Switch Sales Pace Almost Identical To That Of Nintendo 3DS After Same Time Period

It's 34,74, not 34,47!!!

But now Nintendo has only one console for home and portable, 3DS is just there for show (their income will be 50% of what they used to have).

The grand old days of Wii and DS can never be surpassed.

Coo, look at the state of those graphs. I'm going to have to have a quick ten minutes on Excel with the door locked.

i thought it was tracking wii sales ?

Wait, so Switch has sold more in Europe and US individually than Japan?
And Japan gets the My Nintendo physical rewards???

These charts aren't very accurate. At the 2 year mark the Switch should be over 30 million but it's clearly under.

Also, last I checked it's 2 year(s) after launch not year.

Later responses makes sense. These charts are 3 regions only and not the whole world.

Didn't the 3DS sales get off to a shocker if I remember correctly (until the sudden price drop of course)

This is actually great, considering the fact that the 3ds was a lot cheaper than the Switch.

@Marios-love-child Yes. The 3DS did horribly until the price drop, also for the fact that the games weren't there at launch (at least not great ones for a while) and the fact that the online store wasn't available for almost a year in. First adopters (like myself) were disappointed for a while, just able to play their DS titles. At least they did it right with the Switch for that.

Kind of makes you wonder on what will happen come 2020 when Sony and Microsoft and Google come out with theirs. Indie developers will flock to those, leaving nintendo up to keep the pace going for the Switch...hopefully it doesn't mean that nintendo will release a new console so quickly (before the 5 year mark is even up) but who knows. 2020 will tell, and I'm thinking the system will still sell, but hopefully not a drought in games during that time period. Hopefully nintendo has some nice collections and remasters up their sleeves for the 2020 mark to keep the sales going strong! Can't wait to see if the Switch surpasses the Wii's lifetime sales!

I want to see a 4 year graph just to see the Wii U's line.

@JLPick Indies will still be on the switch. Mist of them are not that demanding and they sell well on switch. 3rd party will dry up, but only after the Plattform transition time, since most games currently in development are still either for this generation or cross generation. So I think the software supply is safe until 2021 and at that point in time, the next console for Nintendo should nit be that far away. Especially uf they are doing a switch 2.

@ryancraddock, like @Spoony_Tech said, Switch official numbers were over 32mi in December 31st, when it was 1y 10 months old. But the graph is saying it was not even at 30mi at the 2 years mark. Please clarify this or update the article to inform this inaccuracy.

Sadly the Switch control stick quality is not the same as the circle pads.

@SuperCharlie78 I think you had too much coffee this morning...

@nintendolie income could still be higher if their profit margins are more on switch, and the software attach rate is significantly higher

Not a good sign considering all their eggs are in one basket this generation. They need to be more in line with Wii than 3DS.

@Spoony_Tech "it's 2 year(s) after launch not year"

It's from Ntinedo, so I'm chalking that up to translation. Not to be too stereotypical but that's how I translate it w/ a bad accent in my head from watching all of those Jackie Chan movies.

The <30m thing, well yeah that's just obviously wrong. I'm guessing Nintnedo was just going for relative trends, not accuracy w/ these charts.

Switch being on pace w/ 3DS does make sense though as they both launched in March.

Wooow at watching at that chart graphic.
Was the Wii U really that bad at sales?
I'm excited for the Switch, wish we could know how the numbers compared to the SNES, N64 and GC. Looks far away from the Wii, but it still can manage to be the second most selling Nintendo's home console, right?

That Wii graph compared to WiiU's 1 is just sad

@ryancraddock @Spoony_Tech @RennanNT The figures in the graph are for JP/NA/EU only so I guess it makes sense they're lower

If Switch has sold 34.74m why does the graph only go to about 29m?

@rbygscrsedppbw That make sense now. That leaves quite a bit left over for the rest of the world.

@nintendolie Judging from the graphs the Switch is not even outselling the 3DS and Wii U combined, which means they aren't even doing as well as last generation.

Of course the more significant question is are they selling more software than in previous years?

