Nintendo’s Swap is likely to be nipping at its heels, however PlayStation 2 continues to carry the report because the best-selling console of all time – with Sony now confirming the machine has shifted a whopping 160m items since launching all the way in which again in March 2000.
This is not the primary time we have heard that determine, in fact; former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan casually claimed a complete of 160m PlayStation 2s had been bought throughout a farewell version of PlayStation Podcast earlier this 12 months, however Sony has now up to date its PlayStation historical past web page to mirror that quantity, lastly making it formally official.
PlayStation 2’s final main gross sales milestone was trumpeted again in 2011, when Sony revealed the console had surpassed 150m gross sales – though it solely took one other 12 months for that quantity to leap up by an extra 5m. So whereas gross sales have undoubtedly slowed – not precisely shocking seeing as Sony hasn’t produced a PS2 since January 2013 – the very fact the console has efficiently managed to shift one other 5m items within the interim continues to be fairly wild.
To place that into some type of perspective, PlayStation 5 is at the moment at 65m lifetime gross sales, whereas PS4 has bought 117m items, PS3 is on the 87m mark, and PS1 was snapped up by 102m Vib-Ribbon followers. Nintendo’s DS handheld virtually got here near matching PS2’s beforehand introduced determine, shifting 154m items, nevertheless it now trails someway behind. As for Swap (at the moment at 146m gross sales), it might nonetheless reign victorious if Swap 2 would not get in its means.
For all this aggressive chatter, 160m PS2s bought continues to be a powerful achievement, and you’ll learn extra concerning the console’s success elsewhere on Eurogamer. It isn’t Sony’s solely trigger for celebration, in fact, given your entire PlayStation model is marking its thirtieth anniversary in precisely one week’s time. And all this due to a falling out with Nintendo.
