With 122.55 million copies sold, the Nintendo Switch has surpassed the PlayStation 4 and Game Boy to rank third among all video game consoles. The number was made public in Nintendo’s third-quarter earnings report, along with the news that 994.30 million Switch software units have now been sold.
The Switch currently trails only the Nintendo DS, which sold 154.02 million units, and the PlayStation 2, which sold 159 million units after surpassing 122.55 million units.
Despite the staggering statistic, which is an increase of eight million from November, Switch sales fell by 21.3% from 2021, when it sold 18.95 million units in the first three quarters compared to 2022’s 14.91 million units. 5.22 million of these were Nintendo Switch models 1 and 2, 7.69 million were OLED models, and 2 million were Nintendo Switch Lite models.
However, Nintendo pointed out that 2021 saw the launch of the OLED model, which could be a reason for increased sales. Nintendo acknowledged that the impact of semiconductor and other component shortages, which have dogged the hardware market for the last two years, has been resolved for this holiday season.
But for the time being, Switch software sales are still doing well. This generation of Pokémon games is now the fourth best-selling one in history thanks to the phenomenal 20 million copies that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sold in their first six weeks of release.
Another recent title, Splatoon 3, has sailed to 10 million sales, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch’s best seller, has sold an astounding 52 million copies, joining a very select group of games like Tetris, Wii Sports, Minecraft, and Grand Theft Auto 5.
Switch has sold more games overall (994 million) than any other Nintendo console (thanks, presumably, to its thriving digital marketplace). Few people thought that the Switch, which was based on hardware that was already pretty old when it came out six years ago, could be this popular.
But Nintendo’s pitch, which combined home and portable gaming in a single device and relied on the proven power of its in-house software, was straightforward and succeeded. Nintendo must decide whether to merely adapt the Switch design for the upcoming hardware generation or to try something new. The first may seem obvious, but Nintendo is always coming up with new ideas. The Game Boy, the Wii, and the Switch are some of its biggest hits.
