It’s pretty staggering just how well the Nintendo Switch has sold in the last year and a half. And if you need a good comparison to go off of, check out the Nintendo GameCube.
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Even though it didn’t perform as well as the Xbox or PlayStation 2 in its lifetime, the GameCube still managed to shuffle off 21.7 million units during its run. But that wasn’t enough to stop the Nintendo Switch, as the publisher recently reported that the little system that could has just cleared 22 million units sold worldwide.
Although the GameCube didn’t have the killer library that the Switch has now, with games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, it was still home to memorable favorites like Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II and the iconic Super Smash Bros. Melee. So this is no small feat.
Granted, the Switch still has a mounting task ahead of it when it comes to topping more popular hardware. The Nintendo 64 has sold 33 million units in its lifetime, and the new system likely won’t reach that number until sometime next year. Then there’s the Wii, which sold 101 million units in its run; and although that number isn’t entirely unattainable, it’ll take a while for Switch to get to that point.
And as you can see from the chart below, the system’s sell-through rate has been pretty steady over the past few months, continuously adding to the 22 million-plus number that we have now.
Said Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, “Consumer interest in Nintendo Switch is leading to sales of the system. This chart shows Nintendo Switch sell through in the markets of Japan, the US, and Europe in and after April of this year. As you can see, sell-through dipped in April and May but then grew especially in the Europe and US markets, fueled by E3 in June and the dissemination of information surrounding that event and the release of major titles.
We will continuously work to encourage those who have purchased the games to continue to play their Nintendo Switch systems and also to pique the interest of those who do not own the games.
The Nintendo Switch business is now on a stable growth trajectory.”
We’ll see where the Nintendo Switch goes from here, especially with the Pokemon Let’s Go and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate games coming our way over the next few weeks!
