Sony Says its PlayStation 2 Crossed 160 Million Lifetime Sales

Sony announced this week that its PlayStation 2 console, which was already the best-selling console of all time, has crossed 160 million sales since its release in 2000. Sony stopped manufacturing the PS2 in January 2013, two years after the company announced that the console had sold sold 150 million units.

As noted by Eurogamer, Jim Ryan, the former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment previously announced this 160 million PS2 lifetime sales number during a March 2024 episode of the official PlayStation Podcast. However, Sony has now made it official on its PlayStation history page as the company is currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of the PlayStation brand.

The list of best-selling consoles of all time is completed by the Nintendo DS in second position with 154.02 million units. The Nintendo Switch is closing the podium with 146.04 million units. In its latest quarterly earnings report, Nintendo said that Switch sales should reach over 158 million units by the end of March 2025, and the company is expected to reveal its Switch successor before the end of that month.

While the Switch is already guaranteed to become the best-selling Nintendo console ever, the company may want to keep it in market longer so it can steal the top spot from Sony’s PlayStation 2. Nintendo already announced that Switch games will be playable on its next console, and the company may want to keep manufacturing the console originally released in March 2017 as a low-cost alternative to its upcoming successor.

As for Sony’s latest console, the PlayStation 5, it recently crossed 65 million units sold since its release four years ago. While it’s highly unlikely that the PS5 will reach the heights of the PlayStation 2, it could still beat the PlayStation 4, which sold 117.2 million units as of March 2022.