Sony has had a stranglehold on the market ever since the PS4 launched in 2013. To date, the PS4 has reportedly outsold the Xbox One by greater than a two to one margin, and the distance between the two consoles grows larger each and every year. But one analyst believes that Sony might finally have some competition in 2018.
In a recent report, NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella predicts that the Nintendo Switch will be the best-selling console of the holiday season, and could even overtake the PS4 for total sales on the year. Keep in mind that the Switch has only been on store shelves since early 2017, so millions of consumers had already chosen between the PS4 and Xbox One by the time Nintendo joined the current console generation.
“Driven by the launches of Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo Switch will be the best-selling console of the fourth quarter in unit sales, while also elevating the platform to be the best-selling console of the year,” said Piscatella on the NPD Group blog.
In the same report, Piscatella shares his prediction for the top ten games in terms of total sales for 2018. There are multiple obvious choices here, including Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Battlefield V, and PS4 exclusives like God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man. Not a single Switch game appears on the list, even with a new Super Smash Bros. and a pair of Pokemon games hitting Nintendo’s hybrid console in the coming months.
Without a single best-selling game, Nintendo is predicted to have the best-selling console on the market by the time the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. That would be an incredibly impressive achievement, speaking to just how attractive the hardware and the gimmick of the Switch can be for consumers worldwide.
