware with missing LTD here we are:

Cumulative Worldwide Hardware Unit Sales (Sell-in)
  • PlayStation®: 102.49M (As of March 31, 2012)
  • PlayStation®2: 160M (As of March 31, 2013)
  • PSP® (PlayStation®Portable): 82.52M (As of March 31, 2015)
  • PlayStation®3: More than 87.4M (As of March 31, 2017)
  • PlayStation®Vita: 12M (As of March 31, 2019)
  • PlayStation®4: More than 117M (As of June 30, 2022)
  • PlayStation®5: More than 54.8M (As of Dec 31, 2023)
Sony have sold more than 613M consoles as of Dec 31, 2023.


So it seems that previous analyst estimate's for PS Vita were way off, final shipments likely between 12 and 12.5 million.
 
Last edited:

Mozza

Member
The GOAT consol

From InstallBase:

By giving the final PS2 numbers, Jim Ryan also give the final PS Vita number:

Cumulative worldwide sell-through of overall PlayStation hardware as of July 22 2018
  • PlayStation®: 102.49M
  • PlayStation®2: 160M
  • PSP® (PlayStation®Portable): 82.52M
  • PlayStation®Vita: 11.5M
  • PlayStation®3: 87.4M
  • PlayStation®4: 81.2M
Total give 525.11M while Sony give 525.3M in the PR so this is close enough.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Introduces “PlayStation®4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition”

August 9, 2018 – Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) today announced that it will introduce a specially designed PlayStation®4 Pro (PS4™Pro) “PlayStation®4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition” (HDD 2TB) from August 24, 2018, and will be available at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of 49,980...
sonyinteractive.com
sonyinteractive.com

Given it's sell-trough and not sell-in and that PS Vita was not yet discountuned, PS Vita final number is slighty over that so the best number to kept would be ~12M (2M less than Wii U basicly).

And since PS Vita was the last hardware with missing LTD here we are:

Cumulative Worldwide Hardware Unit Sales (Sell-in)
  • PlayStation®: 102.49M (As of March 31, 2012)
  • PlayStation®2: 160M (As of March 31, 2013)
  • PSP® (PlayStation®Portable): 82.52M (As of March 31, 2015)
  • PlayStation®3: More than 87.4M (As of March 31, 2017)
  • PlayStation®Vita: 12M (As of March 31, 2019)
  • PlayStation®4: More than 117M (As of June 30, 2022)
  • PlayStation®5: More than 51.8M (As of Dec 31, 2023)
Sony have sold more than 613M consoles as of Dec 31, 2023.


So it seems that previous analyst estimate's for PS Vita were way off, final shipments likely between 12 and 12.5 million.
So based on this new information can the Switch overtake the PS2?, I suppose a lot will depend on when the Switch 2 is announced, or of course, released. I was always leaning to mid to late 2025, so who knows.
 
Last edited:

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
From InstallBase:

By giving the final PS2 numbers, Jim Ryan also give the final PS Vita number:

Cumulative worldwide sell-through of overall PlayStation hardware as of July 22 2018
  • PlayStation®: 102.49M
  • PlayStation®2: 160M
  • PSP® (PlayStation®Portable): 82.52M
  • PlayStation®Vita: 11.5M
  • PlayStation®3: 87.4M
  • PlayStation®4: 81.2M
You know what’s funny?
If we were to judge these numbers the way some people judge Switch numbers compared to Wii+DS numbers, every Sony system after PS2 would be a MASSIVE FAILURE™️



Oh yeah, another reason for the system’s unparalleled sales: its ridiculous production timespan.
PS2 was on the market for thirteen years, and remained a compelling gaming product even when tech moved on with Gen 7… all the way to Gen 8. PS4 had already been announced when PS2 ceased production, launching a mere 8 months later!

PS2 got FIFA 14. WiiU didn’t. Let that sink in.
 
