Nintendo Switch Led US NPD Sales For November And Thanksgiving Week

Just remember everyone... NINTEN'DOOMED!!!! Because I proclaim it so!!!!

EDIT: Obvious joke should be obvious.

It’s just incredible that Nintendo isn’t constrained as much by supply issues. That’s incredibly good acting of Nintendo on the current situation.

Well done if you’d ask me. Their business is incredibly agile which is a framework that actually stems from Japan (Toyota).

https://www.agilebusiness.org/page/WhatisBusinessAgility

I've still actually yet to see a PS5 in a store. XBOX Series S has been in good supply this year, and I've even seen Series X on a store shelve twice this year (I bought an Series X on day one, with pre-order).

For the Switch; still enough stock for the Lites and 2019 models. And sometimes a small amount of OLED Switches in a store.

Good I'm glad Nintendo is back in the game..power ain't everything

I'm still trying to get a Switch OLED, they're nowhere to be seen here in the Netherlands...

Wow. That the Wii U sold more in November 2014 than the Switch + PS5 + Xbox Series did in November 2021 really does put the supply situation into perspective.

Switch sales in November in the US:
> Nov 2017: ~770,000
> Nov 2018: ~1.36 million (includes Cyber Monday week sales)
> Nov 2019: ~1.43 million (~830,000 units during Black Friday week)
> Nov 2020: ~1.35 million
> Nov 2021: ~1.13 million (~550,000 units during Black Friday week)

Underwhelming hardware supply during Black Friday week seems to be the main culprit as to why Switch sales declined YoY. Excluding Black Friday week, Nov 2021 sales was actually on par with Nov 2019.

Thankfully, Switch supply in the US in December seems much better than in November.

I love seeing the Switch continuing to perform, but let's be honest, this does not in any way reflect the actual demand for the other consoles. Both PS5 and XBox would have sold many, many more units if they had been available.

@Samuel-Flutter Not really. Those numbers are all consoles combined.

Wii U Nov 2014: @250,000 sales
Switch Nov 2021: 1,000,000+ sales

To show how bad supply is right now...
> PS4 + XBO sales in the US in November 2014: ~2.05 million
> PS5 + XBS sales in the US in November 2021: ~1.15 million
😬

@Samuel-Flutter I suggest you re-read that section of the article.

I thought 2020 sales were already agreed upon as too much of a lightning in a bottle to measure other years by? If we do go there, might as well call this glass half full and assume that the industry just got some of its 2021 earnings a year in advance.😆

@JasmineDragon like I said before, "withered technology" seems to be having the last laugh here again. PS5 and XBSX's hi-tech is apparently that much harder to supply now than Nintendo's stockpile of "ancient 2015 chips". Add the other benefits of sleeping on these consoles (like more games in the library and bigger discounts on the already released ones), plus the holiday-resonating value of family entertainment (both home machines of Gen 9 come with a single controller as usual, so no local multiplayer out the box), a higher price by default and a smaller variety of bundles... and everything seems to fall into place.

Nintendo keeps on killing it! Congratulations!

@gcunit The PS4, XB1 and Wii U (yes Wii U) sold more in Nov 2014 than Switch + PS5 + Xbox Series in Nov 2021.
Tell me that doesn't read like each of those individually sold more than the three combined.

@Spiders Thanks for the clarification!

How many western 3rd parties completely missed the boat with the Switch?

Ouch, supply chain issues are no Bueno. Other than that, good news.

@westman98, it sure is better this month. Switch OLED is still in stock on Amazon at time of writing. You won't get it by Christmas now, but you can still get it.

In regards to games making it always appears to me that companies get the best results from mid to late aged consoles, and it seems that is the case with consoles here.

I wonder what is going on at Sony HQ to see this news...

@CactusMan I remember they weren't available for a long time. When I get my X-mas Bonus from work I'll get one for sure

@Anti-Matter Probably nothing outside of Japan? The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S would have far outsold the Switch if it wasn't for the supply chain issues.

