Sony says the PlayStation 2 has sold over 160 million consoles worldwide since 2000. That is the figure on the company’s official PlayStation history page—not an exact final tally: Sony gives no precise total or measurement cutoff for the claim.
How many PS2 consoles has Sony sold?
Sony’s official PlayStation history page states that the PS2 has sold “over 160,000,000 consoles worldwide since 2000.” The wording establishes a threshold, not an exact count. The page does not date the figure or specify when Sony measured it, so it is best described as Sony’s reported lifetime-sales claim rather than a precisely dated final total. Sony’s PlayStation history page does not name an individual speaker for the statement.
How the reported milestones compare
Sony’s earlier announcements use different terms and dates. They document the console’s growth, but they do not provide a dated reconciliation explaining how the later “over 160 million” figure relates to each earlier measure.
| Milestone | What Sony reported | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| November 29, 2005 | 100.01 million worldwide | Cumulative shipments as of that date. Sony’s release also gave a regional breakdown: Japan (including Asia), 22.22 million; North America, 40.65 million; and Europe/PAL, 37.14 million. Sony Computer Entertainment’s 2005 announcement. |
| January 31, 2011 | 150 million worldwide | Cumulative sales, explicitly identified by Sony as a “sell-in number,” not a verified count of units purchased by end users. Sony Computer Entertainment’s 2011 announcement. |
| Undated history-page claim | Over 160 million worldwide since 2000 | Sony’s page gives no exact total or measurement cutoff. PlayStation history page. |
“Shipments,” “sell-in,” and the history page’s general “consoles sold” wording should not be treated as interchangeable accounting definitions. The sources establish Sony’s reported milestones, not an independently verified count of individual consumers’ purchases.
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When did the PS2 launch?
Sony’s timeline lists these original launch dates:
- Japan: March 4, 2000
- North America: October 26, 2000
- Europe: November 24, 2000
The company’s history page describes the console’s period as beginning in 2000, consistent with its first launch in Japan that March.
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What does Sony say helped define the PS2?
Sony’s history page highlights the console’s DVD playback, online functionality, and compatibility with original PlayStation discs. Sony’s account says dedicated DVD players could be costly at the time and presents the combination of games and DVD playback as appealing to price-conscious consumers. That is the company’s historical explanation, not a quantified analysis of how much any one feature contributed to sales.
The PS2 also evolved over its run. Sony records a thinner, lighter Slim model released in late 2004, along with later variations in color and form factor. A Network Adaptor add-on brought online play to the console in 2001; Sony says Final Fantasy XI’s last official PS2 server remained active until 2016.
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Hardware sales are not software sales
Sony separately reported 1.52 billion PS2 software units sold worldwide as of the end of December 2011. That is a software figure, not part of the console hardware total, and it has its own stated cutoff. Sony’s 2011 milestone announcement includes both figures.
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