According to review aggregator Metacritic, the Vita's original hardware release was generally well-received with critics, although a few concerns persisted as well.[134] Metacritic editor Jason Dietz noted that reviewers tended to praise the Vita's actual hardware design and operating system, but expressed some concern on its practicality, namely competing in 2012 onward, with a large size and price, where mobile phones with large screens and cheap games were prevalent as an alternative.[134] As of its initial Western launch in February 2012, out of 44 professional critic reviews, 9 fell in the "Great" rating, 29 in the "Good" rating, 6 in the "Mixed" rating, and 0 in the "Bad" or "Awful" rating.[134]

Its initial launch sales were generally seen as positive, selling over 300,000 units in Japan,[135] and 200,000 units in North America.[136] However, a large dropoff occurred in both regions. In Japan, second-week sales dropped 78%, and leveled off at selling about 12,000 units per week.[135] Similarly, sales dropped off to about 30,000 to 50,000 units sold per month for the year after launch in North America.[136] Overall, Sony fell far short of the worldwide sales targets of 10 million Vitas sold by the end of March 2013.[137] The device sold 1.2 million units as of the end of February 2012,[138] 4 million by the end of 2012,[34] and were only estimated by analysts to have reached 6 million by the end of 2013,[139] figures that have not been confirmed due to Sony's ceasing to release Vita sales figures after hitting the 4 million mark at the end of 2012.[140]

Views on the hardware dropped to more moderate levels in 2013, after the platform's initial sales lulls. Surveys in Japan showed that consumers were not purchasing the device due to its high retail price and perceived lack of software variety,[141] and that current Vita owners only showed a 46% rate of approval for the device and its software library.[142] Similarly, many Western critics felt that the low sales through 2013 would lead to an early death for the product.[143][141][144][145]

From 2013 onward, Sony was able to reverse the trajectory of the system by changing focus, aiming to be more of a niche product than one with mass market appeal – focusing more on small Western mobile phone games and mid-level Japanese developed games, and attaching it to the rise of popularity of its PlayStation 4 platform with its remote play connectivity functions.[146][147][148] Sony also released the Vita model revision, the PCH-2000, which was generally well received by critics as well for addressing a number prior complaints about the system, which included a price and size reduction.[149] However, reviewers felt more mixed on the decision to change from OLED to LCD screen in the revised model,[150] with some feeling it led to a minor downgrade in image quality.[149][151]

While not giving specific figures, Sony stated that Vita sales beat projections in North America in 2014, which it was happy and surprised with, sometimes even falling out of stock.[152] Similar response was found in the UK as well.[146] The platform has been considered to have sold well in Japan,[153] where it outsold the PS4 in 2015,[154] and reached 5 million units sold in 2016 according to sales tracker Media Create.[155] It also obtained million-selling software in the same year, with the Japanese Vita release of Minecraft.[156] By the end of 2015, research firm EEDAR estimated the sales of the Vita worldwide to be around 10 million.[157] Despite the smaller userbase, the platform continues to be viable for game release into 2017 due to the high attach rate of software sold per hardware user.[158][148][159][68] Limited Run Games and various indie game developers praised the platform for its wide selection of more original and niche video games, and the strong respective sales of them.[68] In mid-2017, Glixel estimated that approximately 15 million units of the system had been sold,[68] while by September 2018, USGamer estimated it had grown to about 16 million units.[72]