Nintendo today released sales figures for the Switch, and it should really not come as a huge surprise to know that it’s surpassed 15 million units sold in North America alone. That means Nintendo’s hybrid console is dominating its two main competitors, the PS4 and the Xbox One.
According to the NPD Group, a market research company, the Switch has been the top-selling video game console in U.S. for 10 months now. The sales figures are probably bolstered by the release of the Switch Lite, a handheld-only version of the game released earlier this year. Mat Piscatella, games industry analyst for NPD Group, said on Twitter “Nintendo Switch is the only platform with sales gains both in September as well as year-to-date.”
The fact that the Switch has eclipsed its fellow consoles might say as much, if not more, about its unique place in the console generation as it does about the Switch itself. While the PS4 and Xbox One are headed for their sunset days — Sony and Microsoft are revving up the hype cycles for the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett, respectively — the Nintendo Switch is still young, fresh, and has a steady stream of quality games coming out for it.
Besides the new releases, Nintendo is also on a crusade to have just about every game — indie, AAA, or retro — on the Nintendo Switch. This means that, for a console with only two years of life behind it and no physical backwards compatibility, the Switch has a staggeringly large library. While Microsoft and Sony are undoubtedly going to squeeze every last drop of blood they can out of their consoles before the next generation comes out, we already know it’ll be at least a year before one of them (the PS5) will be available to buy — that’s a lot of space to fill.
Nintendo also said that four Switch games have sold more than 6 million units in North America: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. None of those should really come as a surprise to anyone. That’s basically the Nintendo franchise Dream Team. The company also touted its holiday lineup, which will include Luigi’s Mansion 3, the Wii Fit successor Ring Fit Adventure, and of course a new Pokémon twofer.
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The console isn’t without its issues — the hardware problems, the fact that you still need your phone close by to play multiplayer — but right now it’s the most vibrant and promising of the consoles currently on the market. I suspect once we see the PS5 or Project Scarlett properly, people might start saving their money for those.
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