Nintendo Switch is showing no symptom of slowing down. The handheld gaming hardware from Nintendo has managed to achieve another great milestone in Japan. According to Famitsu, Nintendo Switch has now sold more than 25M units in Japan. The console is already the third best selling Nintendo console of all time in Japan.
To reach number 1, it has to sell 7-8 million more units and it will surpass the lifetime sales of Nintendo DS which still the best selling console of all time from Nintendo with almost 33M units sold.
Out of these 25M units, 4.7M units are of Nintendo Switch Lite. We are not sure if these sales also have the new OLED Nintendo Switch model or not. In their recent earnings call, Nintendo revealed to have sold almost 5.8M units of OLED Switch. The Famitsu article have also shared the best selling games on Nintendo Switch as well:
- Animal Crossing New Horizons – 7.26M
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 4.9M
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 4.66M
- Sword/Shield – 4.3M
- Splatoon 2 – 4.1M
The console is also doing well in the western market. Recently, NPD reported that the Nintendo Switch has surpassed the lifetime sales of PS4 in the US becoming the 4th best selling video games console in the United States. Nintendo has definitely come out of Wii U disappointment and so many great games at their disposal, these numbers expect to improve further.
In 2022, Nintendo has a descent lineup of games with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Splatoon 3 leading its lineup. There are some other games expected to release as well in 2022 however, we don’t have release dates for them yet. There is Bayonetta 3 that is scheduled to release in 2022 with no release date. Moreover, a mainline Fire Emblem game is expected to be revealed soon.
As for Nintendo Switch 2, the company believes that transferring 100M users to a new hardware will be a difficult task. A new Nintendo Switch hardware has been rumored to be in development for a while now and we can expect Nintendo to reveal it soon. Experts believe that we can expect Nintendo Switch 2 in 2024 and no sooner than that.
It’s been 5 years and 3 Months since the release of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo doesn’t plan to reduce the support for this hardware anytime soon.