I think de switch will easily outsell the 3ds.
I suspect the line-up will remain good and with a possible price cut (in 2020 when ps5/xb2 launch?) it has the potential to do crazy numbers.

We need to rember 3ds sold so well since the price cut. Switch is selling as good without a price cut.

@nintendolie Switch hasn't put out it's $199 version yet. When it does, sales are going to spike, big time.

@ZeldaNX Nailed it.

If they can have more Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey quality games then the Switch should fly off of the shelves

It is possible if we get a genuine Pro, to rival the PS and a smaller console that will replace the 3ds.

I have my money waiting for the Pro. If Nintendo don't take it Sony can have it for the PS5.

Those numbers are gonna soar when Animal Crossing hits. Mark my words.

@JLPick

I thought so, I too was an early adopter, I seem to remember the sales initially being strong i.e first few weeks then falling off a cliff due to lack of software.

The ambassador programme was a nice gesture but It always makes me think twice about buying consoles day one.

That said I have since bought the Wii U & the Switch day one as well haha

@nintendolie my thoughts exactly

Everybody seems to forget when comparing to the Wii U/3DS era- yes, Nintendo has just one machine now, but that handheld stream has been replaced by the mobile stream which has been pretty successful, and they will be adding streams for movies and theme parks soon.

Its pace is just the same as PS4 in its third year on the market. PS4 is currently the 6th best selling platform of all time, and it'll probably finish in the top three before PS5 launches. There's little doubt that the Switch will eventually pass the Wii as Nintendo's second best all-time selling platform behind the DS (150m).

"Two year after launch"

This year's holiday lineup looks incredible, and should really give it a nice boost. I do feel it needs a big 1st party title in the vein of Breath of the Wild or Metroid Prime, to appeal to that audience.

@nintendolie it depends.
Wii DID sell a ton of hardware but it's gobal software sales were apparently close to underwhelming outside of specific first party titles. In many ways the era might have been a different story were it not for the DS software and hardware sales.

In comparison the Switch sounds like it's having a solid performance in both software and hardware(especially compared to the WiiU era that precedes it)without the hurdle of having to provide logistical support for two different consoles now that they have reunited both handheld and TV support under the wings of a single platform.

And while first party titles still dominate, the Switch itself is standing out through the success even third party developers(and indies in particular) are achieving themselves compared to previous nintendo eras(the Wii and WiiU era in particular were some of the worst examples of lopsided first/third party balance in fact).

It's not the massive amount of consoles sold the Wii achieved(though, interestingly, the Switch might be on the path to outsell the Wii in some localized regions like Japan if it isn't already the case) but it's far from dire.

In fact current numbers place it's performances as comparable to that of the PS4 at similar periods of its lifespan. Perhaps even doing slightly better.

That a nintendo home-supported console generation is now doing as well as an handheld of the previous generation is not bad too as the handheld lines normally traditionally outsold their home console cousins. So this might be further indication the Switch has a good future in front of itself still.

@nin10doom to be honest considering Pokemon is landing close to the holidays it may well already have one.

Unless they REALLY mess it up, we're taking about a potential console seller at least half as good as Smash by itself... and I wouldn't be surprised to see it outdo Smash in fact because it's a franchise with a LOT of appeal both among the mainstream and subsets of hardcore gamers(there's something about the complexity once you get into moves balance, breeding, hidden ability and base stats improvements once get into that. Also Ditto is basically any pokemon breeder's best friends one you want to get more than one of these starter pokemons).

@milliag yup. Plus mobile is one where they don't even have to worry about console logistics while the Switch basically allowed them to unify the logistics of supporting handheld and TV play under the wings of a single console platform.

And while the 3DS didn't achieve the massive heights of the DS it still remains a powerhouse all of it's own.

For an even pricier console like the Switch to achieve performance equal to the 3DS that was cheaper even back then it's no small achievement to be honest.

And that's -without- a mainline pokemon(the franchise most associated with Nintendo handhelds) title yet... which is exactly what we're getting this holidays.

I'm seeing surprising level of activity even on the older 6th(rather than 7th) generation titles and I heavily suspect it's people dusting off their collection in preparation for the new title later this year.

