Nintendo Switch Sales Surpass 111 Million

Oh no. Nintendo is doomed!

But I am quite curious though. With the Switch being so successful, I wonder if the next console will be another failure like the WiiU, just cause the majority of the population have had their fill of Nintendo with the Switch.

Pretty nice numbers, if you ask me. It outsold the mighty Wii by almost 10 million units, and it's about to surpass the original Game Boy line (which also includes Game Boy Color sales).

Whether it will outsell the DS, the PS2, or the entire Game Boy family (which is not just the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color and their hardware revisions, but ALL versions of the Game Boy, including the GBA, GBA SP, the Micro, etc., which would put it at over 200 million units) remains to be seen.

Let's hope Nintendo doesn't change the winning formula with their next hardware. A more powerful console with some quality of life improvements would be enough!

This thing prints money, expect a Switch Pro in 2030 at this rate!

@Erigen Well, look at it this way, the PlayStation does very little in the way of innovation, yet it always sells incredibly well. And with the exception of the PS3 and the PS5 (albeit the latter due to supply chain issues), they've always sold the most units out of each console generation.

Even if Nintendo were to create a more powerful Switch 2, it could still sell, as long as they market it as a new console, and not an add-on to the original Switch, which is what they failed to do with the Wii U. That was probably their biggest mistake with the system, which is part of why it failed.

I know Switch's outdated specs are becoming a point of issue, but I do think Nintendo could coast on just the sales from software and not release a new system, even if system sales completely drop.

And of course NL immediately follows this with a troll bait article. Lol

On the successor to the Switch. I think people underestimate the importance of franchises like Pokémon, which will 99.9% come to the Switch successor. That is basically a guarantee the system will sell at least moderately well.

Almost 5 million for Switch Sports... Huh.

@Erigen the Wii U was exceptionally badly marketed. Now we have Nintendo Directs which tend to dominate gaming news whenever they occur. I think Nintendo’s brand has never been in a stronger position.

At this point Nintendo must be reluctant to release another console with such a huge install base and plenty of software still on the horizon.
Backwards compatibility has to be on their agenda surely?!

Natural satiation slowdown or not, the only genuine Pikachu faces at the year-on-year sales drops are the folks who unironically expected the bottled lightning numbers of the last two years to become the new standard. For a console in its sixth year, Switch is doing damn well (although that much is also not unexpected when you consider its key appeal, amassed library and and continued gains on the software front); unless the component supply completely nosedives under pressure, it may well hit/surpass 120 mln within this calendar year, especially with another mainline Pokemon around.

I think it easily passes Game Boy, but no way does it pass the DS in sales. Still incredible to think what a heel turn this was from the dark days of the Wii U. My only hope here is that they don't screw it up for the successor; I'm sure it'll have some new gimmick, but I'm expecting something that feels in many ways like what the SNES was to the NES.

It feels like every time you read about Playstation sales number, it's like: "This is amazing! Bestest selling console of all time! New record! Amazing!".
But if it comes to Nintendo consoles it comes across as: "Nintendo Switch sold 1 trillion units, but... whatever."

Wonder what Nintendo will do to bring this success to their next hardware. I'm fairly certain the only people clamouring for a model with better specs are a vocal minority of nerds on Reddit and Twitter. I don't really think that families or the people who bought the Switch solely for Animal Crossing would care that much about a beefier model, so Nintendo would need to put a new gimmicky spin on the next thing.

The Switch will most likely surpass the PlayStation 4 and Game Boy family because of the current rate of sales. Hitting the DS and PS2 is a dream, especially when you look into the reasons why they hit extreme success in the first place.

@SwitchVogel I’m not sure. I think if Nintendo wants that record they’ll get it at this point. A budget Switch with a pack in of MK8 at a price of £150ish will eventually be possible and if they release such a console as an entry point console then it would continue to sell for years to come.

Basically what they tried with the 3DS late life. But tied in to the long term Switch ecosystem.

@John_Deacon It sold more than Kirby in that quarter. Kirby launched in the previous quarter where it had way higher sales than Mario Strikers.

@Erigen Nintendo fixed many of the problems that they had with the WiiU... No more console/handheld split. Solid vision for what they are trying to do. Better marketing. And for better or worse, their current CEO is much more practically minded than Iwata so I doubt there'll be a huge deviation from the concept of the Switch. It sucks in a way because Nintendo has lost a lot of its creativity because of that, I think.

Nintendo would have to make some pretty bad decisions to do as bad as they did with the WiiU.

@MichaelP unfortunately it’s this ridiculous society we now live in that is plagued by negativity and this bizarre culture of looking for the worst in pretty much everything.

@StuTwo That's a fair point, I doubt they'll drop this quickly once they do introduce the successor.

@Erigen I like to believe each company needs to fail after some arrogance of dominance to create better products.

Sony: PS2 arrogance gave us PS3. That led to the successful PS4.
Nintendo: Wii Arrogance gave us Wii U. That led to the successful Switch.
Microsoft: Xbox 360 arrogance gave us Xbox1. That led to Gamepass.

