Switch Sales Have Only Now Surpassed The Xbox One In The UK

What’s wrong with you people? Why isn’t Nintendo that big in the U.K.?

The only console most people have in the UK is a PlayStation. Of course, Nintendo and Xbox have their fans but the blind association with gaming and PlayStation is one of the reasons the whole Activision Blizzard deal thing is having the UK as a sticking point.

Surprising given the runaway success of the Switch, even in the UK. But I guess proportionally Xbox One found a lot more success in the UK that it did elsewhere in the world?

Not quite sure I understand this interpretation though: "It’s a small country so portable gaming isn’t as big."

What does the size of our country have to do with portable gaming?

What's a Nintendo?

I remember back in 2013/2014, quite a few of my friends and colleagues bought the Xbox One. Probably some of the loyal early adopters who'd had a 360 for the best part of the last decade. I still remember Sony's brilliant ****-take video on how to share games Vs Microsoft's DRM. Still funny, even though we now live in a largely-digital environment with very little actual ownership as the big companies wanted all along.

Most gamers in the UK are brainless unfortunately, fifa cod that’s it.

I'm not British so this is really surprising to me. Yeah I was aware that Nintendo isn't super popular in the UK, but the Xbox One was kind of a sales flop so I guess a large portion of all global XBONE sales were in the UK? Did not expect that.

@Buizel smaller country, potentially shorter commuting distances, lower use of public transport (which is short distance most of the time)

I very, very rarely see a portable console out in the wild. I’ve seen very few switches, and when I have, it’s on long distance train journeys that exceed an hour or two.

Not much point pulling out a portable console on a 10-15 minute, packed bus/tube/train commute.

Not surprising, and not much impact either, the European and US markets with Japan will make or break a consoles success, in saying that have seen many people with a Switch out and about.

Nice to see another article on the Switch struggling sales wise from Nintendo life push square.

All those theories in the quote are total rubbish. Most people here are obsessed with graphical power. They're only interested in playing Fifa and Call of Duty which are seen as cool because football is huge here and a lot of stoners and chavs buy Call of Duty. Also they're easy to show off to their friends as they look just like real events, whereas they would get weird looks from their crowds if they showed off something like Mario, Zelda or Xenoblade.

There is also the fact that Nintendo is seen as a children's company in the UK even though as everyone on this site knows, they're a family company who make games aimed at all audiences. Their view on Nintendo will probably never change at this point sadly.

No Fifa* or CoD on Switch.

*The proper version.

UK is a casual gamers zone, not surprised.

I don't travel a lot either, but it's so chill to be able to play on the Switch while you have a TV -show in the background that you don't need to be focused on, but just have as background noise.

Also if I want to go to sleep, but I'm not super sleepy I can play on my Switch in bed. It's also really convinient to take with you if you are visiting family or friends.

@quinnyboy58 @eltomo Beg to differ on that front I'm afraid.

"It’s a small country so portable gaming isn’t as big"

...first time I see these two factors connected, to be honest.🤔

@quinnyboy58 The same for Greece too.. Pity..

I think it's fairly simple. The UK is full of muppets that unquestioningly do what they're told by big money - hence Brexit, Johnson etc.

The UK is also likely full of people that own Xbox One units but barely use them except for the odd FIFA, Forza and COD.

Nintendo is for nerds and family friendly games. We're too cool for that in the UK.

Please ignore those 30-odd Nintendo devices behind me. They're not mine. I just stole them from a bunch of nerds to teach them a lesson.

And the xbox one was considered a flop 😬

Interesting to see so many commenters come out with stereotyping and generalisations about an entire nation, in a time when none would have dared if the article had been about sales in India or Africa. They still would have been thinking it, though. Prejudice is just fine, apparently, as long as it's not aimed at a "protected group".

Uk based and lost interest in Xbox when Fable disappeared. Always own each Nintendo and Sony console though for the exclusives.

Lovely xenophobic comments, how pleasant.

@eltomo Ouch!!! Thanks for that

@LUIGITORNADO I'd say because it is viewed as console for younger players in the UK.

