2022 CESA Games White Paper: Hardware sales in 2021.

[Grady]

Here are some estimates taken from the recent CESA White Paper, covering the major systems in 2021 across the US, Canada, and Europe.
It should be interesting to compare the numbers from here with other trackers' estimates (Personally speaking, some of the numbers seem a little off to me).

I'll try to update this thread with more info during the week if I have time. If anyone wants to make the graphs more presentable, please do so!

2021's Hardware sales

	US	Canada	UK	France	Germany	Spain	Italy	Nordic Region	Benelux Region
Nintendo Switch	7,610	710	1,220	1,030	1,230	600	710	240	280
PS5	4,280	480	1,150	670	740	290	320	330	300
PS4	600	60	130	90	100	50	70	20	20
Xbox Series X/S	3,730	310	850	170	230	70	100	80	80
Xbox One	10	-	-	10	-	-	-	-	-
Total	16,220	1,560	3,350	1,960	2,300	1,010	1,200	670	680

Unit: Thousand units sold

 

[Tbone5189]

Amazing work Grady, some things to note

*well a question but did we have US exact figures for 2021 before? Nsw did amazing like always
~NSW And ps5 were indeed close, only 70k in which nsw made a comeback during the holiday (ps5 no stock)
-Canada proves to be within 10%-15% of US sales
-France, is Nintendo land with Sony could be near 1;1 if it had stock. XB worse market of the big 3 by far (Europe)
-Germany is France but ,more active in gaming
-Spain, well this is Nintendo land now. A big turnover and I don't know why Sony isn't prioritizing it since it was such a Sony focus country before?
Sony does well with the rest, no surprise but Nintendo evened it out in Italy

 

[Welfare]

PS4 US LTD 2021: 34.9M
XB1 US LTD 2021: 29.97M

 

[Kmds]

Everything seems about right except France. That's 100% wrong for the Nintendo Switch sales. That would be only 100k more than 2017 and less than 2018.

Both Ludostrie and Nintendo France said it shipped/sold between 1.25 and 1.3 million in 2021. There's just absolutely zero chance that switch figure is correct.

Everything else though looks accurate.

 

[Welfare]

NSW 2020: 15,730,000
NSW 2021: 13,630,000 (-13%)

PS5 2020: 3,350,000
PS5 2021: 8,560,000 (+156%)

XBS 2020: 2,270,000
XBS 2021: 5,620,000 (+148%)

 

[KtSlime]

Kind of surprised Northern Europeans prefer the PS5 over the Switch.

 

[awng782]

French video game market in 2021

GSD Sales [Physical+Digital] (France): CY 2021 (2022 Jan 04 - 2023 Jan 02) Console Ecosystem: Top 20 best selling console games: RANK./LAST YEAR'S RANK. [SYSTEM] TITLE (PUBLISHER) {RELEASE DATE} (AVERAGE PRICE) - YEAR-TO-DATE SALES / LIFETIME-TO-DATE SALES (YEAR OVER YEAR DIFFERENCE)...

www.installbaseforum.com

According to GSD via SELL, these were the France HW sales numbers in 2021:

+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
|System |   This CY  |   Last CY  |     LTD     |
+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
| NSW # |  1.231.000 |  1.445.000 |   5.967.000 |
| PS5 # |    600.000 |    165.000 |     765.000 |
| XBS # |    214.000 |     86.000 |     300.000 |
| PS4 # |     90.000 |    294.000 |   6.070.000 |
| XB1 # |      5.000 |     78.000 |   1.799.000 |
+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
|  ALL  |  2.140.000 |  2.097.000 |  14.901.000 |

These numbers makes more sense to me. Given that France is Nintendo's strongest European market, it seems highly unlikely that Switch HW sales in France would dip significantly below that of Germany and the UK in 2021.

 

[Limabean01]

thanks sm for this!!
wow canada really is just micro US when it comes to vg sales, with just an ever so slight lean towards sony

Everything seems about right except France. That's 100% wrong for the Nintendo Switch sales. That would be only 100k more than 2017 and less than 2018.

Both Ludostrie and Nintendo France said it shipped/sold between 1.25 and 1.3 million in 2021. There's just absolutely zero chance that switch figure is correct.

Everything else though looks accurate.

has CESA been at odds with other place’s france numbers in the past? would be really strange to randomly miss 200k

 

[mariodk18]

PS4 US LTD 2021: 34.9M
XB1 US LTD 2021: 29.97M

Wow I did not exceed them to be that close. Like I knew it was competitive in the US, but not within 15%. Was it due to XBL and people wanting to carry over their digital library?

