Last Year, Roughly 20% Of Switch Console Sales Went To Households That Already Owned One

If we weren't holding off for the rumored switch upgrade I'd be one of those. I was very tempted to get a switch lite to play while I wait to play the switch. For now the 3ds fills in that void.

They expect demand to increase? That can only mean a new switch model is coming out!

Sarcasm aside, having a personal Switch Lite that only is use is tempting, but ultimately I do t think it’s ever really be worth it.

Forever alone so I only need one! Although I do need a replacement unit, my launch Switch is in pretty rough shape due to years of the butterfingores

@Slowdive Wait a minute, that’s not how distribution of wealth works 😉

@Slowdive can I ask you why?

@Slowdive I think you ARE the 20% lol

We have three Switches in our house already, and if Nintendo ever comes out with an upgraded “Pro” version I would buy another one.

@Mikeopferman part of the reason is I have three kids, and they are always playing on at least one of them. I had to buy more just so I could play.

Yeah part of the multi switch family.

I have 3. My OG Switch connected to my TV at all times, Zacien and Zamazenta Switch Lite for my digital games and a turquoise Switch Lite for physical games.

In our household, we have two big Switches and four Switch Lites.

Only two of those are mine, though. My launch Switch and my Zacien/Zamazenta Lite.

How do they know that?

With my son home from college for the summer we have 2 in our house now, but we only bought it for him as a graduation gift b/c it would be in another place.

Not saying they're wrong, seems reasonable as we had three 3DS in our house, two DSi before that, and as a handheld* this is a replacement for that, so yeah, 1 per person, but how do they KNOW?

If they are going by Family NO accounts as being in a 1 family household not sure how accurate that is with all the sharing.

• https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/05/thanks_to_switch_nintendo_has_now_sold_over_half_a_billion_handheld_consoles

Probably because the First one broke, or was on it's last legs. They are not sturdy; robust machines.

@Moistnado mine are fine after logging thousands of hours of play.

I have two in my house, tempted to get a switch lite for one of my little ones!

@quinnyboy58 Lucky for you. I know many people less fortunate with Switch durability. Did you keep them in those protective shell cases or something?

I might get another one once the one I got in 2018 looks like it is on its last legs.

I hope my launch Switch will struggle and limp it's way up to the point they release a pro model. It makes a lot of fan noise and has a few cracks, but it works for now.

After some bumps in the road, I feel like I'm financially stable enough to splurge on a Switch Pro pre-order the moment its announced.

But instead of becoming a multi-Swotch household, I'll likely just end up re-gifting my current one to whatever remaining friend I have that doesn't already own a Switch as some sort of last-minute birthday gift.

❗I might buy the Blue Lite to trade Pkm with myself.

I was definitely part of that 20%. Bought 3 last year. 1 as a gift, 1 for myself, as backup to my OG launch Switch and 1 for my daughter. So there are 3 in my household atm. All 3 of them are played daily, too.

i don't need a second Switch, i happy with my extended battery Switch Nintendo, unless the rumored Switch Pro have some features that make me want buy it.

I'm actually interested in the percentage of users who own multiple iterations of Nintendo's previous handhelds (GB/GBC, GBA, NDS, 3DS).

I bought my Switch back in 2017 and actually bought 2 last year. Got a lite for my wife because she likes Animal Crossing. And got my son one for Christmas.

@westman98

Speaking for myself, I had a GBA and a GBA SP. I contemplated trading the GBA in on the SP but then Mario Advance 4 came out and I actually bought a used e reader for the extra levels. So I needed that second GBA. I also used it for trading pokemon for evolutions.

This is a bit of a loaded statistic, because it doesn't state whether that's an absolute increase or a relative increase. The distinction is important in this case.

@Northwind How dare you insert your filthy cogent analysis and attention to language into our comment section?! Just what is your intention here, puffball??

the percentage of those sales to households that already have a Switch would increase over time. Such a relative increase would not require actual sales to increase.

Mathematics, yet. You are counting correctly here, yes. Still I wonder what Furukawa-san's intention was in saying (via translation): "Going forward, we expect demand for multiple systems per household will increase even as hardware unit sales grow."

To me, there could be an implication that he expects overall unit sales to grow as a percentage of the current install base - meaning year-over-year increases in the percentage relative to the (increasingly large) install base - which would make this discussion even more interesting.

I also wonder how Nintendo feels about the sales distribution. NCL was openly hoping for multi-Switch households, and this company certainly trades on customer loyalty. Even so, spreading your brand wider (if not deeper) is the essence of the "blue ocean" strategy, so there is a question for me here.