@Pillowpants Nedgame.nl has some in stock at the moment.

@NinjaGuy69 Should'a, could'a, would'a. That is a saying that is used in sports all the time to note that excuses may give a reason for underperforming compared to the competition, but it does not excuse the results.

Nintendo has not been nearly as impacted by the supply chain issues and that shows greater planning by Nintendo to be resilient during these kinds of issues. Microsoft and Sony should have known there would be supply chain issues because of the pandemic and delayed their new hardware to build better supply. Or gone in other avenues to meet demand. The thing is at the moment Nintendo's hardware is selling exceptionally well despite these shortcomings and when they release the Switch successor they will have far more momentum and probably not nearly as much of a supply issue.

EDIT: And before you say delaying hardware is not a practical solution... It has not stopped all three of these companies in the past. That and it's not like there were any killer exclusives that have made these systems must own this year.

@NinjaGuy69 I don't see PS5 and Xbox Series X/S outselling Switch any time soon either. Both systems had no must buy games as a majority of them were also on PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One (platforms which are more widely available) so until Sony and Microsoft actually made more exclusive titles for the two next-gen 4K failures, nobody are gonna want to buy either (except maybe the scalpers and the fanboys).

It sure would be neat if Nintendo gave a damn about who was actually buying these things, because it's not gamers, it's the salt of the earth feeding off of gamers who are desperate enough to try to find one of these things that they'll pay well above MSRP just to get one. Sony has this really neat system in play where they will invite you to buy a PS5, even if it might happen when you're not exactly prepared to make such a gigantic purchase in that moment. One might say it's predatorial to catch someone off guard and tell them they have this one chance to buy a system, and I wouldn't even say they were wrong, but I would rather take that approach to buying a system than the alternative on eBay, or signing my soul away to pay $35 per month for 2 years just to have an Xbox Series X.

@Anti-Matter Probably upset they can't announce "Fastest selling console ever....by dollar value in the US..."

I already suspected the PS5 wouldn't keep up with PS4 sales once they started mentioning dollar sales instead of units(since the PS5 costs $100 more than PS4 and $200 more than Switch it could sell less but still have higher dollar sales) now it certainly can't.

I'll tell you what. I am bloody excited to see the next Direct. 2022 can easily have similar success to this year, especially if they bring the games. I won't say we are at the peak of the mountain (that's a bit blurry after last year) but certainly on the crest of a wave.

@Wexter,

Love the way some still feel the Switch sales will fall off a cliff soon, just because the Wii's sales dropped suddenly, but totally different situations.

Off to the NeoGaf thread for another bump I feel.

This situation could not have worked out better for Nintendo, Sony have been in trouble for a good while now unfortunately.

It all started when Nintendo decided to release the Switch mid way into the PS4's life cycle and effectively cannibalise its sales, then Sony in an attempt to repay Nintendo, announced their new console around October 2019 for a 2020 release.

Unfortunately fate had other plans for Sony and hit everyone with a huge Pandemic sized fist.

This isn't even to mention that Sony have basically lost 80% of the market they had in Japan and it has nothing to do with the pandemic.

@sanderev,

A lot of PS5 and Xbox Series X are still being snapped up for sale on E-bay, admittedly not for as big a mark up in the past, but still pretty easy for someone to make a £100 or so on.

There always seems to be around 4000 of each console for sale on the U.K site.

Well, when you got great quality AAA games like pokemon, and Mario party, then people are going to buy the system that has the best games and as always Nintendo had the best games this year, Microsoft had a few and ps5 the 500 dollar door stop of the video game world HAS ZERO AAA games. So way to go Nintendo you still prove the haters wrong and I love it. Keep up the great work!

@Gamer_Zeus moving the PlayStation division headquarters to LA really soured the Japanese market for them. Nintendo tripled down on that market after Sony decided to focus on the US and Europe. Once Persona makes the jump to Switch and multi console, you might see the PlayStation tumble into a distant second place.

