The PS2 has always been the darling of the industry with sales now well over 100 million and it still selling well across the globe, especially in the emerging economies.
However VGChartz has been crunching some numbers and has come up with a surprising situation, the Xbox 360 is selling far better now than the PS2 was at this point in it’s life cycle (In the US).
To be exact the Xbox 360 has sold 11.5 million over the last 12 months and during the same lifecycle of the PS2 it sold 10.2 million.
But the Xbox isn’t the only current gen console that is breaking PS2 records, the Wii is currently 21 months ahead of the curve against the PS3 and while it’s sales are starting to drop now it doesn’t seem likely that it’s going to ever fall behind the sales chart of the PS2.
All these numbers don’t mean that much though with gaming now becoming far more mainstream over the last few years which means the current gen consoles have a much larger base to sell to making all these records that little bit easier to break.
It’s still interesting though.
Source: VGChartz
Last Updated: January 14, 2011
MieLLiePaP
January 14, 2011 at 10:05
and who said Xbox is dead….they still got it 🙂
ALKi
January 14, 2011 at 12:01
That might be true….but the irony’s that PS2 will still share shelfs with Microsoft’s next Xbox”720″
Jacob Zuma
January 14, 2011 at 12:32
I was going to congratulate Microsoft, but then I saw the data comes from VGchartz. You might as well, randomly select numbers from a hat.
Gavin Mannion
January 14, 2011 at 13:40
These numbers have been backed up by official press releases from all the manufacturers so it’s pretty solid. VGChartz are still the most reliable free sales tracking website.
ThorZA
January 14, 2011 at 18:09
Discredited site is discredited!
Official press releases only coincided with the recent 50 million shipped figures for xbox 360, which incidentally VGChartz based on other sales data and not their own. VGChartz is still a fail site, and those that use their site = fail too.
joostin
January 15, 2011 at 23:40
Also, this is just in the USA. Look at worldwide numbers. Why compare a system’s selling power in one nation? Sure the USA thinks everything revolves around them, but only in XBOX country. XBOX is dead in most other nations aside from UK. PS2 is outselling the 360 in freaking Japan. Get a real article.
Aussious
January 14, 2011 at 15:23
Yup Gavin has got a point, you don’t get a more reliable source when it come to gaming sales…I mean wikipedia’s numbers are always outdated a or incomplete at best…Otherwise you compile the figures yourself using various sources!
Aussious
January 14, 2011 at 13:27
Well that’s no suprise considoring its America and its an American product none the less its the most successful game console ever produced in the west..we should all be proud.
lans
January 14, 2011 at 14:39
Did the PS2 have a 500 million dollar advertising campaign in the same period???
did it launch with new hardware and was it featured on the oprah and ellen show???
lets see if the Xbox 360 can continue this trend
all i ever hear in the news is how xbox is thrashing ps3 yet almost every year the ps3 outsells the xbox world wide even in 2010!
wtfrack US media really seems to hate gt5
GT5 sells 5.5 million in november but the media instead reports that gt5 sold 560.5 k in december and was not in the top 10 MULTIPLATFORM CHART?
completely ignoring any positive news
US is XBox land
Rez61
January 14, 2011 at 14:58
Yes this is all a conspiracy against Sony. It is time to wear the foil hats.
Microsoft is trying to integrate the xbox in popular culture that is why it is on the ellen and oprah show. They are spending to make people take notice of their products and given the sales of the Kinect, their advertising is working.
Syth
January 14, 2011 at 15:04
Most of the things may be true lans, but really why do you care? If “everyone” (USA) is trying to discredit the PS3 and Sony, which may or may not be true, the PS3 and Sony is obviously doing something right. Journalist wants hits and nothing brings more hits that a fanboy fight 😀 Have a look at the popularity of the Lazygamer threads.
@ Lazygamer, I’m not saying that people don’t enjoy your site or articles or that you go for sensation, just that sensation obviously sells so you won’t choose to leave a story like this but rather report it and give your own view (which I don’t always agree with 😀 )
About the Xbox360 and PS2 thing: The one is a legend in its own time (PS2) and the other is a really cool console (Xbox 360). So I don’t really think the numbers mean a lot, like Gavin stated.
