Talk:List of best-selling game consoles#rfc A9F7A66

News just-coming out today that PS5 sales are now at 77.8 million.

Sources (not sure which are trusted for Wikipedia):

https://www.eurogamer.net/ps5-lifetime-sales-on-par-with-ps4-but-sony-relying-on-third-party-game-success

https://www.techspot.com/news/107917-sony-ps5-sales-hit-778-million-units-almost.html

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nearly-5-years-in-ps5-sales-remain-neck-and-neck-with-ps4/

Can someone with editing-rights update? Thanks 19:50, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Why does the article's lead focus on the history of gaming consoles as a whole? I get that additional context should be added to readers unfamiliar with them, but I'd expect more commentary on the best-selling consoles themselves, like a brief history on their evolution sales-wise. As in, how the PS2 is the current best-selling one, the Atari 2600 being the best-selling console of its generation, the NES holding the record until the PlayStation, and how the PS1 became the first to reach 100 million, etc. If I offered an official suggestion, I'd surmise something like this:

:*P1: The best-selling home console and handheld console

:*P2: Brief explanations on handheld, home and dedicated consoles (akin to lead currently)

:*P3: History of best-selling home consoles + best-selling handhelds

:*P4: Historical milestones (first to reach 10 million, 20 million, 50, 100, etc.)

:*P5: Best-selling per generation(?)

I'd edit this directly, but I'd prefer to gain some consensus and also allow editors to find sources for these if possible. Thanks, PantheonRadiance (talk) 22:30, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

:I agree with the concerns. I was reviewing it once in recent memory, and was going to tweak it. But the more I read, the more I wanted to rework almost all of it, and I wasnt ready to do a complete rewrite, so I didn't end up messing with it. Sergecross73 msg me 23:07, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

::Fair enough, I think it would be good to refrain from changing it until a solid layout is found that works. Admittedly I'm trying to find extra sources from a historical standpoint (akin to highest-grossing films), but besides [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secrets_of_Video_Game_Consoles/a4B8EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 this], I've come up a bit short. PantheonRadiance (talk) 23:15, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

:::Therein lay the rub, that to add material analyzing the figures, we need sources analyzing the figures or we run into a WP:SYNTH issue. I'm sure such sources could be found; any industry as large as video games is going to have discussion about sales and other financial metrics even from non-specialist sources. But we need to find them first and report what they say. oknazevad (talk) 23:58, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

::::Yep, definitely. I'll try to find more sources within the next week or so and compile them here. If anyone else is interested, feel free to find more too. PantheonRadiance (talk) 06:00, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

:Giving my tuppence; I like p1, p2 & p3, I am not keen on arbitrary milestones, or the best selling generation. I feel that is too basic and lacking the nuance that occurred when Atari appeared which was a cultural shift and everyone played games then, pub culture added to it as did arcade culture, then games became for children mostly and then games swung back to include adults moving into the noughties. So the possible market (in relation to £ to other entertainments) shrank as more units were shifted, plus the world population has more than doubled since Atari got here and now here are markets worldwide. Halbared (talk) 08:30, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

:Best selling each generation is covered at History of video game consoles, which is broken down by generation. Though a sortable column here indicating of which generation each console is part would be a solid addition. oknazevad (talk) 17:26, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

On November 26, 2024, Sony announced that total sales of the PlayStation 2 had reached 160 million units.( https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/playstation-history/2000-ps2-psp/ )As of March 31, 2012, sales were 155 million units, which means that 5 million PlayStation 2 units were sold in fiscal 2012. However, that's not possible, because PlayStation 2 sold 4.1 million units in fiscal year 2011, ( https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/11q4_sonypre.pdf ) but 5 million units in fiscal year 2012, exceeding the previous year. And this site (https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/) states that as of March 31, 2012, the figure was 160 million units. There is other conclusive evidence that it is not 160 million.

• This site (https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/playstation-history/2000-ps2-psp/) lists the sales figures for the dates listed in the business history (https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/).
• Even if the 160 million units figure was real, there's no way a large company could get the date (March 31, 2012) wrong.
• The final cumulative sales figures for the PlayStation 3 were announced on April 26, 2019, about two years after production ended, so it seems strange that we had to wait about 12 years to announce the final cumulative sales figures for the PlayStation 2.
• It's strange that they haven't updated the numbers on this site (https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/) even though they announced 80 million units of PlayStation Portable.
• It's strange that the number of PlayStation 2 software sales hasn't been updated.

240D:F:2074:4B00:FC0F:5C4B:437A:C7BD (talk) 06:52, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

:The plot thickens... Halbared (talk) 09:41, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

:True kind of like how Nintendo life and Nintendo in general have the release date of the Super Nintendo as August 19, 1991. Yet on here it's still August 23, 1991 , I guess some editors like to pick and choose which sources stay and which ones go. The whole thing is confusing though.  2601:3C5:8180:31D0:2D9E:3981:126D:2327 (talk) 02:32, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

::What does that have to do anything? What would there be to gain by altering a release date by four days? Sergecross73 msg me 02:37, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

:::Because dates and sales should be accurate on Wikipedia... 2601:3C5:8180:31D0:2D9E:3981:126D:2327 (talk) 09:18, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

::::I was looking at this page (http://xn--engadget-433ghh7eov.com/2012-12-28-playstation-2-discontinued-in-japan.html) and I thought, it says that PS2 sales are declining, right? Since it was 4.1 million units in 2011, doesn't that mean that it's less than 4 million units in 2012? If so, it should be 159 million units. 240D:F:2074:4B00:E92D:1DA8:989F:340A (talk) 05:14, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

:I agree with bringing the salesnumber back to 155 million. Sony produced 160 million PS2's, not sold.

:Think of all the consoles used as replacements, used for parts, used for promotional purposes and demos and leftover stock. There's just no way Sony sold every single PS2 they produced. Luckyvonstreetz (talk) 14:37, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

There are two GameSpot sources that X's posts confirmed the exact final units ever produced for PS2 (160.63 million units: 160,636,885), PS3 (88.15 million units: 88,159,116) and PSP (82.52 million units: 82,523,607) before being discontinued.

PS2 and PSP: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/heres-how-many-ps2s-sony-made-in-its-lifetime/1100-6528175/

PS3: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-finally-know-how-many-ps3-consoles-were-ever-made/1100-6527533/

Wodavoy356 (talk) 22:35, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

:I believe these have already been presented and rejected in the past. Many are showing "units produced", not "units ''sold'". Sergecross73 msg me 00:04, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

::Ah, yes, production numbers and sales numbers are completely different things. Production numbers refer to the number of systems produced, while sales numbers refer to the number of systems shipped to stores. 240D:F:2074:4B00:4041:AB0B:78ED:7722 (talk) 03:46, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

:Hence the 155 million sales figures. 5 million less because of all the returns, replacements under warranty, units discarded after inspection, units lost/accidentally damaged.. the list goes on. The 160 million figure is simply propaganda WOWLWOWL 22:01, 10 May 2025 (UTC)