Will the Wii ever catch the PS2?

[Pingieking]

With the recent announcement of the Wii U and slowing sales of the Wii, will the Wii ever catch up to the PS2 for total unit sales?

According to VGChartz (I believe this is as of 28 May 2011):
Wii - 86.74 million
PS2 - 143.12 million

These are worldwide sales numbers.

I personally think they won't. 2011 is halfway over, so if we assume that the Wii can hit the 100 million mark by the end of the year (which probably won't happen, with the dropping Wii sales and all), they still need over 2 years selling at 2010 rates (18 million units) to catch the PS2. Wii U releases in about 15 months, and I don't think the Wii can sustain decent sales numbers for several years after the launch of the Wii U.

The crazy thing is that PS2 is still moving respectable number of units. It sold over 6 million in 2009, and 4.6 million in 2010.

EDIT: I didn't know this, but the PS1 moved over 100 million units! I knew it did well, but I didn't know it did that well.

 

[TheHappySquid]

Wow, that's impressive about the PS1

I don't think it ever will. And I hope it won't.

PS2 is always going to be my favourite console

 

[TheBlitz]

Honestly, probably not. In context, at the time, the PS2 was a much bigger deal. For a while it dominated the market, until the Xbox was released, and even then it was a much more familiar, and therefore more likely to sell, image, capitalizing on the PS1's success, whereas the Xbox didn't have a previous fanbase.

Nowadays, the Wii has many more competitors; PS3, 360, PC, social gaming, apps, etc, and, due to this competition will more than likely never break that mark that the PS2 found much easier to achieve.

 

[Lukeje]

No, because the Wii U is supposed to be backwards compatible. Once it comes out the Wii will be obsolete in a way that the PS2 never was.

 

[DocMcCray]

Honestly, probably not. In context, at the time, the PS2 was a much bigger deal. For a while it dominated the market, until the Xbox was released, and even then it was a much more familiar, and therefore more likely to sell, image, capitalizing on the PS1's success, whereas the Xbox didn't have a previous fanbase.

Nowadays, the Wii has many more competitors; PS3, 360, PC, social gaming, apps, etc, and, due to this competition will more than likely never break that mark that the PS2 found much easier to achieve.

I very much agree. At the time of the PS2's release, there was no competition for it. Both the Gamecube and Xbox were over a year away. N64 fans really did not have much to go on and there were fewer of them than the PS1 (mostly because they stuck with the cart format) and, as was mentioned, the Xbox didn't have a previous fanbase to draw from. Add in the fact that the Xbox sold extremely poorly throughout most, if not all of it's gaming life in Japan and that just makes things more clear.

IMO the PS2 represented a massive jump over the PS1. More so than PS3 over PS2. The PS2's only competition for a long time was the Sega Dreamcast, which was ultimately crushed.

TL;DR?
1. PS2 was a huge technology jump.
2. PS2 didn't have as much competition.
3. PS2 had much more 3rd party support.

So no, the Wii will not outsell the PS2. Neither will the WiiU even if it has cross-gamer appeal. My predictions based on my opinions.