©Nintendo
On March 3, 2017, Nintendo released its brand new console, the Switch. After the real Nintendo Wii U disaster, many saw the Switch as the Japanese giant's swan song, “one last console before dying “… And we have to admit that Nintendo had no room for error, while putting on the market (at the time) a console which was still surrounded by numerous (and worrying) gray areas. The future has finally proven the Japanese firm right, the Nintendo Switch being on the verge of breaking all records.
More than 142 million consoles sold (and counting!)
Indeed, while Nintendo recently mentioned its future Switch 2, the group also took stock of its current console. And even if this future console will be announced by March 2025, Nintendo intends to sell a few more palettes of Switch.
© Nintendo
And if the trend is (logically) downward, Nintendo Switch sales continue to be significant. During the fiscal year just past, Nintendo sold no less than 15.7 million Switches worldwide. In total, the Nintendo Switch has sold 142 million copies.
Hundreds of millions of cartridges in circulation
Of course, with tens and tens of millions of Nintendo Switches in the wild, game cartridges have also enjoyed unprecedented success. And against all odds, it’s an “old” 2014 game which is very much in the lead, namely Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. First launched on Wii U, the game enjoyed a second life on Nintendo Switch, with nearly 62 million sales.
© Nintendo
The racing game ranks far ahead of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, launched during confinement in 2020, and which peaked at 45.3 million sales. Coming in third is Super Smash Bros Ultimate, with just over 34 million sales. Added to this are Zelda: Breath of the Wild (32 million), Super Mario Odyssey (28 million), Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (20.6 million), Super Mario Bros Wonder (13.4 million) …
With its future Nintendo Switch 2, it is obvious that Nintendo will allow these same cartridges to be reusable. As was the case with the launch of the NEW Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Switch 2 will also benefit from its own game cartridges, which will be (and logically) incompatible with the first generation of Nintendo Switch.
The 155 million of the PS2 soon to be exceeded ?
As mentioned above, the Nintendo Switch has exceeded 142 million sales…. and the Japanese giant Table, for the 2024-2025 financial year, on a total of 13.5 million additional sales. A quick calculation gives a score of 155.5 million sales by March 2025… which is the sales record for the PS2.
In fact, launched in 2000, Sony's PS2 was an incredible success, peaking at 155 million sales worldwide. A score that seemed unbeatable a few years ago, but that the Nintendo Switch could well surpass in a few months.
With its Switch and its hybrid side (and unlike classic home consoles), Nintendo has managed to install several consoles within the same household. It is not uncommon in a family to have, for example, a Nintendo Switch OLED for the parents, replacing the classic Nintendo Switch that the big brother inherited, while the little sister enjoys her side of a Nintendo Switch Lite.
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