As we recalled in this article, the finest analysts like Daniel Ahmad had already reached the conclusion for years that the final sales figure of the PS2 was closer to 160 million than to the 155 million mentioned in public records. of the manufacturer. Jim Ryan then gave weight to this study in a final interview before retiring, but it was the first time that a Sony representative revealed this figure. From now on, the ambiguity is resolved since the PlayStation anniversary site, which offers a nice retrospective of the highlights of each machine of the brand, confirms that the console with the DVD player exceeded 160 million between its release in 2000 and the end of its production, early 2013.
The official PlayStation page now confirms the PS2 has sold over 160 million units. Something I had already calculated 10 years ago.
We still don’t have an exact figure, but this is an update over the previous 155m figure from 2012.
www.playstation.com/en-gb/playst…
— Daniel Ahmad (@zhugeex.com)2024-11-26T19:27:04.990Z
DVD player, backward compatibility, online gaming, general public accessories (Buzz buzzers, SingStar microphones, Guitar Hero guitar, EyeToy camera), but above all a catalog of colossal depth will have allowed the console to fly its time like no other machine had done in the history of video games. Mat Piscatella from Circana responded to the information by citing his estimates which bring the number of PS2s sold in the United States to 46.6 million, or 29% of the total.
Funny detail, we can read on the Sony website that the PS2 is “ one of the best-selling consoles of all time », a formulation whose caution is welcome at a time when the Switch is getting ever closer to this symbolic record, with 146 million machines distributed worldwide as of September 30, 2024. However, we refer you to our article which explains in what it is not easy to compare between two generations so far apart and how the Switch has already surpassed the PS2 on many other criteria just as important as the installed base alone.
- Also read | Japan: PS2 enters National Museum of Nature and Science as “essential historical device”