 

[Welfare]

Wow I did not exceed them to be that close. Like I knew it was competitive in the US, but not within 15%. Was it due to XBL and people wanting to carry over their digital library?

All 3 brands in the US are basically on equal ground and it's the little things that can shift one console above 40M or not.

It was so close in the US despite PS4 having COD marketing since 2015. I would imagine Xbox squeaks out a win in the alternate universe where they kept COD marketing.

 

[fiendcode]

This is why PlayStation didn't raise their US prices.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Thanks for the work, great thread @Grady

Kind of surprised Northern Europeans prefer the PS5 over the Switch.

Nintendos presence in these markets was never that strong to begin with and the audience isnt really into japanese content on the level of the bigger mainland Europe countries. These markets used to be PC gaming stronghold, so the combination of powerful hardware + access to western/eu AA/AAA games will always be a strong combo.

Switch has improved Nintendo standing in these countries though, Drake might be the next step for continued growth if the hardware rumors are somewhat legit.

 

[Fiendslayer]

Some of the EU numbers look off.

This must be estimates, and pretty broad strokes estimates at that.

 

[awng782]

Spain Sales: 2021 Hardware & Software

Thanks to @FonSerra https://www.gamereactor.es/ventas-espana-2021-el-repaso-del-ano/ Hardware 2021: Nintendo Switch - 495.000 (80.000 OLED) / 2.200.000 LTD PlayStation 5 - 275.000 / 363.000 LTD Xbox Series X|S - 83.000 / 110.000 LTD PlayStation 4 - 53.000 Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda -...

www.installbaseforum.com

Seems like CESA is overestimating Switch sales in Spain by a decent amount. PS and XB numbers look close enough.

 

[mariodk18]

I think the biggest revelation for me is that Nintendo has at least a respectable market share in most every market, if not a majority. I had heard Italy was PS land, which it still could be. Perhaps this data only looks like this due to shortages and it is only the past year.

So looking at EU overall, would it be fair to say it has shifted from PS centric to a more even split between PS and Nintendo with Xbox on the side?

 

[Fiendslayer]

I had heard Italy was PS land, which it still could be.

This is my issue. Italy looks very off from GSD, so does Spain (to a lesser extent),.

 

[Celine]

PS4 US LTD 2021: 34.9M
XB1 US LTD 2021: 29.97M

This is what I have (rounded to 100K)

PS4 US LTD 2021: 34.8M
XB1 US LTD 2021: 29.0M

NSW US LTD 2021: 33.6M

 

[Hiska-kun]

@Grady If you don’t mind I’ll open a different thread next week, with the graphs like this one, because I want to keep the format.

Hardware and Software sales 2020 in +10 countries

2020 numbers for each country. USA Hardware Switch - 8.980.000 (56%) PS4 - 2.070.000 (13%) PS5 - 1.960.000 (12%) Series - 1.490.000 (9%) XB1 - 1.460.000 (9%) 3DS - 200.000 (1%) TOTAL - 16.160.000 (100%) Annual Hardware (2012-2020) Total Hardware Software Switch - 39.080.000 (42%) PS4 -...

www.installbaseforum.com

 

[Celine]

I think the biggest revelation for me is that Nintendo has at least a respectable market share in most every market, if not a majority.

You aren't going to sell over 140M console units if you don't get "at least a respectable market share in most every market, if not a majority."

 

[Grady]

@Grady If you don’t mind I’ll open a different thread next week, with the graphs like this one, because I want to keep the format.

Hardware and Software sales 2020 in +10 countries

2020 numbers for each country. USA Hardware Switch - 8.980.000 (56%) PS4 - 2.070.000 (13%) PS5 - 1.960.000 (12%) Series - 1.490.000 (9%) XB1 - 1.460.000 (9%) 3DS - 200.000 (1%) TOTAL - 16.160.000 (100%) Annual Hardware (2012-2020) Total Hardware Software Switch - 39.080.000 (42%) PS4 -...

www.installbaseforum.com

No problems!

 

[SoonyXboneUhh]

Only Hardware or Software, too?

@Grady If you don’t mind I’ll open a different thread next week, with the graphs like this one, because I want to keep the format.

Hardware and Software sales 2020 in +10 countries

2020 numbers for each country. USA Hardware Switch - 8.980.000 (56%) PS4 - 2.070.000 (13%) PS5 - 1.960.000 (12%) Series - 1.490.000 (9%) XB1 - 1.460.000 (9%) 3DS - 200.000 (1%) TOTAL - 16.160.000 (100%) Annual Hardware (2012-2020) Total Hardware Software Switch - 39.080.000 (42%) PS4 -...

www.installbaseforum.com

That was what I'm looking for. Thanks a lot.
Also hope you're doing some generational comparisons. For the whole market and separate platforms.
With 2 years, one can start to make those comparisons.