@sanderev Same. I don't know if it's a regional thing, but the PS5 has been online only up my way since launch. Not as sure about the Series X, I haven't seen that in stores either, but I have come across Series S in stores once or twice.

The incredible amount of interest for Nintendo Switch, shows that the platform is not going away soon. They really have the perfect model from a business and gaming perspective. To be safe, anything wild or “experimental” that they come up with - should probably be for Super Nintendo theme park attractions.

@Wexter I’m not sure how much was planning and how much was luck.. and then a shrewd move. My conspiracy theory: there was a plan in place to launch a “Switch Pro” this holiday but the chips couldn’t be manufactured due to supply chain breakdown. They did, however, already order the OLED screens, thus the OLED model... a new Switch SKU with the parts on hand and “off-the-shelf” components.

Really I think Microsoft had the best hand, being that they’re in the subscription business now and hardware is not an obstacle to revenue, and Nintendo kind of backed into a good position by being a very conservative yet creative company. Sony got nailed: moving major projects back to the creaky PS4, scraping together a subscription service, and still throwing their marketing budget at a machine they can’t fully capitalize on.

@nhSnork Yes indeed, using older tech has definite benefits in today's reality. It's really not a good time to be a company trying to make and sell next-gen luxury electronics right now.

@progx i mean it already has tumbled into a distant second in the region. But to be fair to them, it was never really Sony's intention to move away from Japan but it was a side effect of trying to cater to our market and theirs.

The Japanese gaming market started shifting towards portability and ease of use rather than fidelity and visuals, which is where the Western market started to shift towards.

This all started with the PS3 actually but was expedited when smart phones became big and there was a huge shift in the Eastern markets towards portability.

Edit: having said all that, if Sony actually tried to make the Vita work, then they wouldn't have been pushed to irrelevance in their own home market.

@mariopartyfan68 Every 3rd party AAA game this year had a PS5 release and Sony put out Ratchet and has timed exclusive on Deathloop... what are you taking about?

Nintendo’s only AAA franchises are mainline Mario and Zelda — and even that’s debatable. “AAA” isn’t about quality it’s about budget, project scope, and marketing. It’s a silly term that should have stayed with insiders.

WOW Switch is still selling well despite the suppy chip shortage.

@Spiders If that conspiracy theory is correct it is still a sign of good planning by the Big N. They foresaw that launching a new radical skew could harm Switch momentum and struggle with supply chain issues and so axed it and swallowed the cost. Then took what they could get their hands on and manufactured a lower-cost alternative to recoup some of the losses. Solid planning and a willingness to adapt to a new situation.

@Giancarlothomaz I'd imagine the chips they're using aren't quite as contested as the high end ones.

But Jeez imagine if Nintendo was directly competing and between the main 3 systems there was only enough chips for 1million systems in the US. Split evenly we'd be seeing PSVITA/WiiU level sales across all 3 systems during the Holiday season.

Omagwehh Omagwehh!!

I'm very tempted by the OLED switch, might homebrew my old one and upgrade after Xmas

@JasmineDragon I'm really not sure. I could go and buy a PS5 tomorrow, there's like 5 in my local CEX for £600-650. I think the issue is the scalpers have created a weird almost artificial demand.

@Matty1988,

Without a doubt, lots of PS5 and Series X consoles on E-bay for around £70 to a £100 extra, I also feel the constant newspaper articles about these consoles, and their links to the online retailers is also not helping matters either.

@mariopartyfan68
I don't know why are you keep hating PS5 ?
I have interest to get some PS5 games first while waiting for PS5 Slim model with smaller size, lighter weight and better specs.
The PS5 games like Planet Coaster, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Bibi & Tina at the Horse Farm, Park Beyond, Spirit of the North, etc are interesting for me to get them.

Best portable system ever

Just a heads up, since the past weekend, there’s no shortage of Switch OLED on store shelves in the US, just waiting to be purchased. I saw them online, forgot about it, and came back two days later and bought one. Turns out I could have picked one up locally in a bunch of locales, too.

