Video Games

Sony updated the PS2 sales, confirming the numbers Jim Ryan gave earlier this year

Former PlayStation chief vindicated

Marco Wutz

Sony

Sony has updated the overall sales figures of the PlayStation 2, stating that the console sold over 160 million units over the course of its lifetime. This is not entirely new information, since former Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) chief Jim Ryan, who retired from this post earlier this year, mentioned this number before his departure – but people didn’t really believe him back then.

When Ryan made these comments, Sony hadn’t updated the sales numbers publicly yet, which made people question the accuracy of what the departing chief said, believing he was talking up the accomplishments of his tenure a little bit. Turns out, Ryan simply knew something the public hadn’t yet been told.

With this updated number, the PS2 will be that much more difficult to dethrone from its position as the best-selling console of all time. The Nintendo DS, which is currently ranked second with 154 million units, and the Nintendo Switch, which is ranked third with 146 million units, kept on creeping closer to the PS2 in recent years and looked poised to overtake it relatively soon.

Nintendo’s GameBoy in all its variations sold 118 million units, closely followed by the PS4 – this is very likely the next position swap we’ll see on this list. Half of the ten best-selling consoles are from Nintendo with the Wii ranking at seventh and the GameBoy Advance at tenth position.

Sony has two other entries into the top ten list with the original PlayStation on sixth and the PS3 on eighth.

Microsoft’s lone representative is the Xbox 360 with 84 million units sold, which is only enough to rank it ninth.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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