I know that's why I have, myself(in fact I've just finally completed X for the very first time finally just yesterday).

@MoonKnight7 animal Crossing, pokemon sword/shield.

Both - massive- hits waiting to happen

@luxoricious it was.

Only 13 million lifetime consoles sales. Switch literally trounced it on it's very first year iirc, if not in a matter of months.

@Ludovsky

True, true. Sorry, I didn't have my coffee yet, totally forgot about Pokemon, but yes absolutely. Monster sales in the making.

It should be noted that the graphs only account for sales in Japan, North America, and Europe. Every territory outside of those 3 regions is not accounted for in those graphs.

In particular, Asia is ignored, where the Switch is selling 5× faster than the 3DS.

@Ludovsky Oh for sure! Pokemon is gonna sell like hotcakes, and definitely be a system seller along with Animal Crossing.
I was referring to BoTW and Metroid Prime in that they're a bit edgier/darker/mature in their appeal.

The main reason why the Switch isn't selling as fast as the Wii was that unlike the Wii the Switch has no real exclusives in terms of third party which persuade people who want to play a third party game less likely to get a Switch as a lot of third party games that were released on Switch are either last gen ports or remastered or the fact that most are high quality and cost less to buy on the other platforms. If Nintendo want the Switch to succeed they need to secured third party exclusives soon cause Octopath Travelers ain't an exclusive anymore and I don't think having Shin Megami Tensei V being the only upcoming third party exclusive at this point is going to help. Switch needs more than just one third party exclusive, something the Wii had that Switch needs. Having first and second party exclusives are cool but Switch needs more third party to be dominant.

Also Nintendo needs to solve the situation on how third party handle it's game support, stuff like selling a physical case with just a download code (like Wolfenstein Youngblood) should never happen. More storage space support also needs to happen, Nintendo really needs to release a firmware update that would allow customer to fully use external hardware on the Switch cause 32gb ain't enough and 400gb microSD can't hold all of everything especially since physical games are coming with huge update patch now. Having support for 2tb of external hard drive would be a breathe of fresh air for the Switch.

All Nintendo needs is a no joy drift controller and some I don't know more demos or more awesome music.

So now that it fell behind the Wii and PS4 we comparing it to the 3DS

The 3DS sold 75M (and got tons of games) so still good in my book... Just think a few more big titles and could be at the same pace.

@nin10doom to a degree while more BOTW would be good it's definitely less of an urgent thing because they're there already and still continue to sell mooow game.

Which is not saying I don't want more but rather it just add to how much of a great move it was for nintendo to have these games(ontop of being such knockout hits) present on the very first year of the Switch after both the Wii and WiiU.

The Wii was saved from the WiiU's fate in that regard by Twilliight Princess and even that owe a LOT to the presence of Midna as a stellar support character helping the game shine despite it's pace that felt relatively disjointed at times to not mention how empty some of the world felt.

Meanwhile Skyward Sword so massively messed up what goodwill was retained by TP to a level that likely made the succeeding WiiU worst with only ports until the arrival of BOTW.... which by that point automatically became synonymous with the success of the Switch despite it's WiiU presence.

I think we'll likely see more titles like BOTW but I highly suspect we'll see Nintendo putting intense care into making sure they're at least as good before releasing so that they can similarly carry the Switch for years rather than months.

Which is to say it's likely very much not a coincidence that Metroid Prime 4 is delayed as they'd rather deal with a delayed game like BOTW that became a Smash hits despite coming out years later than expected rather than deal with another Skyward Sword falling so hard in the view of the public coming close from killing a franchise.

I have a friend who hasn't purchased a nintendo game or console in years now because of how much they hated Skyward Sword and it's a dislike so intense they very much decided they'd never give nintendo a second chance again after purchasing an entire console just to play a game they came to hate so much.

Judging by the WiiU generation performances I feel they were very much not the only one to the point it's perhaps a miracle that the Switch has reversed that trend as much as it did

@ryancraddock @rbygscrsedppbw ooohhhhh. Indeed. Not sure why they would hide the rest of the world, specially when it would actually put it higher than 3DS, but oh well. Thanks.