@Samuel-Flutter If you look online, you'll find that the Q3 sales for the Wii U from October to December 2014, worldwide, were 1.9 million units sold. This means that the November 2014 sales for Wii U in the US had to be less than that, but knowing that in 2021 Switch sold 1.13m and PS5+XBX sold about 1.15m and those added together are more than 1.9m, the writer could not have meant what you thought. I think he or she was merely highlighting how such a historically underperforming console managed to contribute to a rosier picture for ps4/xone/wiiu than the current trio of consoles. But I do think what you quoted was confusingly written.

@Spiders

Without any proof, I do wholeheartedly agree that your theory sounds pretty believable. Microsoft and Sony are basically relying on a shared chip of which the production entails only netting some up to spec. That’s pretty dicey. Also ran, they’re basically PC’s…so why not build a PC?

@Matty1988 I think there's something to this. So, I bought a PS5 in Nov with hopes of flipping it (Gamestop happened to have one when I walked in the door). Put it on FB marketplace and.... there are literally hundreds of them available. I don't think we know what the true market for this is, but I'm likely going to return the one I bought, as I haven't been able to flip it yet.

@Jeff2sayshi I think it says a lot when there's a lot on the second hand market and the game sales aren't exactly spectacular (or they're downplaying the sales?). It's all very strange, but it's definitely more readily available via second hand market than, say, the Wii was. That thing was like goldust.

@Spiders Wrong. Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, Smash, Pokemon, Xenoblade, Astral Chain, Splatoon, seriously? What a joke of a comment.

@mariopartyfan68
"ps5 the 500 dollar door stop of the video game world HAS ZERO AAA games."

Say hello to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the AAA PS5 game for kids and everybody.
And there are some PS5 games for kids can be considered, definetely not zero games from PS5.

@mariopartyfan68 Read the wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAA_(video_game_industry)

Just because you want Nintendo to be “AAA“ doesn’t make it so... like I said, it’s debatable at best and for certain franchises. And who cares? Again - like I said - the term has nothing to do with the quality of a game.

None of the games you mentioned are “AAA”. Luigi’s Mansion? That’s a joke. It was a mid-tier release when it was on the most powerful hardware at the time. Splatoon is my favorite game of all-time. It ain’t “AAA”.

@Spiders AAA games have become a very dicey place to compete in. Even games that people point to like Dark Souls III are not even AAA. AAA is not some term that means popular or looks good. If that were the case then yes Luigi's Mansion 3 would be AAA as it is one of the best-looking games this gen.

AAA games are your Call of Dutys, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed and mainline Final Fantasys. They are games with massive budgets and require other avenues to gain profit as just the $70 price tag is not enough to get profit despite selling millions. That is why we've seen Ubisoft milk Assassin's Creed with micro-transactions and loot boxes show up in Battlefront and Call of Duty.

These are not practices Nintendo enjoys participating in because despite how large of a company they are they do not like investing in something that requires such risky investments. When AAA botches it can take years to recover or cause massive layoffs. Nintendo despite their corporate image tries to do right by their employees and customers. That means even though their games are so gorgeous and dripping with content they are not AAA. When they are like Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Metroid Prime 4, Nintendo still does not bloat their budgets and gives the devs as long as they need to guarantee a hit out of the gate. That and based on the results of games like Animal Crossing New Horizons... they don't need to invest in the AAA market. Let the AAA devs battle over the same core consumer base. Why not take advantage of the niche and that is Nintendo's bread and butter for their more whacky ideas like Splatoon.

@Wexter I completely agree with you. Great post. @mariopartyfan68 should read it. ^^^

I think switch sell so well, not only because playstation and xbox are hard to find.

No

Nintendo just putt more pressure on all parties including employees. Imo nintendo and its people are winners and deserve all credit and aplause.

Sony just dont care, we sell anyway is their attitude.