As of 2014, Sony's PlayStation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all time.
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Launch
The console sold slightly more than 500,000 units on its first day, in November 2000. This marked an industry record for the fastest-selling game console. Sony planned to ship 100,000 units per week for the remainder of the year, for a total of 1.3 million by the end of the year. It planned to ship three million units by the end of the March of the following year.
Further years
Sony had shipped 10 million consoles to North America by May 2002. Holiday 2002 sales were strong at 8.5 million units in November and December. This was up 24% from the previous year.
Sony expected shipments in 2003 to slip from previous years. Sony projected shipments of 20 million, versus 22.5 the year before. Sony had shipped 60 million units as of September 2003. 26.4 million units went to North America, 19.4 million to Europe, and the "vast majority" of the remaining 14.2 went to Japan.
In 2004, although the console took a hit in holiday 2003 sales from the previous year, lifetime sales reached 70 million.
On November 29, 2005, the PlayStation 2 became the fastest game console to reach 100 million units shipped, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch. This achievement occurred faster than its predecessor, the PlayStation, which took 9 years and 6 months to reach the same benchmark.
In Europe, the PS2 sold 6 million units in 2006 and 3.8 million in 2007, according to estimates by EA. In 2007, the PS2 sold 3.97 million units in the US according to the NPD Group and 816,419 units in Japan according to Enterbrain.
In 2008, the PS2 sold 480,664 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain. As of October 2008, the system had sold 21 million units in Japan.
Over 150 million units of PS2 hardware had been sold worldwide as of the end of 2010, although GameInformer noted that this was only for units sold to retail companies.
PlayStation 2 shipments in Japan ended on December 28, 2012. A week later, on January 4, 2013, Sony Computer Entertainment formally discontinued the console.
In its last week of availability in Japan (December 24 to December 30, 2012), the PlayStation 2 sold 2,078 units in the country - up from 928 units the week before. Remarkably, the PlayStation 2 managed to sell better in Japan that week than the Xbox 360 (1,986 units), as well as the Nintendo DS (704 units).
Lifetime sales
The PS2 has sold over 155 million units worldwide as of March 31, 2012. In Europe, it has sold 48 million units as of May 6, 2008 according to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, while in North America, it has sold 50 million units as of December 2008. In Japan, the PS2 has sold 21,454,325 units as of October 1, 2008, according to Famitsu/Enterbrain.