The Nintendo Switch has secured legendary status in the gaming realm by surpassing 100 million worldwide sales of the console in its various guises, overtaking the mighty Nintendo Wii in the process.
In its latest earnings report, the company announced a further 18.95m Switch sales in the nine months until the end of 2021, taking the total to 103.54 million in total since the device went on sale in 2017.
Of that tally, the Switch OLED has accounted for 3.99 million, while 17.89m Switch Lite handhelds have been sold.
The overall figure surpasses the tally reached by the Nintendo Wii during its lifespan, which racked up 101.63m. It’s a staggering performance from Nintendo, which puts into context what a revelation the Switch has been in the last five years.
The Switch also goes ahead of the original Sony PlayStation in the standings which sold 102.49 million as it took the world by storm with its CD drive. Nintendo now has the PS4 in its sights, and could overcome that 116.9 million by the end of the year, although Sony is still producing the console and selling it, in light of continuing PS5 shortages.
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Nintendo is expecting to sell 23 million Switch consoles in 2022, which is slightly down on the 24 million it was initially predicting. That lower projection is down to the continued shortage of semiconductors that’ll limit how many Switch consoles Nintendo can keep on shelves.
“The outlook for semiconductors and other components has remained uncertain since the start of this fiscal year and distribution delays remain unresolved, so production and logistics continue to be impacted,” Nintendo said in a statement.
Top of the pile overall, in terms of all-time sales, is still the mighty PlayStation 2, which is a long way ahead on around 155 million. The Nintendo DS and GameBoy families (spanning multiple generations) are in second and third respectively. What odds the Nintendo Switch topping the pile by the time it hangs up its Joy-Cons?
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.