February 2022 NPD hardware: Switch outsells supply-limited competition

Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware of February in the United States, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. That is for both unit sales and dollar sales. Xbox Series X/S, meanwhile, outsold the PlayStation in both of those metrics. Xbox and PlayStation are both severely supply constrained. Microsoft and Sony is selling every single system they put into the retail chain. So, as usual, this is hardly a measure of sales and is instead a measure of how many systems each company is sending to the United States.

The new-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony are in such limited supply that hardware sales dropped significantly year-over-year.

“Video game hardware dollar sales fell 27% when compared to February 2021, to $295 million,” said Piscatella. “Year-to-date dollar sales are 5% lower than a year ago, at $685 million. The hardware market remains in a supply-constrained state.”

Now is not that time to declare a problem for PlayStation 5. Well, other than the supply issues. That system is still the top-performing device of the year in terms of dollars.

“PlayStation 5 leads video game hardware in 2022 dollar sales year-to-date,” said Piscatella. “Switch has achieved the highest unit sales in the period.”