The phenomenal success of the Switch leaves the failure of the Wii U far behind

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The Switch took advantage of the last quarter of 2021 to cross 100 million sales, surpass the Wii and become the best-selling home console in Nintendo history.

The Switch passed a milestone at the end of last year. Since its launch in March 2017, the console has sold 103.54 million copies – can we discover in the figures published by Nintendo on February 3. This performance is linked to a consequence: the Switch has overtaken the Wii (101.63 million) to become the best-selling home console in the history of the Japanese firm. Please note that the term ‘home console’ is a bit misleading when it comes to the Switch, since it is a hybrid product (not to mention that the Lite model is 100% portable)

In any case, only the Nintendo DS (154.02 million) and the Game Boy (118.69 million) have outsold the Switch in Nintendo’s history. To manage to climb into this top 3, the console had a busy end to the year in a context of shortage.

Between October 1 and December 31, 10.67 million Switch were sold (-8%). For comparison, Sony was only able to sell 3.9 million PS5s.

Nintendo Switch, Switch OLED and Switch Lite // Source: Louise Audry for Numerama

The Switch erases the failure of the Wii U

We recall that the Switch range welcomed the OLED version in October 2021. This more upscale version signed a “ very good start according to Nintendo. In figures, this gives 3.99 million sales: it sold more in a single quarter – truncated – than the Switch Lite (3.17 million in nine months).

The five best-selling consoles in history (source: Oscar Lemaire):

  • PlayStation 2 (Sony): 155 million;
  • Nintendo DS (Nintendo): 154.02 million;
  • Game Boy / Game Boy Color (Nintendo): 118.69 million;
  • PlayStation 4 (Sony): 116.9 million;
  • Switch (Nintendo): 103.54 million.

The Switch is therefore only a little over 10 million copies away from the PlayStation 4. If the bewildering cruising speed of Nintendo’s console continues, it can climb into the top 3 in a few month.

We will not forget to point out that the Switch also allows Nintendo to sell games by the millions. In 2021, five new titles, including two recycled titles, met with great success:

All these high-flying commercial performances allow Nintendo to forget the bitter failure that was the Wii U, which ended its sad career at 13.56 million copies. Here it is now surrounded by two consoles that have exceeded 100 million in sales, which further supports the disappointment.





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