Despite being nearly three years old, the Nintendo Switch continues its dominance in the video game realm. During its latest financial report, Nintendo revealed it has soldmore than 50 million consoles, putting it ahead of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and almost quadrupling the lifetime sales of the Wii U.
Nintendo’stotal Switch hardware salesnow stand at approximately 52 million units, about 3 million more than the SNES.
The Wii U, which was available for nearly five years before the Switch launched, only managed to sell about 13.5 million units and a little over 100 million games. More than 310 million Switch games have been sold since the hybrid console was released in March 2017.
Nintendo attributed the strong numbers to the debut of the Nintendo Switch Lite and releases includingPokémon SwordandShield,Luigi’s Mansion 3,andSuper Mario Maker 2. The latter two have sold more than 5 million copies each, while the dualPokémontitles eclipsed 16 million combined.Mario Kart 8 Deluxeremains the best-selling Switch game of all-time, which can be partially attributed to its inclusion in console bundles during holiday periods.
Switch sales will likely spike in the first quarter of 2020 whenAnimal Crossing: New Horizonscomes out on March 20. It’s the first full game in the series sinceNew Leaffrom 2012, and the first on a home console since the Wii’sCity Folkover a decade ago. The rest of 2020 is less certain as Nintendo has not confirmed release dates for upcoming games likeBayonetta 3or itsThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildsequel. The Switch will also have to compete withXbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, which both launch later this year and are set to feature massive performance improvements.
Despite going all-in on Switch development and moving on from the 3DS, Nintendo has another major revenue source: Mobile games. Nintendo has generated more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue through its mobile games, according toSensor Tower, with the majority coming fromFire Emblem Heroes. This game uses a free-to-play model, as does the newerMario Kart Tour, which has made more than $86 million since its launch in late 2019.
