With over 89.04 million units sold, Switch is just 12 million units shy of eclipsing Wii (at 101 million units) to become Nintendo’s most successful console venture to date. The numbers come from Nintendo’s latest financial results, showing the company shipped another 4.45 million Switch units in the first quarter of this year. These numbers are down 21.7 percent from the previous year, with net sales coming in at $2.94 billion, a decline of 9.9 percent.
Nintendo’s first-quarter sales last year were lifted by Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game that sold over 10 million copies in that time. Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ sales haven’t slowed much, making it the second best-selling Switch game with 33.89 million units sold. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sits in the top slot at 37.08 million units, with Super Smash bros. Ultimate ranking third at 24.77 million units, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in fourth with 23.20 million units.
Switch’s booming numbers push it beyond the successes of Sony’s PlayStation 3 (which sold 87.4 million units), and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (which sold over 80 million units). PlayStation 2 remains the top-selling console of all time with over 155 million units sold.
Switch doubles as a console and handheld, and currently sits third in Nintendo’s gaming-on-the-go category. Nintendo DS is number one with 154.02 million units sold, and Game Boy is second with 118.69.
Expect to see Switch sales boom again during the holidays following the release of the new Switch OLED model on October 8. As always, Nintendo has several highly anticipated games on the horizon that will help move units as well, beginning with Metroid Dread (also hitting on October 8). A sequel to Breath of the Wild will follow in 2022.
