Nintendo has provided an update on Nintendo Switch console and software sales today.
Whilst it’s no surprise that the Nintendo Switch is still supply strained (in every country except Australia), Nintendo has still managed to ship 4.7 million units in less than 6 months which is a pretty impressive feat. It’s hard to imagine what this number could be if you could actually buy one in NA and Japan, so hopefully Nintendo can sort that out before the Christmas period. Most analysts predicted that Nintendo Switch would only sell 5 million units in its first year so that puts into perspective just how well the console is doing.
More impressively though is just how well the games are selling. You couldn’t be blamed for thinking that these numbers were a mistake based on the console numbers you just read. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has unsurprisingly sold 3.92 million units, but the numbers are equally impressive across the board with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe selling an amazing 3.54 million copies and 1, 2 Switch and ARMS both selling more than a million copies each.
Nintendo Japan today announced that Splatoon 2 had already sold over 700,000 physical copies in Japan alone. This is with ridiculous supply constraints. It’s worth noting that Splatoon had only sold 156,000 units in the same amount of time with 2.3 million Wii U units in the wild.
It’s also worth noting that the makers of NBA Playgrounds had recently revealed that they’d sold 500,000+ copies of the game, so third party games are performing well too. Overall, software sits at 13.60 million units moved. If you haven’t already done the math, this puts Breath of the Wild at an 83% attach rate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (a re-release game) at a 75% attach rate.
You can only really sit back and applaud Nintendo’s triumphant return after the Wii U performed well below expectations. The Switch is a great console and it’s good to see that gamers are getting behind it and actually purchasing the games.