The Switch 2 Is Outselling Almost Everything in History While PS5 Just Had Its Worst May in 26 Years
2026-06-20
“Nintendo grew the entire US hardware market by itself while Sony and Microsoft fought over the scraps they no longer have.”
The Switch 2 is the second fastest selling console in US history, roughly 5.9 million units stateside in year one, behind only the Game Boy Advance, with about 19.86 million shipped worldwide. Nintendo did this by making a cheerful plastic box that plays good games, a strategy so radical its competitors apparently could not copy it.
Meanwhile Sony posted its worst May for PS5 hardware in 26 years, units down 58 percent and spend down 43 percent year over year. Xbox managed its worst May ever, units off 12 percent, which at this point is almost an achievement in consistency. Total US hardware spend still rose 38 percent, and essentially all of that growth wore a red logo.
The lesson is brutal and simple. When you ship a desirable product at a sane price, people line up. When you spend a generation confusing your customers about what your console even is, they wander off to the company that just makes the fun thing. Nintendo is not beating you. It is playing a different sport.
- Switch 2 is the second fastest selling video game hardware in US history, about 5.9M US units in year one, behind the Game Boy Advance's 6.5M.
- Nintendo reported 19.86M Switch 2 units shipped globally in its FY2026 results.
- PS5 had its worst May for hardware units in 26 years, units down 58 percent and spend down 43 percent year over year.
- Xbox Series had its worst May ever, with units down 12 percent.
- Overall US hardware spend rose 38 percent to $249M year over year, almost entirely driven by Switch 2.
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Nintendo single handedly grew the whole US hardware market, which proves the demand was never dead, it was just bored. A healthy hardware year lifts the entire industry, developers included, and a dominant Switch 2 gives studios one obvious, profitable place to ship.
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Sony and Microsoft's hardware divisions, simultaneously, in the same month, by the same cheerful competitor. And the entire 'console war' narrative, which is hard to wage when one side simply left the battlefield and took all the customers.
Got something the world should see roasted? Drop it.
A full teardown from €2,99. No mercy.