Best selling game console of all time: where does Nintendo Switch stand?

The battle between game consoles might be a thing of the past, especially in regard to technology. Long gone are the days when the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive) would battle the Super Nintendo with its blast processing capabilities.

Now that all consoles are technologically, more or less, on a similar field, the battle has translated to sales numbers. With the Switch 2 on the horizon, let’s see how the Nintendo Switch stands among the best-selling game consoles of all time.

What are the best selling game consoles of all time?

Here is the complete list of the best-selling game consoles of all time with their sales numbers.

As we can see from the table, the Nintendo Switch is currently the third best-selling game console of all time, behind PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS, along with being the only one still on the market. In December 2024, in the US market, sales of Nintendo Switch (including those of its Lite variant) exceeded those of PlayStation 2. In the American market, Switch is the second best-selling video game hardware of all time, thanks to its 46.6 million units sold, with only the Nintendo DS in front of it.

Further down the rankings, we can see the Game Boy still proudly hanging on in front of PS4 and the original PSX, with the Nintendo Wii also showcasing a very solid 101 million units sold. Since the PlayStation 4 is still on the market, it’ll be interesting to see if it manages to actually sell more than the Game Boy in its lifetime. Could Nintendo Switch sell more than PlayStation 2 and the DS, worldwide? Perhaps with a price slash, to accompany the Switch 2 launch.

The PlayStation 5, as the only other console on the market in this ranking, trails well behind the Switch with less than half the units sold than Nintendo hybrid home/portable console. Will Switch 2 be able to replicate the success of the original console, considering that there are many other competitors in the same market and price range, such as Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X?

Finally, as for the Xbox Series S/X, it hangs behind both the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Genesis in terms of units sold. It will probably not be able to surpass any of them in its lifetime, but perhaps we will be in for a surprise price slash in the following months.