That the PlayStation Classic isn’t doing well has been clear for a while, given the bevy of price cuts we have seen for the microconsole in just over month since it first came out. There are a variety of reasons as to why it might not have done well, from a poor lineup of games to well documented and reported emulation issues.
However, just how poorly it is doing may come as a shock to many—for instance, last month, the NES Classic, the two year old reissue of the 30 year old console, outsold the PlayStation Classic in the US, the NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella revealed on Twitter.
That said, it seems like the NES Classic performed like a freak of nature through 2018 in the US anyway. Piscatella revealed that in terms of unit sales, it outsold every other SKU on the market through 2018 other than the Neon Joycon Nintendo Switch bundle. This means that it effectively outsold PS4 and Xbox One in 2018! That said, the combined PS4 family and Xbox One family surely outsold it, since NES Classic is just one SKU.
It’s a stunning result—and makes it even more baffling that Nintendo will now be discounting selling it. It seems to me like it could become a long term source of revenue for them.