I bought a release day Switch and had to send it back 3 times within its first 2 months of owning it as it was faulty straight out of the box.
It had a faulty SD card reader, ( didn't read ANY SD cards, even the ones they recommend), game card reader (would work on occasion), left joycon drift (which it still has after they supposedly fixed it) and a cracked casing.
So I refuse to buy another lemon until they release a console that works without faults.
Hopefully the supposed Pro has a better build quality so I can actually buy another.
Until then, I'm not going near another one.

It was inevitable that we would own multjple Switches sooner or lster. There's me and two teenagers who game pretty regularly. Between us we have one launch day Switch, one upgraded model and one Lite. (Also, about seven DSes and 3DSes).

I already have four Switch's lol. A launch edition Switch I got with the gray joycons, an Animal Crossing Switch, and two Switch Lites, one of them was taken offline a long time ago.

I recently moved in with my sister and my nephew's have a Switch and Switch lite. I have 2 Animal Crossing Switch systems, my original Switch and 4 Switch lite systems. So our household has 9 Switch systems total.

I have the OG Switch, Pokemon Let's Go Switch, Switch Lite, Animal Crossing Switch, and Monster Hunter Rise Switch.
Will probably get the inevitable Zelda Edition.

Yea now fix the family sharing system

I have 2 but regret buying the lite due to the need to sign on to check the status each time I play a game on the opposite system'
I also dislike the need to pay for an online service in order to coordinate the save states easily between the two. and more niggles with owning doubles.

How do they even keep track of this? Yeah, I bought mine at launch, bought one for a roommate I don't live with anymore, one for my daughter who lives with her mom, and also 1 and 1/2 (I payed half) for people I don't live with anymore, but technically the only one in my house that I payed for is the one I bought at launch. I don't recall Nintendo ever asking me lol!

Can anyone tell me what games require or are best to have multiple Switches? The first I heard about was "Animal Crossing", that you can only have one island per Switch. The other I recently heard of was "Splatoon 2", that there's no local (one TV) co-op.

What are some others that pushed you guys to buy multiple Switches?

I literally am still using the same Nintendo I bought the day it came out. I mean, I just mailed it out to Nintendo literally today to get the screen and the fan fixed on it (Screen had two yellow pressure marks on it and I've been playing it in hand held mode like that for YEARS, and the fan has been hit or miss the last six months), but nonetheless less, same Switch. I'll buy the Super Nintendo Switch (SNS) fo sho tho!

@Mazor775 Yep I still have the same one from launch month. It's still working well- I had the casing repaired last year- but I don't see a point for another switch. Maybe when the pro comes out but even then.

I have three standard Switch consoles, on original bought at launch I gave to my sister, still works fine and without a mark on it, the other two are the newer improved battery models for myself and my daughter.

I'm being called out.

@rjejr

I am guessing its analytics based on user surveys or canvasing....but another data point could be how many people have family accounts or use their NNID to log in on multiple machines.

I am also in the club with a launch Switch, a pokemon switch lite and an AC bundle for the wife this last xmas.

I would buy a pro in a second, but what I would equally like to see is a mini-console....they could sell it for $149 and give people a cheaper TV only option....problem is chip shortages this year will likely prevent any new iterations.

Bought two at launch. Moved house and gave one to my brother. My sister bought one for her son. So my family has 3, but each is a separate household (so we don't count to this stat).
Also to put a little more context to the article, Switch sales last fiscal year were 28.83 million. So 5.766 million known households that have bought 2 Switch's, last fiscal year (not in total).

Dang right. It's a portable console you can take with you. That means individual members of a household each want their own. This is compounded by the ultra-portable Switch Lite, which, combined with the magnetic flip case makes for a more pocket friendly handheld than even the 3DS (I couldn't sit on my 3DS in my back pocket without damaging the screen and hinge, yet I can with Switch Lite in the magnetic flip case).

This, on top of the relatively low price vs other consoles, results in a perfect storm of demand. Gale force, as we can see.

I have 13 1/2 Switches. My bathroom ones, the laundry room one, the 3 I bought for my sister's uncle's next door neighbor's little cousins friends friend NayNay. My cats have two. The one I keep outside for the mail man, the weed man plays with that one too. I got lucky there! Shut up and take my money Nintendo! Sell me more cardboard while you're at it too please!

@QuickSilver88 "mini-console"

When Switch first released I thought we might get a mini-console, SwitchTV, but I've given up. I would have purchased 1 for $199. I don't think they'd want to undercut the Lite, plus about $200 sounds right since the Pro controller is worth $70 - don't think they'd bundle it w/ Joycon but I suppose they could.

But since Switch is so light on media - no HBO Max, Disney+, Netflix, etc - it really makes no sense for a tv only version.