Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
The Nintendo Switch outsold the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in both unit and dollar sales in February after bouncing back from a weaker January, according to NPD’s Mat Piscatella. Last month, the PS5 took the top spot as the US’s best-selling gaming hardware, while the Switch came in behind the Xbox Series X.
The Switch and PS5 have been swapping spots as the number one console ever since the PS5 broke the Switch’s almost three-year streak last October. Its time on top was short-lived, however, as the new Switch OLED boosted the console’s sales, bringing it back to the number one position through November and December 2021. So far in 2022, the Switch has sold the most units, while the PS5 has made the most money.
Of course, the Switch’s on-and-off-again reign has a lot to do with availability. The global chip shortage has made it difficult to find a PS5 and Xbox Series X without paying scalpers’ prices. Meanwhile, the Switch — a now five-year-old console — has become slightly easier to find in stores and online despite Nintendo cutting its production by 20 percent through March 2022. Whenever availability for the Xbox Series X and PS5 improves, it’ll be interesting to see how the Switch’s sales stack up.
As for the best-selling game, Elden Ring took the top slot (if you couldn’t have guessed). What makes this win all the more impressive, though, is that Elden Ring had only been out for four days in the month of February — its sales still managed to top the newly-released Horizon II: Forbidden West and Pokémon Legends: Arceus.