The world is waiting with bated breath for Nintendo to say something, anything, about its successor to the Switch. While that announcement is almost certainly on the horizon, you really can't blame Nintendo for taking its time and milking the Switch for everything it's worth. The studio's latest numbers revealed the Switch sold almost five million more consoles during the last quarter alone. That’s unbelievable for a console in its seventh year, and a figure that brings the Switch's total to almost 130 million units sold.

This cements its spot as the third best-selling console of all time, way ahead of the Game Boy and PS4, but still more than 20 million short of the DS and PS2. A steady flow of sales has some people wondering whether the Switch has the legs to dethrone the PS2 by the time it's finally taken off store shelves. There's certainly a case to be made for that, even with the Switch 2's announcement coming soon. The PS3 was released in 2006, but the PS2 continued to sell for five years after that with steady numbers and exclusive games worth playing.

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Personally, I don't think the Switch will. It'll be close, but no cigar. However, it doesn't need to sell 20 million more consoles to surpass what the PS2 achieved. It did that a long time ago through the ingenuity of its design, its reach, and the impact it has had during a significant period in human history, and perhaps most of all, through its games.

The video game industry was greatly affected by the pandemic, for both better and worse. While countless games were delayed, sales of systems and titles already out there skyrocketed as people looked for things to do at home during lockdown. That resulted in a lengthy boom for the Switch three years after it launched. The first two quarters of FY2021 were the six months when lockdown was at its most severe, and were the two best non-holiday quarters for Switch sales to date. Not only did that mean Nintendo get into more homes than it could have ever dreamed of, but it also meant the Switch accompanied millions of people through lockdown.

It's not the dumb luck of existing through a pandemic alone that already puts it above the best-selling console of all time for me, though. Even though more people own a Switch than ever owned a Wii, the former doesn’t have the same appeal to non and casual gamers. However, that might just be because I was at an age where I coulstatic.aayyy.com/topic/dn/'t believe my parents, aunts, uncles, and even my nan were playing the Wii on a regular basis. What the Switch does have over the Wii and the PS2 is the games available, and how many copies some of those have sold.

19 different games have sold at least 10 million copies on Switch. That's a staggering statistic, but probably one that needs something to compare it with to really feel the gravity of it. The Wii had less than half that at just nine despite feeling like there was one in every living room in the world, and one of those was pack-in Wii Sports, so I'm not sure it really counts. The DS had a slightly more impressive ten, so still nowhere close to what the Switch has achieved. The PS2, the console that could be found in more homes than any other console ever created, had just four.

Two of those four are, what I would argue, the only two PS2 games that felt like everyone played and loved until this day. GTA San Andreas and GTA Vice City. Don't get me wrong, the PS2 had so many games I adored and remember fondly. The difference between it and the Switch is my perfect PS2 library is different from everybody else’s. My favorite games were SSX Tricky, The Simpsons Hit & Run, and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. These are all games others remember fondly, but not titles guaranteed to be in most other people’s PS2 rundowns.

Still think I'm giving the PS2 a hard time? If the sales numbers of the top 20 Switch games aren't evidence enough, ask almost anyone who owns the console what their favorite Switch games are and they will almost always be some combination of those games. No, not everyone's top tens are going to be identical, but the heavy hitters will almost always be there. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Animal Crossing, Smash Ultimate, even some of the Pokemon games. Yeah, we've all complained about them, but we also keep buying and playing them so they can't be all bad.

Consoles are great and while we all have our favorites, it isn't the systems themselves we remember fondly, it's the games we play on them. The sheer number of historic and memorable games that have sold tens of millions of copies on the Switch is the leading reason why even though it might never outsell the PS2, it has already left a bigger mark than it and any other console to have come before it. Games like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey that are not only universally beloved, but are both considered to be among the best entries in their respective long-running series and even in the conversation for best games of all time.

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