So based on this new information can the Switch overtake the PS2?, I suppose a lot will depend on when the Switch 2 is announced, or of course, released. I was always leaning to mid to late 2025, so who knows.
Nothing much has changed, i already had it at just under 159 million so an extra million won't make much difference. It should still overtake PS2 in both hardware and software. PS2 software is officially 1537 million versus 1200 million for Switch, so only 337 million behind without permanent price cuts to 1st party software and the Switch Eshop will be up probably for another 8 to 10 years (Wii U Eshop ended in 2023 which is 6 years after it was discontinued).
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
You know what’s funny?
If we were to judge these numbers the way some people judge Switch numbers compared to Wii+DS numbers, every Sony system after PS2 would be a MASSIVE FAILURE™️
They weren't failures, Xbox took marketshare as they were competing for the same demographic.
But it's clear to see that Playstation started crushing Xbox after the PS3/X360 gen.

Playstation 2 was pretty much unchallenged, because Nintendo doesn't really offer any competition as far as traditional consoles go.
 

Fahdis

Member
For a bit of fun, a lot of people don't realize that PS2 was out in Japan in early 2000, and it had fuck all of games that year.
Heck, you even had journalists criticizing and mocking Sony's first-party games on the console in that period as they were few, and mostly sucked in comparison to SEGA and Nintendo's efforts.

That's ok. All that was needed was Tekken Tag anyways.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
They weren't failures, Xbox took marketshare as they were competing for the same demographic.
But it's clear to see that Playstation started crushing Xbox after the PS3/X360 gen.

Playstation 2 was pretty much unchallenged, because Nintendo doesn't really offer any competition as far as traditional consoles go.
Of course they weren’t failures.

But I’m sure you’re aware of a bunch of funny ones who keep saying that if Nintendo sold 154 million DSs plus 110 million Wiis, then Switch is an utter failure because, conflating Nintendo’s home and handheld offer, it should naturally sell 200+ million.
So what do these funny people think of PlayStation literally halving sales after the PS2? I ain’t hearing nobody saying Sony is doomed.
 
Of course they weren’t failures.

But I’m sure you’re aware of a bunch of funny ones who keep saying that if Nintendo sold 154 million DSs plus 110 million Wiis, then Switch is an utter failure because, conflating Nintendo’s home and handheld offer, it should naturally sell 200+ million.
So what do these funny people think of PlayStation literally halving sales after the PS2? I ain’t hearing nobody saying Sony is doomed.
Where you around during PS3? Everyone was saying Sony was doomed.
 

Woopah

Member
A little bit late in the day to be giving figures of a console that is three generations old, and exactly 160 million, as you say no real reason to doubt these figures, but the timing is a little strange.
Its a 10 second part of an hour long podcast. I don't think Sony put this whole podcast together just to announce this new number.
Why announce this now. Seems odd and a little desperate.
Lol, desperate PR at its best 😂… 155 Million is the record Jim.
Us getting sales information is a good thing no? There's nothing desperate about this at all.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
In a year we will find out it was 165 million.

Seriously though. Ps2 was the goat console, and the slim was something else. I remember buying my slim with San Andreas and thinking it was the best designed console I'd ever seen. I loved my og ps2 but that slim was something else. Sure, it had a small power brick. But it was incredible.
 
In a year we will find out it was 165 million.

Seriously though. Ps2 was the goat console, and the slim was something else. I remember buying my slim with San Andreas and thinking it was the best designed console I'd ever seen. I loved my og ps2 but that slim was something else. Sure, it had a small power brick. But it was incredible.

I don't know why your mad at this. Its fine the PS2 did well. That's all you need to know.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Of course they weren’t failures.

But I’m sure you’re aware of a bunch of funny ones who keep saying that if Nintendo sold 154 million DSs plus 110 million Wiis, then Switch is an utter failure because, conflating Nintendo’s home and handheld offer, it should naturally sell 200+ million.
So what do these funny people think of PlayStation literally halving sales after the PS2? I ain’t hearing nobody saying Sony is doomed.
Must have missed that. That would be a dumb statement. How is Switch a failure?
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I don't know why your mad at this. Its fine the PS2 did well. That's all you need to know.