 

[Hiska-kun]

Only Hardware or Software, too?

That was what I'm looking for. Thanks a lot.
Also hope you're doing some generational comparisons. For the whole market and separate platforms.
With 2 years, one can start to make those comparisons.

That was also the plan.

 

[Celine]

It's official now that NSW has surpassed PS4 total sales in Canada by the end of 2021.

PS4 Canada LTD 2021: 3.18M
XB1 Canada LTD 2021: 2.02M

NSW Canada LTD 2021: 3.24M

In US the surpass happened a few months later.

 

[enpleinjour]

Here are some estimates taken from the recent CESA White Paper, covering the major systems in 2021 across the US, Canada, and Europe.
It should be interesting to compare the numbers from here with other trackers' estimates (Personally speaking, some of the numbers seem a little off to me).

I'll try to update this thread with more info during the week if I have time. If anyone wants to make the graphs more presentable, please do so!

2021's Hardware sales

	US	Canada	UK	France	Germany	Spain	Italy	Nordic Region	Benelux Region
Nintendo Switch	7,610	710	1,220	1,030	1,230	600	710	240	280
PS5	4,280	480	1,150	670	740	290	320	330	300
PS4	600	60	130	90	100	50	70	20	20
Xbox Series X/S	3,730	310	850	170	230	70	100	80	80
Xbox One	10	-	-	10	-	-	-	-	-
Total	16,220	1,560	3,350	1,960	2,300	1,010	1,200	670	680

Unit: Thousand units sold

• PS5 has pretty much the same marketshare that PS4 has in EU+UK
• PS5 makes up for EU losses with UK gains

 

[Kenka]

• PS5 has pretty much the same marketshare that PS4 has in EU+UK
• PS5 makes up for EU losses with UK gains

These are statistics on the XBX + PS market.

 

[Valerio]

. I had heard Italy was PS land, which it still could be.

I

Yes, i think shortages and high prices of PS5 did the trick.

 

[SoonyXboneUhh]

Yes, i think shortages and high prices of PS5 did the trick.

Italy is weird.
60m people, yet not much game sales than Spain with 47m
France has 67m and the size of the market is nearly double.


Per capita one of the smallest markets in Europe

 

[cw_sasuke]

Italy is weird.
60m people, yet not much game sales than Spain with 47m
France has 67m and the size of the market is nearly double.


Per capita one of the smallest markets in Europe

Its not really weird when you consider how Italy has been struggling economically in recent years, gaming can be an expensive hobby and when you are 'struggling' with lot of your young population being unemployed you are gonna spent your money on other stuff. If its gaming they go for the surefire bets - aka PS + Fifa. The fact that other systems like Switch are even being considered nowadays is already impressive and kinda more of a luxury for this market.

 

[Jimmy Joe]

I know it's sort of silly but the Canadian Switch numbers have floored me

This country only has about 36 million people in it! By the end of 2022 there will be enough Switches in this country that one out of every ten people could have one. That's silly. That's so many

 

[cw_sasuke]

I know it's sort of silly but the Canadian Switch numbers have floored me

This country only has about 36 million people in it! By the end of 2022 there will be enough Switches in this country that one out of every ten people could have one. That's silly. That's so many

Explains why the successor SoC has the codename Drake.

 

[Cobalt]

I know it's sort of silly but the Canadian Switch numbers have floored me

This country only has about 36 million people in it! By the end of 2022 there will be enough Switches in this country that one out of every ten people could have one. That's silly. That's so many

I don’t think it’s that crazy. In the US a lot of consoles like the PS4 for example has a 1 in 10 attach rate for the population and the Canadian market looks very similar to the US market.

 

[Blue Monty]

I know it's sort of silly but the Canadian Switch numbers have floored me

This country only has about 36 million people in it! By the end of 2022 there will be enough Switches in this country that one out of every ten people could have one. That's silly. That's so many

Canada has always been one of Nintendo strongest regions per capita with France (and Japan but Japan is in another league). 3DS also did pretty well there iirc

 

[awng782]

Switch already had a 1:10 attach rate with the US population by the end of 2021, so Canada following suit is totally expected.

 

[Valerio]

Italy is weird.
60m people, yet not much game sales than Spain with 47m
France has 67m and the size of the market is nearly double.