@Agramonte just a side note but "only" 75m was still seen as a solid performance for the 3DS.

The success of the DS was an extremely tough act to follow and at the end of the day these numbers still meant the 3DS outsold the NES/SNES/N64/Gamecube and it literally took the lightning- in-a-bottle of the Wii to finally get anything above these numbers on home console side.

Traditionally other handhelds have done better than the 3DS admittedly but they all benefited from a context the 3DS didn't benefit from anymore: releasing before the advent of smartphones and mobile gaming.

Dropping only to a level of 75M consoles was not necessarily a defeat as the surprise might rather be that it didn't drop to an even lower level.

In comparison Sony went from the PSP released alongside the DS going from 80mil to crumpling rp a measly 10-15mil units by the time of the Vita, the 3DS's contemporary.

In comparison the surprise with the 3DS isn't that it "dropped" to 75mil but that it survived the advent of smartphone gaming at all when the novelty of it's dual screens had already faded and smartphones kept improving tech wise over the span of the entire 3DS generation.

In comparison the Switch already succeeded where it needed to: besting the previous nintendo home console gen(the beleaguered WiiU) and at least equaling the previous handheld gen despite a higher cost of entry. For a system trying to bridge the chasm between handheld and home, nintendo couldn't asks for better.

Especially when you consider the Switch itself sell at a profit unlike the WiiU selling at a loss. And while it doesn't come closer to Wii hardware sales it might well be overtaking even the "successful" Wii on the software front which represent much more profits than hardware. Which is a statistic not mentioned in this graph.

Just because it's not a record breaker doesn't mean it's not a success. It's already outsold not only the WiiU(13.5mil) but also the Gamecube(21.7mil) and the N64(32.9mil compared to the Switch's last reported 34.7mil).
If it just continue at the current pace it may well outsold the lifetime sales of the SNES(49.1mil, actually a drop compared to the NES 61.9mil and yet we still consider the console part of Nintendo's golden age) by the end of it's lifetime(the SNES' contemporary, the Sega Genesis, is already outsold considering it achieved only 30.75mil in it's lifetime).

Nintendo is in the business of making sure they achieve monetary success. As long as they make more profit than losses, that's still success.

Just because they haven't sold more consoles yet than an "opposition" that sells theirs at a loss doesn't meant Nintendo have "lost" as long as they still make enough money to pay employees and other costs while retaining a profit. Especially when the portable nature of the Switch and small size ratio allow it very exist -alongside- other consoles rather than the exclusion of.

Literally putting them in the position of being able to exist in supplement to other consoles rather than direct competition with.

Like, I feel weird that we bash the 2 years old Switch for not having equaled the 6 years old PS4 but not the PS4 for have sold only 98mil units compared to the 155mil units of the PS2(which outsold the 100mil of even the Wii).

The Switch is still doing very well exactly where it needs to be no matter what doomsayers are saying. Just because it's not beating the record breakers of the entire history of consoles doesn't mean it's any failure.

Like even the "golden age" SNES sold less unit than the NES whereas the Switch already not just the WiiU but also the Gamecube and N64. And may well come close to even the "glorious" NES by the end of whatever will be the lifespan of the Switch if it doesn't beat literally beat it.

At the level the Switch reached, it would have to not sell a single console in the next 2-4 years to actually truly become a failure and with many of the titles still coming up like Pokemon it's nigh guaranteed to reach at least 40-50mil consoles with time still left to go in it's lifespan which would put it out there right next to the NES/SNES.

Again just because it's not the lighting in a bottle of the Wii and PS2, in an era where even the "generation leader" PS4 still has yet to reach above the Wii with a PS5 now confirmed likely leading further PS4 sales to drastically slow down, doesn't mean the Switch is "dying".

I just hope games continue to be released for a good few years yet as I have only had mine for a couple month

It's "ancient history" now, but the first year the Wii was out, you literally could never find it in stores...it took them about a year to finally be able to manufacture enough to meet the demand (which is why Switch sales at first match the Wii, but then drop).

