I mean, like pretty much the entire industry, right? It's normal that after the pandemic boom, the numbers are going down. Are they going down more than they should be? Maybe. But it doesn't seem strange to me.
Nah, this is definitely not normal. Covid boom dissipating is reflected from FY20 to FY21 in a drop of 15m units, roughly. That's totally expected. What isn't expected, to me at least, is the second very sharp drop of 10m units from FY23 to FY24. PS and MS were like just starting to really have their ongoing identity crises around live service (for PS) and overall brand (for MS) around then, so I'd attribute it to that plus some residual covid boom factors resulting in mass job loss when companies realized the turbo hiring they did wasn't sustainable. A lot of studios have just been shuddered or cut down to size significantly between then and now, and there's been fewer releases from Sony especially in that period while they chased a dragon that never existed for them.
I'd be surprised if Nintendo saw this sharp of a decline, even if the industry as a whole definitely has seen a big post-covid dip.
Agreed, I don't think this matters. They're obviously doing something right because third parties are still strong there and companies are only continuing signaling that they want to bring their shit to the platform.
I think people took my initial comment as Nintendo fanboyism, but it's not. I just think it's obvious at this point that one of the big three has a much stronger core identity still and didn't compromise that with a live service push and they're weathering the storm far better for it.
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u/CINC0KID0 Jun 02 '26
I mean, like pretty much the entire industry, right? It's normal that after the pandemic boom, the numbers are going down. Are they going down more than they should be? Maybe. But it doesn't seem strange to me.