Nintendo Switch Reportedly Passes Lifetime Sales of Nintendo Wii

It was bound to happen at some point, but it looks as though the Nintendo Switch has now surpassed the Nintendo Wii when it comes to lifetime console sales. Following another strong holiday season for the Switch to end 2021, Nintendo was finally able to beat its own milestone in hardware units sold. And while this achievement on its own is already a pretty big deal, what's even more impressive is that the Switch was able to accomplish this feat in nearly a fraction of the time. 

According to new estimates from VGChartz, the Nintendo Switch was able to sell 1.16 million units in one of the final weeks of December 2021. As such, this brought the platform's new lifetime sales total to 101.88 million units in total. To date, the Nintendo Wii sold 101.63 million units around the globe, meaning that it now happens to trail behind the Switch. Again, it's worth noting that these figures aren't official ones from Nintendo, but VGChartz tends to be quite accurate when it comes to this data. Nintendo itself should end up releasing official sales statistics before long to verify that this is factual. 

As mentioned, what has been the most staggering thing about the Nintendo Switch is the rate at which it has sold to consumers around the globe. The Nintendo Wii was first released in 2006 and wasn't officially discontinued by Nintendo until 2013. The Switch, on the other hand, debuted in early 2017, meaning that it hasn't even had a full five years of availability as of this writing. For Nintendo to best its success with the Wii this quickly is absolutely staggering. 

While the Nintendo Switch is now the best-performing home console ever made by Nintendo, it still has a bit more work to do before it passes some other hardware from the Japanese publisher. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color sold a combined 118 million units in their respective lifetimes, meaning that this is the next platform from Nintendo that the Switch will look to pass. And while it has a long way to go before breaking this threshold, the Nintendo DS still remains the best-selling platform that Nintendo has ever made at roughly 154 million units/