Another factor to remember: in 2006, there was no iPhone (or any smart phone). You really only had either Nintendo or Sony handhelds, consoles, or PC's...I don't think we'll ever see console or handheld sales like we did with the Wii or DS again.

@Agramonte 75 million is still a lot. Other than the Wii which was sold to everyone from children to geriatrics, the switch is on track to be their best console marketed towards gamers.

It outsold 64 and cube, and it will probably overtake SNES and NES.

However with all of theirs sales being tied to one platform, the revenue really needs to be up. That's a problem I haven't thought of.

Nintendo can probably never go back to traditional consoles now, so they need to make it work.

@Ludovsky don't forget Nintendo delayed the GC version (the real version) of TP a month to boost Wii sales.

@Lone_Beagle More people play video games now then ever before. It's just that the market is more fragmented now. Super casuals play on phone, hardcore gamers are on PC, hardcore console guys buy Xbox or PlayStation, Nintendo fans buy Nintendo which also serves largely as a complimentary console, etc.

PS2 sold so well because it was the cheapest DVD player in 2000. DVD players were stupid expensive back then. Same with the PS3 and blu ray.

Wii sold so well because motion was a novel concept. Rehab hospitals still have them.

@Trajan @Ludovsky

Yeah didn't mean anything by "only" (just more like, it had a higher aim before). Love my 3DS, it is still a great handheld and you both right - 75M is a great achievement. Edited it.

@Trajan "However with all of theirs sales being tied to one platform, the revenue really needs to be up. That's a problem I haven't thought of."

On the flip side of things they only have the logistics, supply chain, operating system updates/etc of a single console to worry about anymore which probably mean it's own level of economies to balance things out.

Like, a fair bit of the 3DS revenues in the last generation probably ended used up purely to make up for the losses endured because of the WiiU which could have made the 3DS more profitable if there hasn't been the WiiU to worry about as I recall even just the operating system maintenance and development of the WiiU was quite the nightmare iirc.

(In fact I suspect the Switch UI is kept so bare bone streamlined because people came out of the WiiU OS development and basically went basically "Never Again")

@LavaTwilight I dunno but with people still buying Zelda, Mario and now Smash I'd say they already have.

Plus now we have Mario Maker 2, Fire Emblem and even a new Platinum Games game coming up.

To not mention Pokemon which might be all a lot of people are waiting for too finally trade their 3DS for a Switch if i'm too judge by all the people playing XY/AlphaRedOmegaSaphire/SunMoon online right now to likely rev themselves up for Sword and Shield to not mention collecting all the gen6-7 pokemons they'll intend to transfer to the gen8 game using the pokemon bank*

*I was surprised by the effort the pokemon folks went to that kind of pokemon completionist crowd. All the pokemons that exists are coded into Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon to support such generational transfers.

All. Of. Them.

For a "casual" franchise they're surprisingly hardcore in that regard.

@Lone_Beagle thanks for being another person to point out the smartphone factor regarding handheld sales.

It's really why people are amazed the Switch IS doing so well.

On first glance, on paper, it should have been dead on arrival but all these quirks on paper just combined to make it one of their best consoles for many factors that's doing superbly well considering the context.

A lot of the complain that it's not doing as well than the Wii or DS sounds like it primarily come from excitable stocks analyst/shareholders who believe anything below record breaking following record breaking is somehow utter failure as if growth had to be perpetually exponential without regard to context/logistics or even true costs vs profits analysis(for example: the Switch is not just selling more consoles than the WiiU. It's actually selling all of them at a -profit- while the WiiU was selling at a loss it HAD to make up in software sales... and didn't. Whereas Switch is selling hardware AND software by the boatload in comparison).

@Swindla considering how 2017 BOTW and Mario Odyssey are still giving Nintendo money even as Smash proves that new games games still bring in even AND get more people to buy the Switch( with pokemon set to do the same this year).... I think the Switch's future will be pretty assured for at least a good while.