Per capita one of the smallest markets in Europe

I believe it, in Italy console gaming became really popular only with Ps2. Don’t know about pc gaming community though, maybe it’s stronger but i doubt it. Would be interesting to understand why, i think a general slow adoption of informatic technology is one of the reason. Dominance of amiga in the 80’s maybe another

 

[Valerio]

Its not really weird when you consider how Italy has been struggling economically in recent years, gaming can be an expensive hobby and when you are 'struggling' with lot of your young population being unemployed you are gonna spent your money on other stuff. If its gaming they go for the surefire bets - aka PS + Fifa. The fact that other systems like Switch are even being considered nowadays is already impressive and kinda more of a luxury for this market.

Mmm it’s not really that. The italian average income is similar to Spain, that has a stronger market. The same with youth unemployment. And in the second quarter Italy’s GNP’s growth was one of the fastest of the Ue… the struggling you have heard of is a problem of debt/gnp ratio

 

[Undead Warrior]

Sony has successfully completed their ten~ year plan of turning into Microsoft, it seems. Now they gotta hope putting all their eggs into the US basket pays off.

 

[KtSlime]

I know it's sort of silly but the Canadian Switch numbers have floored me

This country only has about 36 million people in it! By the end of 2022 there will be enough Switches in this country that one out of every ten people could have one. That's silly. That's so many

Keep in mind that people often state that gaming is dying in Japan, but the attach rate here for Switch is < 5:1, even PS4 has a ~13:1, and it's the weakest the brand has even been.

 

[The Hunter]

Sony has successfully completed their ten~ year plan of turning into Microsoft, it seems.

I don't understand if this comment is serious or what? Based on what do you say this? PS5 sales in Europe according to these estimates are good. They have practically the same total market share of PS4 in Europe in the same time period, and this is despite supply problems.
On which planet would they turn into Microsoft, which is struggling in Europe as always, and sells practically a decent number of consoles only in the UK.

 

[Undead Warrior]

I don't understand if this comment is serious or what? Based on what do you say this? PS5 sales in Europe according to these estimates are good. They have practically the same total market share of PS4 in Europe in the same time period, and this is despite supply problems.
On which planet would they turn into Microsoft, which is struggling in Europe as always, and sells practically a decent number of consoles only in the UK.

And all it cost them was losing Japan.

 

[The Hunter]

And all it cost them was losing Japan.

Beyond the fact that Sony has somewhat sidelined Japan, the factual data says that already PS3 had sold less than PS2 in Japan. So did PS4, which sold less than PS3. The same will probably do PS5 which will do slightly less or at most the same or slightly more than PS4 in the jap market.
The trend in Japan is now clear, Portable and Mobile Gaming is king.
I'm pretty sure that if Nintendo tried to make a Classic home console, it wouldn't do anywhere near the Switch's numbers in Japan.
Unless Sony brings out a new handheld console and supports it well with some Japanese titles, PS's numbers in Japan will remain that way. And I honestly don't think they are interested in this. I think they're fine with having only a Classic home console and a minimal market share in Japan, while maintaining similar sales to PS4 gen in the U.S. and Europe (where they make most of the revenues) , and increasing sales in countries like China or India to have general growth.

 

[KtSlime]

Beyond the fact that Sony has somewhat sidelined Japan, the factual data says that already PS3 had sold less than PS2 in Japan. So did PS4, which sold less than PS3. The same will probably do PS5 which will do slightly less or at most the same or slightly more than PS4 in the jap market.
The trend in Japan is now clear, Portable and Mobile Gaming is king.
I'm pretty sure that if Nintendo tried to make a Classic home console, it wouldn't do anywhere near the Switch's numbers in Japan.
Unless Sony brings out a new handheld console and supports it well with some Japanese titles, PS's numbers in Japan will remain that way. And I honestly don't think they are interested in this. I think they're fine with having only a Classic home console and a minimal market share in Japan, while maintaining similar sales to PS4 gen in the U.S. and Europe (where they make most of the revenues) , and increasing sales in countries like China or India to have general growth.

PS Vita

PS Vitaのゲームに関するサポートについてご紹介します。

www.playstation.com

 

[fiendcode]

Japan is still PlayStation's number 2 market despite the slide. That may change soon but their days of uncontested hardware leadership are definitely over anyway, so long as that even matters in the transition to services. PS5 is not in the same position PS4 was.

 

[Fatih_656]

How does ps have the same market share in Europe? 3ds+wii wasn't selling that much, was it?

 

[awng782]

Japan is still PlayStation's number 2 market despite the slide. That may change soon but their days of uncontested hardware leadership are definitely over anyway, so long as that even matters in the transition to services. PS5 is not in the same position PS4 was.

