PS4 Was The Best Selling Console of 2018 At 18M Sold Compared To 17.5M Shipped For Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch sales were recently disclosed by Nintendo and they have shipped 17.5 million consoles in 2018. While this is an impressive number, it doesn’t beat the PS4 which was last reported as 18 million sold to customers.

Nintendo has always reported the sales number of their console as shipped instead of sold through to customers. This is a direct contrast to Sony who reports their console as sold to customers in fiscal reports.

PS4 vs. Nintendo Switch Console Sales Showdown In 2018

Back in early 2018, Sony reported that they had sold through 73.6 million consoles by the end of 2017. Early this year, they reported a figure of 91.6 million consoles again with a sold through quantity which is separate from the shipped number. If we use simple math, the cumulative sales that we get are 18 million in 2018.

Today, Nintendo reported that they have shipped 14.49 million consoles from April 2018 until the end of the year. They shipped 2.93 million consoles from January 2018 to March 2018. The cumulative total for the whole year thus ends up at 17.42 million shipped for the Nintendo Switch.

PS4 is in its 5th year on the market. It launched in Holiday 2013 and has continued to do well for Sony Interactive Entertainment. It received some great exclusives last year with God of War, Detroit Become Human and Marvel’s Spider-Man all doing exceptionally well for the company.

Nintendo Switch was not far behind in software sales and had big hits like Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Super Mario Party to keep the momentum going for the Nintendo Switch hardware. It was in its second year but coming off from failure with the Nintendo Wii U. It is doing exceptionally well but it is clear that Sony Interactive Entertainment’s PS4 is the market leader right now and should do well heading into 2019.