@mcdreamer based on what? Most gamers in UK buy PlayStation and Xbox and play Cod or FIFA. Every year they buy the new game full price over and over again. What could be less brainless than that?

From my own experience the UK and Irish Market (which im more familiar with but its very similar ) hasn't been particularly big into Nintendo home consoles apart from the wii ,since playstation 1 dominated the market in the N64 days Even before than mega drive seemed to be more popular than SNES. Xbox and Nintendo have markets and fans but Playstation is the default really for the majority and tends to get lions share of the shelf space. Its grip was only really seriously challenged when ps3 was way too expensive and xbox 360 gave it fierce competition.

Seems odd given the number of times the likes of Mario Kart and BOTW rerere-enter the top 10 best sellers of the week on a regular basis...

@quinnyboy58 It's more that I think you're describing the global gaming population in general. This isn't a UK specific thing. And really there's nothing wrong with it if it makes said players happy.

UK is Playstation land. France and Spain are more on Nintendo side and Germany is PC gaming.

@Angelic_Lapras_King "Seems odd given the number of times the likes of Mario Kart and BOTW rerere-enter the top 10 best sellers of the week on a regular basis..."

But remember that's only physical sales, not digital so not full picture.

The Xbox One did have likes of GTA,COD,Red dead and Fifa etc. But it was often bundled with one of these big games and was often much cheaper than buying the more popular PS4 so it was often the cheapest option in shops to just play these big "Serious Gaming " titles if not the most popular one.

@Buizel UK is a pretty "anti" nintendo ground and the 360 was pretty big (PS3 was later in that generation)

just in time to commemorate the PS5 sales domination over Switch in Japan The world is full of paradoxes

@vanmunt @WhiteUmbrella Worth pointing out that most of the people making less-than-flattering generalisations about British gamers here are… British gamers. (In fact, the vast majority is commenters in this thread are.)

As evidenced above, the British are generally pretty adept at self-debasement, and just as good (if not better) at debasing their fellow countrymen.

So while the comments aren’t exactly charitable, it seems a bit of a stretch to label British people slagging off other British people as ‘xenophobic’, when that is the sole nationality the British can safely slander without being xeno…anything.

You could fairly accuse such commentators of oikophobia, at the risk of no one having a clue what you mean.

Jeez, everyone had a NES and SNES in my experience growing up in England.. then N64 blew us all away. Sure, PlayStation took over from the GameCube (the only Nintendo system I’ve never owned) but then Wii came along and everyone and his mother/grandmother had one. I’ve gotten rid of my PS4 and flirted with Xbox One, but my Switch Oled is my absolute prized gaming machine. Closely beating out my 3DS. Nintendo is revered in large parts of the UK.

"It’s a small country so portable gaming isn’t as big"

What a way to prove you are just thinking of some potential reasons why and listing them.
Portable consoles aren't just for use with transport/journeys, which seems to be the opinion here. Ludicrous.

is anyone surprised? european 99% of the market is FIFA and FPS.

I live on this small island and game on buses, trains, in cars, in parks, on toilet, in bath, at work, etc. What a silly rationale lol

@LUIGITORNADO one word nintendo. years and years getting shfated of seeing games being told we wont like them and see them releasing in Us japan etc. Huge amount uk nintendo fans bought imported consoles. Only when the brown stuff hit fan did nintendo care about uk.

@vanmunt you do realise the meaning of the word dont you.

The thing is if you do even the basic level of research rather than blindly follow faulty narratives, the UK “anti-Nintendo” thing doesn’t hold water. Firstly, the XBOX One sold 51 million units, while this is significantly less that the PS4, this does not constitute a “sales flop”. Secondly, roughly 6 million of these were sold in the UK, therefore we can assume the Switch has sold in excess of 6 million units. Finally, the UK population sits at roughly 67 million therefore we can roughly state that for every 10 brits there is 1 switch. Additionally, the US, a nation of 332 million people, has seen 37 million Switch’s sold, which means a ratio of roughly 1.1 units for every 10. Numbers matter.