If anything the lean early year but strong summer to holidays releases might just mean this is the pattern Nintendo realize work best and where(and when) to focus their ressources and biggest hits to ensure every successive years of the Switch for a while.

And it didn't need a major price drop to do it.

@westman98 not only that but I heard the Switch might actually be about to overtake the Wii in japan in particular?

If it hasn't already!

@Seacliff that too!
Sincerely once one get off the bench of "anything that doesn't come close to biggest-record-setters-of-all-gaming-history is a failure" one realize the Switch is doing REALLY well.

Like even if it has yet to reach the hardware sales of the Wii, it's actually kicking its butt then it comes to software since a LOT of Wii were the folks buying Wii Sport and not much else.

So even if it only "equals" the 3DS in term of consoles sold, it might still become a bigger success than the Wii because of higher software sales alone.

@nintendolie I still think the DS line is still the greatest as far as content. The online eshop is awesome as well.

@Swindla 3ds has the greatest library ever.

@tech7 Since most of the franchises are already out on switch (even though some were just Wii U versions brought over...Mario Kart, New Super Mario), I'm sure they are already working on a new console, but I honestly hope not that soon. I honestly think Sony talking about PS5 is kind of dumb, for the fact that the PS4 is still selling like hot cakes too, but all companies want to keep the trend and sales going strong, so it's no wonder. Other than that, 3rd parties (hopefully) can re-release nice collection titles or even old games that appeared on the Wii, PS3 or 360 times to keep the games at least coming...could help make a few extra dollars for them and can also help the retail scene, as the retail scene is what basically made the Wii U look kind of pathetic.

@JLPick I think it's interesting how the next generation is launching under very different circumstances than the one that's ending. The Seventh Gen spilled some blood at the beginning (360's red ring of death and the PS3's initial bad sales) but everyone ended up doing decent and they weren't particularly eager to move on. And once the Eighth Get was getting ready to launch, I'm guessing each company felt pretty confident. Oh dear! The Wii U went down in flames forcing Nintendo to kick the Switch out the door as an out of sync, half generation launch. The Xbox One certainly hasn't met expectations, so I'm sure they are feeling the pressure to get a new system out. And this time it better sell because who knows how long the corporate overlords at Microsoft will put up with an under performing console division. I'm sure Sony would love to ride out the wave on the PS4, but they also have to be worried about the others, driven by desperation, getting the jump on them.

@electrolite77 The PS4 will match the Wii by end of FY2019 if they hit guidance. So if they keep PS4 trajectory the Wii was in Play.

But Yes, 3DS will still be a big success (I think it will pass it once things get going)

@TheFox I agree, and I'm sure nintendo is already getting thoughts and theories (or even doing) their next console. Other than that, it's still a shame that companies race to get the next one out, especially after so much money from the consumers put into each one. As for Sony, the fans flocked to the PS4, you'd think they wouldn't take a risk to try and lure them away from that for the next console, and Microsoft, who lost most of them to Sony, trying to get back into the game (which they may have difficulty if they really are going to the 'download only' style), but who knows...Atari is still said to launch their Atari Box sometime in the future (who knows when) and Google has their weird thing coming out (honestly, I know or care nothing about it). Who knows what nintendo will do, next year the Switch turns 3, so will they cut it's life cycle out before the 5 year mark, keep it going but have most of their focus onto their next, or will they wait it out for 2 years to see what the other companies are doing? In all honesty, I'd just take Nintendo and Sony (if they actually made a comeback, I'd chose Sega too), but at least Nintendo has one thing...many people tend to wait on Sony and Microsoft (basically to see which one is selling more...because that would be the one that the game companies flock to) as where nintendo basically caters to the 'second' console in the house. Unless Microsoft has a strong line up of exclusives (something that was missing out of the current console), they'll have difficulty again, and just like you said, who knows if they'd continue then...could be a Sega Dreamcast era for them.

@electrolite77 Well, all a means to an end.

I was able to walk into GameStop and find something to play on my 3DS for many years. Always a good flow of games - So that level of "success" works for me.

Why I had to walk back that comment real quick 🙃