Now everyone fuck off and have a awesome weekend full of beer, boobs and gaming!
Aussious
January 14, 2011 at 15:08
FYI, no one cares about GT5 in the Americas, thats only in Europe and Japan
Forza rules the Americas…Besides This is the same month Black Ops did like 7 Million first day,which is a far more impressive feat.
ThorZA
January 14, 2011 at 18:07
No one cares about the xbox outside of the US. Look at gamers in SA, how few actually care about the 360. Those that do are either software pirates, retarded or on lazygamer (or all three).
How many games were sold for the xbox 360 last year (from take2, kalahari, look and listen, musica etc.)? So few that in all cases, the PS3, PC and Wii dominated.
Face it, xbox 360 = fail! As for it being awesome in the US, fuck the US, who cares about those obese assholes?
Aussious
January 15, 2011 at 08:15
= FAIL to whom you? The only time the Xbox would have failed in SA is if retailers stop stocking and selling it, All those stores you mentioned above still stock XBox games in huge quantities, and even gaming centric stores such as Zapps and BT have huge 360 quantities in stock…And the insults real mature of guy, what are you like 12? Synth is right I need me some beer boobs and gaming…
Kohana
January 16, 2011 at 01:34
hahaha! No one in the US cares about GT5? Oh, how seriously wrong you are! It just happens to be that Forza can play like an arcade racer AND a sim, so it draws in a lot of people and I agree, it’s a great game. But I also like GT5, and see plenty of Americans playing GT5 on my friends list when I go online with my PS3. I’ve had more than one friend IM me saying they are completely obsessed with GT5…
lans
January 16, 2011 at 20:32
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Aussious
January 17, 2011 at 09:41
Well sales wise Forza rules the roost in the Americas, GT still has a following but GT5 sales are a third of what previous installements were in the series in that region,in the EMEAA region on the other hand the sales have grown sinificantly,Japan not so much besides the Wii and the DS nothing seems to sell in Japan the 360 in literally dead there and the PS3 isn’t doing that well either.
lans
January 17, 2011 at 10:19
Aussious stop spouting crap it took forza 1 month to sell 1 million WORLD WIDE!!!!!!
It sold 400k or less in its first month in the US. Aussious why do you lie, does it make you feel important!
Lol
January 16, 2011 at 05:32
Think you’re smoking too much crack there buddy. Don’t com[are Forza to the GT serious. Just don’t.
Syth
January 14, 2011 at 15:04
Most of the things may be true lans, but really why do you care? If “everyone” (USA) is trying to discredit the PS3 and Sony, which may or may not be true, the PS3 and Sony is obviously doing something right. Journalist wants hits and nothing brings more hits that a fanboy fight 😀 Have a look at the popularity of the Lazygamer threads.
@ Lazygamer, I’m not saying that people don’t enjoy your site or articles or that you go for sensation, just that sensation obviously sells so you won’t choose to leave a story like this but rather report it and give your own view (which I don’t always agree with 😀 )
About the Xbox360 and PS2 thing: The one is a legend in its own time (PS2) and the other is a really cool console (Xbox 360). So I don’t really think the numbers mean a lot, like Gavin stated.
Now everyone fuck off and have a awesome weekend full of beer, boobs and gaming!
M@GE
January 15, 2011 at 02:16
ThorZA, that’s quite insulting
phat
January 16, 2011 at 00:51
Well when there’s a population increase then there’s usually a consumer increase.
intri
January 16, 2011 at 00:52
every person needed to buy the xbox 360 two or more times 😀
Tom Ato
January 16, 2011 at 01:17
LOL, what a pathetic fail fanboy article. The PS2 sold over 145 million units worldwide, Fail – Box 360 isn’t even CLOSE to being HALFWAY there.
Face it, the 360 is at the ends of it’s life, it has no exclusive games, graphics that look like they belong on the GBC and a joke of an online service. Microsoft will probably rush out it’s replacement next year out of desperation. Anyone who thinks the 360 will sell as much as the PS2 did is a crying, fanboy retard.
