2017 Sales – PlayStation 4 is good, but Nintendo Switch is sorry

January is a very suitable month to look back on all the ups and downs of the previous year. With own Nintendo Switchin the Japanese market, throughout 2017, the two words “up and down” seemed to have only the word “up” as the right word.
​

Released in early 2017, the device Console Nintendo’s house immediately received a warm reception in its home market. Not only that, the love that the Japanese have for its eldest brother is Nintendo 3DS There doesn’t seem to be any sign of stopping either. Obviously, this is a year on both the success of Nintendo in particular and the Switch in general.
​

Notice of sold out at Nintendo Switch counters last week (完売 means sold out)​

So, how successful has the Switch been? For a more intuitive look, let’s compare it with PS4, another console that is also very popular in Japan. Obviously, not comparing doesn’t hurt. And this time, the one who got hurt was of course the family child Sony.

In Japan, the Nintendo Switch sold 3.4 million units in 2017. What about the PlayStation 4? In the first year this machine was released, Sony sold 920 thousand units. Not bad, but still can’t compare with “people’s children”. For a better look, look at Switch and PlayStation 4 sales for the first 44 weeks (the means “week”)
​

​

To keep the PlayStation 4 from feeling alone, here’s a chart where the Switch and 3DS compare to other consoles.
​

​

The chart starts with 発売, which means “start selling”. 1年後 means “1 year later”, 2年後 means “2 years later”, and so on. In addition, the letter 万 is equivalent to 10,000 (1 thousand). If the Switch, because it has just been born, cannot be compared with the veterans in terms of total sales, then its brother 3DS is really a giant when standing next to other Console machines.

Here’s a chart similar to the one above, but sorted by year.
​

Obviously, if in 2017 alone, Sony’s PS4 has sold nearly 2 million units, a number that is not bad for a console that has been 3 years old. However, this number is still a bit “underdog” when compared to Nintendo Switch’s 3.4 million units. Obviously, in the following years, if nothing changes, Sony’s PS4 will very quickly be overtaken by the Switch in terms of total sales. Perhaps, until then, the race on the best-selling chart will only be a “civil war” between the two Nintendo children.

​