Yes yes I know that's oversimplifying it, but gosh darn they need to be knocked off of pedestals to work like crazy every 2nd generation if you ask me.

I would love for Nintendo to claim that best seling console ever, think i might help a little by buying a oled version this coming black Friday.

I am pretty certain that I said this four years ago on this website, and I will say it again:

It is a great time to be a Nintendo fan.

No surprise, Q2 sales are always pretty low considering Nintendo rarely has major game releases during this quarter.

@SwitchVogel Switch has 5 years of life left (Nintendo's words not mine - so they obviously have a road map for it.) Can it sell 40 million units in 4 years? I think it can do it. It won't thrash it by a huge margin or anything but it would certainly be nice to have a games console at number one instead of a DvD player.

Fantastic News! I can't wait until Nintendo Switch outsells the ps4 and gameboy/Gameboy color. Nintendo Switch is such a Fantastic Hybrid Console.

Switch will be the third best selling dedicated game system of all time behind only the PS2 and DS after this year.

Two more years of 15+ million Switches sold plus a couple or few years of sales below 10 million, the Switch should pass the DS handedly by 2026 to become Nintendo's most successful platform in the company's history. Then celebrate by delivering the Switch's successor that same year...perhaps?

@John_Deacon Mario Party games almost always get poor to mediocre reviews, and then sell millions. It's an apparation.

@Magician It's not going to pass up the DS. The DS was released before smartphones even existed. Sony and Nintendo aren't the largest video game companies by revenue. It's Apple.

@thinkhector I disagree. The Switch should have no problem selling 43 million Switches over the next three or four years, and pass the DS. You do realize Nintendo sold 23 million Switches just last year, right?

I'm surprised it took Nintendo this long to invent the Switch. Look at that list! The NES outsold by it's handheld cousin by 50 million. The GameCube was outsold by the Gameboy Advance by 60 million. And the Wii U was outsold by the 3DS by 60 million.
Nobody should have been surprised by the Switch succes when looking at that, but we all were.
The Next Switch launch with over 8,000 games. How do I know this? Every handheld Nintendo has ever released was backwards compatible with the generation before it.

@Magician Read the article again...22% drop from last year. It's not going to hit that high again. The Switch succesor will release in late 2024/ early 2025.

An interesting point to note between Sony and Nintendo. The Switch vs PS5 is the 7th time the 2 company's have gone head to head in a generation. (Numbers got from vgcharts and measured in millions).
Round 1:
The PS1 took on the N64 and won with a sales record of 102.49 vs 32.93.
1-0 to Sony.
Round 2:
The PS2 took on the Gamecube and gave Nintendo it's biggest beating winning with a sales record of 158.7 vs 21.74.
2-0 to Sony.
Round 3:
Sony feeling confident now decided to enter the handheld space. This time the DS took on the PSP with Nintendo giving Sony its biggest beating with a sales record of 154.02 vs 80.79.
2-1 to Sony.
Round 4:
While the handhelds were fighting it out a new console generation was also released with the Wii taking on the PS3. Once again Nintendo came out on top with sales of 101.63 vs 87.4.
2-2.
Round 5:
Next it was time for the handhelds to go at it once again. This time the 3DS took on the PS Vita and won with sales of 75.94 vs 15.82.
3-2 to Nintendo.
Round 6:
At the same time as the handhelds another set of consoles went head to head with the PS4 taking on the WiiU. This time the PS4 won with current sales of 116.97 vs 13.56.
All square again at 3-3.
Round 7.
Finally we reach the current generation with the Switch taking on the PS5. There's no final score as the generation is still ongoing but the current sales have Switch ahead with sales of 110.71 vs 21.61.

@thinkhector True, but you act as though sales are going to drop off a cliff. Nintendo projects 18 million Switches will be sold this year.

Wow Switch just needs to sold 8 million more to beat both the PS4 and Game Boy.

@FlashmanHarry Officially Nintendo beat Sony more times than Sony beat them. On console both the Wii and Switch mop the floor with the PS3 and PS5 and both aren't even high powerhouse consoles. On handhelds, Sony had no chance, handheld territories had always belong to Nintendo. So the real outcome is this:

PS1 vs. N64 = PS1 Won
PS2 vs. GameCube = PS2 Won
PS3 vs. Wii = Wii Won
PS4 vs. Wii U = PS4 Won
PS5 vs. Switch = Switch Won
PSP vs. DS = DS Won
PS Vita vs. 3DS = 3DS Won
PS Vita TV vs. NES Classic Mini = NES Classic Mini Won
PS Classic Mini vs. Super NES Classic Mini = Super NES Classic Mini Won

Sony Won = 3
Nintendo Won = 6

If you only go by the home console streak and nothing else than yeah Sony does beat Nintendo more at the short time they were in the home console business but Nintendo does had two more home console victories before Sony came into the market. On the handheld side I say Sony try their best with the PSP but for PS Vita they probably got scare by the popularity of mobile phones that they left that handheld to rot, the PS Vita would had done better if Sony didn't bury it so soon. As for the mini consoles, Sony always seen those as a novelty and nothing else, the PS Vita TV was a good micro console but was hamper by the limited selection of PS Vita games it could play and the PS Classic mini was a good attempt at competing against Nintendo, Sega, and Konami with their mini systems but came out to be mediocre due to the mediocre selections and poor emulation performance.

