Nintendo Switch Outsells PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in February

The monthly numbers on console sales are in, and all three current-generation consoles are killing it. It’s been a record February in terms of console sales, though given how close it is to the launch of two new consoles, maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise. All three of the consoles are selling well, but the Nintendo Switch’s better supply helps put its sales at the top of the list.

The report comes from NPD Group, and the findings were tweeted by researcher Mat Piscatella. The best-selling game was Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, followed closely by Black Ops: Cold War. Other new games that made the best-sellers list were Little Nightmares II and Persona 5: Strikers. Video game spending, in general, hit a February record of $4.6 billion, 35% higher than February 2020.

Spending on video game hardware was also high, having increased 121% from last February, which is probably typical given we’re only a few months from a next-generation console launch. The winner — if we can call it that — for February was the Nintendo Switch, which was the best-selling unit of the month in both the number of consoles sold and in dollar amount. In fact, according to Piscatella, the Switch is now Nintendo’s second-best-selling console of all time, lagging behind only the Wii in numbers.

The PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S are all selling like hotcakes. Their bigger price tags are likely what’s keeping them in competition with the Switch, despite having much less inventory. Piscatella added in a follow-up tweet, “If a next-generation platform didn’t set a particular record it’s possibly because not enough units could get made.” The PS5 is the fastest-selling hardware platform in US history, according to Piscatella. Things will really start to get interesting when we compare March sales, as March 2020 was when the pandemic began to have an effect.

Source: NPD Group/Mat Piscatella