Gotta love Microsoft ass – kissers, they write about any pathetic nonsense, no matter how stupid it makes them look.
Citizen Snips
January 17, 2011 at 11:01
They are referring to the TREND, not the actual total sales. Learn the difference.
Why would MSoft replace the Xbox360 with it’s current momentum with Kinect and all? Not to mention that they are turning a profit. Desperation? I don’t think so.
I can’t believe someone can get so worked up on a simple article analyzing a sales trend in the US like you. I guess you don’t like the results. You know what sounds desperate? Your post. Let’s just hope the PS3 is out of last place soon so that you don’t kill yourself.
Lol
January 16, 2011 at 05:29
Lol, you used failchartz?
Really?
I hope the 360 can survive as long as the PS2 is surviving because this article is hilarious.
Abdul Majeed Abdul-Aziz Al-mal
January 16, 2011 at 20:01
Actually its wrong numbers. proven by NPD.
VGchart stated that Xbox 360 sold 2.4 million units in US December.
however, NPD said that it only sold 1.8 million units in December.
meaning, VGcahrt is OVER TRACKING AGAIN
lans
January 16, 2011 at 20:33
If Xbox 360 sells more than PS2 i will sell my Gt5 game
…………………………………after a day i will buy it back again but the pain of losing it will be great!
Loner777
January 16, 2011 at 21:00
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU GUYS USED FAILCHART???? FAILCHART??? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OMG There goes your credibility.
FAILCHART = FAIL ARTICLE = FAIL
Theonik
January 16, 2011 at 21:06
3 points where this comparison is pointless.
1. VgChartz numbers are terrible and NPD has dis-proven their December figures.
2. When doing a comparison like the article is doing on has to point out that 5+ years into last gen we were already seeing next gen systems. Comparing sales on an ongoing console gen Vs that generation’s decline is unfair and sais a lot on its own if the 360’s alegedly greatest sales period ever can’t even match the PS2 in its decline.
3. US!=World. Hell at around 2004 i think even the original Xbox that had terrible worldwide sales did quite good and i think was outselling PS2 for a period. (someone may confirm or deny that as i’m not sure and am curious myself)
Citizen Snips
January 17, 2011 at 11:08
You will never have perfect conditions to compare the systems. If you put the console wars mindset aside for a moment, there is a lot you can take out of this comparison like how much the Xbox as a brand have grown since the previous gen.
Nick de Bruyne
January 17, 2011 at 00:39
LOL, I love the general response to using VGchartz:
Question: Do the VGchartz numbers work in your favour?
a:) No. That site is complete fail and anyone who uses their numbers in a post is as absolute moron with no clue on how things really work.
b:) Yes. They must know what they are talking about, they are a dedicated chart site you know. Good job with a great article and solid research guys.
Axe99
January 17, 2011 at 04:06
I think the VGChartz numbers are fine (as a general guide, although they’ve horrendously undertracked the PS3 in Europe in the past – but they tend to revise it once they’ve got the official figures in, so trends like this’ll be fine).
However, the article, written as it is, is a bit mischievous. The “(in the US)” tacked on to the end of the sentence is a very important piece of information put into the article in a throwaway fashion – grammatically, you should be able to read something, ignoring what’s in brackets, and it make sense, but for this article ignoring the brackets would have been horribly misleading. The US reference should have been in the title, and clearly in the first sentence or two, not a throwaway reference tacked onto the end of the second paragraph. The US already cops a fair bit of schtick for looking like it’s got its head up its own orifice – journalism like this is hardly likely to improve the US’ image (which I personally think is a bit rough, although US gamers tend to be more parochial than your average citizen of the US of A).
Citizen Snips
January 17, 2011 at 11:16
I think LG should have emphasized more that this is for US only, but this isn’t a question of grammar since removing the brackets would have grammatically still made sense.
I’m just shocked at the amount of political correctness an article like this requires and how offended people can get when their console (or company) of choice is in a bad light. To think of it, this isn’t even about the Sony. The Xbox just isn’t allowed to succeed it seems.