I'm confused by this article. Do total sales refer to dollar sales or unit sales? All things considered, the Xbox One was usually going for a higher retail value over the Switch so it would make sense if the Switch just surpassed the dollar sales value. Unit-wise, Switch probably surpassed Xbox One ages ago.

@mcdreamer I live in UK, I know what all my "gamer" mates play.

CoD, Fifa, Fortnite. Only a couple really appreciate a different genre.

If you look at the UK software charts every week you’ll notice that Nintendo have been doing very well for the last couple of years. I’d go so far as to say that they must sell more physical games per console than the competition. I think Nintendo are doing pretty well in the UK as they make huge sales with first party games. I don’t see a problem with this stat at all. After the awesome Wii U selling very badly I’m sure Nintendo are delighted.

@eltomo i wouldnt class them as gamers but casual gamers same as ones that play only candy crush etc.

@LUIGITORNADO
I’m UK and had all Nintendo consoles on day one.
Over the years most children have and had Nintendo handheld consoles, with a few home consoles mixed in.
Once the child becomes a teenager or younger the PlayStation and to some less degree Xbox hormones kick in.
FIFA and COD are big over here and I guess Nintendo is for children and kids.
Having said that if you end up at someone’s house with a Switch like mine, everyone young and old plays Mario Kart.
If Nintendo want the UK to be a very big market they need. Top end graphics that wow, fifa and cod looking amazing and try to out PlayStation. 😂😂😂

@Anguspuss haha, I was expecting that to say "I wouldn't class them as mates"

@LXP8 Yeah in the UK the Playstation and Xbox double as a more like a trendy prestige product.

If the UK represented the entire worlds games market and you removed the Nintendo and PC audience. The games industry would collapse on itself because 99.9% of games just wouldn't be bought.

The UK is such a strange market…

Maybe the uk isn't into retro gaming like so many on here...

Actually makes me curious as to how the successor will do since xbox wants COD everywhere again. Won’t sway the graphics faithful but should sway those on the fence.

Still good on Nintendo for the sales milestone.

Just different appeal I think, I'd also say a fair few people own an Xbox / PS4/5 and a Switch, so not necessarily people making a choice between two brands.

Thinking back, I don't think the UK has quite the same nostaliga for Nintendo as the US, at least from the NES era. In the 80s / 90s the 8-bit Micro Computers were really popular here, as was the Amiga when it was released. Cheap games for the C64 and Spectrum were sold on cassette. SEGA also did really well, the Master System was a popular system, even before the Mega Drive.

@Axecon Nope, this is unit sales in the UK, a region where Nintendo has historically underperformed in the home console market (the Wii and Switch being two unsurprising exceptions).

In contrast, the XBox One performed above average in the region compared to most other countries. Sales figures are hard to find, but a bit of poking around threw up the number 5.7 million lifetime sales for the XBone in the UK, vs 6.8 million for the PS4.

Both those figures are no doubt slightly outdated (I wish up-to-date information was easier to find), but I imagine they’re not wildly inaccurate. It goes to show that the XBone at least put up a decent fight against Sony’s system in the UK (as well as grinding the poor old Wii U into the dust).

The fact that Nintendo have released a console that can even compare in sales to those two consoles is — to me — something of a miracle. Being a Nintendo kid in the UK back in the day meant accepting your status as an outsider.

The game charts would indicate people like Nintendo games in the UK. X-Box is mainly popular in the UK and yhe USA and nowhere else I thought.

@Anguspuss

xenophobic

adjective
having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

@eltomo As do I and my anecdotal data points are the opposite to yours. Again, I think most gamers worldwide focus only a handful of the most popular titles. It's not just a UK specific thing.

On topic - I would have assumed the Switch outside the Xbox One years ago here.

I can see why PS4 would be preferred over Switch but Xbox One?

Nice to see the years of getting games late during the ‘90s getting some acknowledgement. I just imported throughout the ‘90s and early ‘00s until they got a grip on it.

The weird thing is, the school I went to, loads of kids had a NES but I didn’t know anyone with a Master System! 😅

That said, I didn’t realise that Nintendo’s neglect was still overshadowing the market, I’d have thought the Switch would have sold well, the Wii was certainly ubiquitous and sold well for most of its lifespan here.