PS5 has sold more HW in the UK than in Japan. SW sales are even more lopsided in favor of the UK.

 

[Pooroomoo]

How does ps have the same market share in Europe? 3ds+wii wasn't selling that much, was it?

Look closer, the "marketshare" shown is just PS versus MS, Nintendo is ignored.

 

[Aostia82]

Mmm it’s not really that. The italian average income is similar to Spain, that has a stronger market. The same with youth unemployment. And in the second quarter Italy’s GNP’s growth was one of the fastest of the Ue… the struggling you have heard of is a problem of debt/gnp ratio

we are 60 millions and (last week news) 11 millions people are on the verge of poverty
Spain income can be similar, cost of life isn't

 

[cw_sasuke]

Mmm it’s not really that. The italian average income is similar to Spain, that has a stronger market. The same with youth unemployment. And in the second quarter Italy’s GNP’s growth was one of the fastest of the Ue… the struggling you have heard of is a problem of debt/gnp ratio

From what ived witness its still a bit more severe in Italy, also a lot of the japanese IPs has been a core part of the France/Spain media DNA since the early 90s, so in these cases the properties are priorities, while they are seen as luxury or secondary in other markets. Its like Disney still being Disney regardless of how well a country is doing because most people grew up on it and will spent money on things they feel passionate about/sacrifice other stuff for it.

Everything outside of a Playstation + Fifa/GTA/Fortnite will already push things for the regular customers in certain countries, where Nintendo never was as big and is considered expensive. If you are struggling financially a 2nd system, let alone +50€ that rarely drop in price might be not be that attractive. Especially now in this f2p/mobile world.

Online people always act like owning multiple current system is a standard - like having a Switch, a powerful PC, SteamDeck another Playstation and whatever - when many people still tend to be happy and satisfied with a single platform per generation. In bigger markets the answer can be PS/Xbox and Switch, in many other markets its still more often than not - a either or situation.

Maybe struggling was the wrong word, in the end consoles and gaming in general are luxury items, cant take these bigger markets just for granted, its a privilege to be able to spent a large portion of your resources on a hobby like gaming.

 

[Valerio]

From what ived witness its still a bit more severe in Italy, also a lot of the japanese IPs has been a core part of the France/Spain media DNA since the early 90s, so in these cases the properties are priorities, while they are seen as luxury or secondary in other markets. Its like Disney still being Disney regardless of how well a country is doing because most people grew up on it and will spent money on things they feel passionate about/sacrifice other stuff for it.

Everything outside of a Playstation + Fifa/GTA/Fortnite will already push things for the regular customers in certain countries, where Nintendo never was as big and is considered expensive. If you are struggling financially a 2nd system, let alone +50€ that rarely drop in price might be not be that attractive. Especially now in this f2p/mobile world.

Online people always act like owning multiple current system is a standard - like having a Switch, a powerful PC, SteamDeck another Playstation and whatever - when many people still tend to be happy and satisfied with a single platform per generation. In bigger markets the answer can be PS/Xbox and Switch, in many other markets its still more often than not - a either or situation.

Maybe struggling was the wrong word, in the end consoles and gaming in general are luxury items, cant take these bigger markets just for granted, its a privilege to be able to spent a large portion of your resources on a hobby like gaming.

I’ve answered with facts (average income and so on), you are free to check

 

[Valerio]

we are 60 millions and (last week news) 11 millions people are on the verge of poverty
Spain income can be similar, cost of life isn't

Again, Spain poverty Risk is the same, more or less. You can check on Eurostat.

 

[The Hunter]

Japan is still PlayStation's number 2 market despite the slide. That may change soon but their days of uncontested hardware leadership are definitely over anyway, so long as that even matters in the transition to services. PS5 is not in the same position PS4 was.

Lol absolutely not.
PS's second largest market is Europe, certainly not Japan. Even in the gen PS3 and PS4, Europe was the second market.
As for the rest, gone may be the days when Sony was the undisputed hardware leader on hardware sales ( assuming they ever existed, I think Sony had undisputed leadership on hardware globally only with PS1 and PS2, in the PS3 gen we had 360 and Wii which sells good, while in the PS4 gen there was Switch and they shared the success), but the fact remains that the demand for PS5 is skyrocketing, and it is selling at PS4 levels despite the inventory problems that have held it back, and most likely would have surpassed it if not for those. Even in Japan at the hardware sales level it is still doing as much as PS4 or slightly more.
So maybe PS5's position is not be the same as PS4's in the same period, but the sales are still the same.