The Nintendo Switch will be on the market for almost five years. It is just halfway through its product cycle. Despite this, it’s already one of the best-selling consoles of all time.
The Japanese gaming group Nintendo has surpassed the mark of 100,000 units sold with its Switch games console. The Switch is now the third best-selling device in the world for home consoles.
Nintendo Switch is selling at record speed
In the meantime, customers around the world have purchased 103.5 million switch consoles, more than the previous model Wii, which was also successful, the group announced on Thursday. That makes it the best-selling Nintendo home console of all time. Sales span both revisions of the Switch (HAC001 and HAC001(-01)), the Switch Lite and the 2021 Switch OLED.
The number one game console sold worldwide is behind Information from the market data provider Statista Sony’s Playstation 2 with 158 million devices sold. Behind them are the handheld consoles Nintendo DS with 155 million and Nintendo Game Boy with 120 million. The Switch ranks fifth, one rank higher is the Playstation 4 from Sony. However, this has been on the market since 2013, four years longer than the switch. While it’s largely been superseded by the PS5 now, the console still has many years ahead of it. It is therefore likely that the Switch will break more records. Especially given the fact thatSony and Microsoft have delivery bottlenecks with their new consoles. Both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are barely available – which benefits the competition.
Switch growth levels off somewhat
Despite the excellent numbers, Nintendo warns of declining sales. Running out of steam as the console soon celebrates its fifth birthday. In the first nine months of the fiscal year ending in March, Nintendo sold 18.95 million switches after 24.1 million in the same period last year. For the year as a whole, the group, which is known for the games in the Super Mario series, Animal Crossing, Zelda and Pokemon, reduced its sales forecast to 23 million from the previous 24 million devices.
In gaming, the big players like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft release a new console every few years to keep up with technological advances and boost sales. For example, an OLED model of the Switch has been on the market since October, and almost four million were sold by the end of the year.
Also read: Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard – “Call of Duty” never again for PlayStation?
Microsoft and Sony are spending a lot of money right now – how about Nintendo?
There is currently a lot of movement in the gaming sector. Microsoft, for example, wants to strengthen its Xbox games console and is reaching out to “Call of Duty” developer Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. Online and cloud gaming is also on the rise. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa is not fundamentally opposed to acquisitions, but: “It wouldn’t be a plus to suddenly have people who don’t think like Nintendo does.”
From October to December, Nintendo’s operating profit rose 10 percent to 252.5 billion yen (1.95 billion euros). Nintendo therefore raised the bar for full-year operating profit, which should now amount to 560 billion yen, eight percent more than previously forecast.