Nintendo Switch sales pass 100million milestone – beats Wii record

Nintendo has announced that the Nintendo Switch is its best-selling home console of all-time.

The news came via Nintendo’s latest financial results which were published earlier today. It found that the console has sold 103.54million units since it was launched in March 2017. That figure is up until December 31, 2021 and means it has beaten the Nintendo Wii’s record.

Previously, the Nintendo Wii was Nintendo’s biggest-selling home console. It achieved sales of 101.63million in its lifespan. However, the Switch has a way to go yet to beat Nintendo’s overall biggest-selling console – the Nintendo DS. The handheld console sold 154.02million units in its time so the Switch has some ground to gain. Also, the original Nintendo Game Boy sold a whopping 118.69million units. So, that means the latest console has a lot more units to sell to be at the top.

Besides selling over 100million units, the Nintendo Switch has also seen software sales of 766.41million units which is quite remarkable.

The financial results showed that Nintendo sold 18.95million Switch consoles during the first nine months of its 2022 fiscal year. That’s down 21.4 per cent compared to the previous year but the company expects to ship 23million before the end of March.

The blame? The global semiconductor shortage that has plagued many console sales (and more) in recent times. It also thinks that the previous fiscal year saw a huge boost because of the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Despite it not being quite as good as hoped, hardware sales for the quarter were still the best during the Switch’s lifespan.

The majority of sales were of the standard Switch model with 62 per cent of units being this type. The Switch Lite accounted for 21 per cent while the new OLED model represented 16.7 per cent of sales.

Nintendo is feeling positive about the future. In its statement, it cited the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and the forthcoming release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land in March. It plans to “work to further expand the install base” via a “robust variety of appealing titles”.

Yesterday (February 2), Sony announced it had sold 17.3million PS5 consoles despite chip shortages.

Nintendo also used the time to express “interest” in NFTs, adding that it was unsure “what joy” it could provide.