Only 44 million away from the all time record.

Even with dropped sales they're still selling more than PS4 ever did in its best year without shortages.

As long as they keep banging 20+ million a year, the record is only a matter of time. They'll be at 127m sold next March, after 6 years. At which point they'll only need to crawl to hit the last 28m needed. That's an easy 15m for year 7, and 13m for year 8.

The only way Switch doesn't become the best selling console of all time is if Nintendo themselves interrupts its momentum with a new generation prematurely.

@Serpenterror I wouldn't be counting the mini consoles. But I'd expect this generation to end with a comfortable win for Nintendo. The 1 thing I'd take from the head to heads is that Sony has only won 1 generation in the last 15 years.

Comin for ya, Game Boy.

@SwitchVogel @StuTwo That's a fair point, I doubt they'll drop this quickly once they do introduce the successor.
Same here as well, just because a new Switch with 4K docking comes out doesn't drop the price like in terms people want. It could drop a bit but not like going from current 349.99 to like 250 or something. That would be a stretch. I can see the 4K version coming in at 400usd range or more hopefully not over 450.00 that will kill any buyers wanting that system including me.I can see the OLED going ~300 range and the 4K ~400 range but more then that would be a tough for Hardcore gamers like me to swallow.

Super impressive numbers. Switch is definitely gonna surpass 120M sold at the end of the year and surpass both PS4 and Gameboy in the process.

@Erigen Can you think of a scenario where that happens?

@John_Deacon You guys were just a loud minority. Mario Strikers: Battle League's great!

@AstroTheGamosian The Game Boy and Game Boy Colour are grouped together, there isnt some multi generational grouping that includes the GBA and its iterations. Thats like grouping together the DS and 3DS or the NES and SNES into a Entertainment System family which is ridiculous. The Switch will outsell the Gameboy/GBC grouping by Xmas this year. The only two obstacles remaining will be the DS and the PS2.

Posted this in the other article about the same thing, all on the same day no less.

To put this all into context, since launch the first quarter Switch sales are as follows.

FY 17-18 1.96 Million

FY 18-19 1.88 Million

FY 19-20 2.13 Million

FY 20-21 5.67 Million

FY 21-22 4.45 Million

FY 22-23 3.43 Million

All that stands out to me is the boost the pandemic had, and the affect of a game like Animal Crossing released at the same time, Not sure I remember many consoles outside of the Wii and DS, that have sold 3.4 million consoles in the first quarter when around 5 plus years old.

@Scoopz Well, either way, I just hope that it will get there. It's already in the Top 5, but Top 3 would be even better. And Top Dog would be ideal.

@JaxonH I have a good feeling it will outsell the ps2.
And Exactly like Sony done by releasing the ps5 too early. The ps4 could have outsold the ps2, but sony just had to interrupt ps4's momentum with a new generation prematurely. You can't even find ps5 consoles in stores for crying out loud.

@uptownsoul 44 million isn't alot. All Nintendo needs to do is release a Nintendo Switch Pro, Breath of the Wild 2, lower the prices of the older Switch Models, and BAM! That overrated DVD player doesn't have the crown anymore! Nintendo Switch has the Crown! It WILL OUTSELL the ps2!

@uptownsoul far from it. It was a grand theft auto Machine filled with shovelware. A few decent exclusives that were no where near as good as GameCube or Xbox. Xbox had Fable and Halo, GameCube had Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Ps2 had San Andreas and DVDs.

Glad Strikers and Sports sold amazing after the exaggerated doom and gloom on the game here.

@uptownsoul Time to go fishing! No need to go shopping for bait, I found the perfect bait right here!
I didn't even grow up with a PS2, but there were so many games I wanted that were on PS2 and not GameCube, like Psychonauts, Star Wars Battlefront, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X, Okami, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper, Ratchet & Clank... Dang, there were SO many PS2 games I missed out on growing up!

@SwitchVogel
but no way does it pass the DS in sales

Mmmm...

I see no way it doesn't pass DS sales at this point. They only thing that can stop it is Nintendo themselves, releasing a successor before it gets there.

Just consider the sales trajectory.

Yr 1 18m
Yr 2 35m
Yr 3 56m
Yr 4 85m
Yr 5 107m
Yr 6 128m (projected).

Switch will only be 26m away from the DS come March 2023 on its 6th year anniversary. It would only need to sell another 16m in Yr 7 and 10m in Yr 8 to break the record. Considering it did 23m last year and is on track for 21m this year, it would take a massive trend shift to not pull at least 16m and 10m the following two years.

And that's not accounting for the fact it has yet to receive a price drop, or the fact they have one good revision left in them to push at the tape. The only way Switch doesn't average 13m per yr for the next two years, is if Nintendo themselves intervenes with a successor. But given their language regarding a "longer generation" and the fact they're still blowing out over 20m units per year, I don't foresee them throwing a stick in the spokes any time soon.