Haha, I'm not mad in the slightest. I just find it funny the numbers changed on a console that's 3 generations old. The timing is sublime and no one can deny that.

Coming from someone who doesn't even like old consoles or previous gen games makes it even sweeter.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Haha, I'm not mad in the slightest. I just find it funny the numbers changed on a console that's 3 generations old. The timing is sublime and no one can deny that.

Coming from someone who doesn't even like old consoles or previous gen games makes it even sweeter.
What "timing"?
 
Haha, I'm not mad in the slightest. I just find it funny the numbers changed on a console that's 3 generations old. The timing is sublime and no one can deny that.

Coming from someone who doesn't even like old consoles or previous gen games makes it even sweeter.

No they are not faking their numbers. That's what people who are bothered by this would say.

Now unless you got proof I suggest you tuck your tail between your legs and run away.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
No they are not faking their numbers. That's what people who are bothered by this would say.

Now unless you got proof I suggest you tuck your tail between your legs and run away.

What are you babbling on about. Tuck your tail...lol....is this the kind of thing you do? Are you going to feel upset when the switch outsells the ps2 in less years?

It's sales numbers, it doesn't matter. If you owned a ps2 and loved it, like I did....there's no reason to be upset about anyone laughing at Jim "I don't like old games" preaching about the ps2.

If it sold 155, mill or 160 mill, they produced 160 so it obviously sold 160 I guess. It was always touted as being at 155 mill for years. That's the number we would always see. Now the facts are being felt to be shared I guess.
 
Last edited:
Sort of like how the PS2's secret disguise was that of a DVD player that also played games?
This is a myth, this is the software tie ratio (games sold per console) of PS2 compared to PS1, PS3, PS4, Switch and Nintendo's console with their highest tie ratio which is Wii.

Hardware/ Software/ Tie Ratio

PS1: 102.49m/ 962m - 9.39
PS2: 160m/ 1.537b - 9.61
PS3: 87.4m/ 999m - 11.43
PS4: 117.2m/ *1.5b - 12.79
NSW: 139.36m/ 1.2b - 8.61
Wii: 101.63m/ 921.85m - 9.07

* PS4 software at 1.5b in late 2020 before Sony combined quarterly software totals with PS5, total now is probably around 1.8b. PS4 includes "digital only" software and Switch does not, digital only software would probably bump Switch's tie ratio up to about 9.5.
 
Last edited:

Woopah

Member
This is a myth, this is the software tie ratio (games sold per console) of PS2 compared to PS1, PS3, PS4, Switch and Nintendo's console with their highest tie ratio which is Wii.

Hardware/ Software/ Tie Ratio

PS1: 102.49m/ 962m - 9.39
PS2: 160m/ 1.537b - 9.61
PS3: 87.4m/ 999m - 11.43
PS4: 117.2m/ *1.5b - 12.79
NSW: 139.36m/ 1.2b - 8.61
Wii: 101.63m/ 921.85m - 9.07

* PS4 software at 1.5b in late 2020 before Sony combined quarterly software totals with PS5, total now is probably around 1.8b. PS4 includes "digital only" software and Switch does not, digital only software would probably bump Switch's tie ratio up to about 9.5.
What do you reckon Switch's total software would be with digital only included?
 

REDRZA MWS

Member
Final PS2 numbers days before he retires? God bless him.
Was just gonna say this….. the PS2 went WELL over 200M. It was a phenomenon. The PS2, and Xbox 360 (and going way back Sega Genesis) were for me, the best ever.

PS- Goes without saying NES, and Super NES are there too. After that for me other Ocarina of time and Mario 64 I haven’t touched Nintendo since)
 
Top Bottom