Earlier this week, Nintendo released its latest quarterly financial results for investors and analysts to pore over. During the most recently completed quarter, ending 30th June, Nintendo Switch hardware sales totalled 4.45 million units, and software sales totalled 45.29 million units. This means that Nintendo has now shipped 89.04 million Switch consoles since the product launched, making it the 7th biggest selling console of all time.
We are nowhere near the end of the line of the Nintendo Switch though, its popularity looks like it still has many furlongs to run, and the recently launched Switch OLED version (coming in October) should help over the next few months/year. Thus, it is quite confidently predicted that it will outsell the hugely successful Wii in the coming year (101.63m units sold). The venerable Game Boy (118.69m) is in the Switch's sights too, but that might be a target for 2023.
To put the shipment numbers in perspective, it is worth looking outside of Nintendo land. Current-gen rivals like the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox One X/S are hardware shifting tiddlers compared to the Switch, with approx 10m and 6.5m sales total to date according to most recent figures and estimates.
On the topic of Sony and Microsoft comparisons, the Switch has now outpaced consoles like the PS3 (87.4m) and Xbox 360 (86m). Nintendo's hybrid console hasn't reached the level of success of the iconic PS1 yet (102.63m) but it looks set to do so in the next few months. Perhaps the biggest prize will be the toppling of the Sony PS2, which at 155m lifetime sales, still holds the number one spot just above the 154.02m tally of the original Nintendo DS.
Of course, a large part of any Nintendo console's success comes from the exclusive gaming titles, many of which come from Nintendo itself. With this in mind, it is interesting to see what Nintendo has lined up, and the following list was compiled from new information given to investors during the recent results publication, via Nintendo Life.
- WarioWare: Get It Together! - 10th Sep, 2021
- Metroid Dread - 8th Oct, 2021
- Mario Party Superstars - 29th Oct, 2021
- Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl - 19th Nov, 2021
- Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp - 3rd Dec, 2021
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus - 28th Jan, 2022
- Splatoon 3 - 2022
- Project TRIANGLE STRATEGY (working title) - 2022
- The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (temp.) - 2022
- Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - 2022
- Bayonetta 3 - TBA
- Metroid Prime 4 (temp.) - TBA