@gcunit yeah course all 17m of them, all racists with little to no thought chain worth any consideration, as clearly shown by the 16m losers who still haven’t shut up about it.

@WhiteUmbrella @vanmunt I see vastly more xenophobic comments about Japan being an "irrelevant" country that has "given up on console games" every time Nintendo's success in the region is discussed on sites like Push Square, lol, despite probably being the biggest single-country market for console games outside of the U.S.

@eltomo I really don't have gamer mates anymore (if I ever had them in the first place), but here in my area (a capital city in the middle of nowhere in Mexico) when I pass near console rentals, people seem to be playing those games you mentioned.

They also have Switches and sometimes Wii Us (yes, really) with Smash and Mario Kart, but those are for the most part free.

As a Scottish kid growing up in the 80's then as a young adult in the 90's. Nintendo was sneered upon in the same way that wrestling was. I had no other friends that played Nintendo throughout my life, so solo gaming all the way for me, just the same as wresting was something I never got to chat with people about, as all my friends ridiculed me for watching it. So to me, the reason Nintendo isn't as popular in the UK, is because it has never been considered cool here.

Kinda interesting. This site is UK based. I figured the Nintendo following here was bigger. But as pointed out, proportionally, the Switch has only sold slightly less than here in the States….I guess it’s more surprising that the Xbox sold so well over there. I find it interesting that France apparently has a very loyal Nintendo following.

@electrolite77 An excellent post. Have you got all that written down somewhere and you just pasted it in, or did it run right off the top of your head? Seems like a detailed but concise argument that's very plausible.

Nintendo is weakest in Europe especially in UK. I mean just look at FIFA alone.

Xbox One was a bad selling console and it took Switch this long to outsell it that's not great

Uh oh, I've made a headline on Nintendolife.

I want to stress another point... Xbox is pretty popular in the UK. Xbox 360 was the No.1 platform during that generation (outsold the Wii). It's not the case globally, but it's a market where all 3 platforms have a strong presence.

@quinnyboy58 They are equally clueless on the other side of the pond. Norway.
Sony, COD and FIFA.

In fact all local retailers stocks more new games on Switch than Sony and Xbox consoles.
Physical on Xbox and PS were dead for years here, but not dead on Switch.

Nintendo, just release the Switch Sports Golf update and you'll be flying past the UK PS3 sales numbers!

Lets be real the fact that it sells at all without COD and only legacy FIFA in the Uk is amazing.

Seriously the new casual gamer is the 45 year old man who only plays 3 games a year and 2 of them are sports and the last is COD. We see it here in the states with Madden and NBA2k and COD (not to mention the occasional GTA5) The difference is that a ton of us across the pond see the value in things like oh I don't know GAME DESIGN, so Nintendo games sell well here. Where as in the UK (and a few other European countries) it's just a time killer , and only very few hardcore nerds pay attention close enough to realize that there are a ton of amazing experiences around to enjoy on Nintendo systems.

Truth is Nintendo has never been top dog in the UK when it comes to home consoles. Sega was more successful in the early days because they actually went to the trouble of releasing all of their best games in the UK. So many great NES/SNES games never came to here. Then PlayStation became the market leader, with Xbox not far behind.

@Steelhead this is my thought on the matter. Considering non-Japanese markets were a volatile thing after the 1983 crash, it doesn’t surprise me if NES/SNES era Nintendo didn’t invest as much in the UK compared to the US, costing them potential momentum.

@Buizel surely the bigger things than the size of the country are:

1) it’s a country with terrible public transport outside of that one city that gets about 20x the funding so everyone drives or is packed like sardines onto trains without the room to read a phone let alone play a game.

2) it’s a country with terrible weather year round so you can’t reliably play games outside.

@vanmunt

Yup. Other countries. Now, if you click on the profiles of all the nasty xenophobes being xenophobic towards the mighty Britannia, you’ll see that they’re all… British.

Here’s the definition again for you to reflect on:

xenophobic
adjective
having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

If these people really are xenophobes, then seemingly the only solution is to kick the British out of Britain.

I feel this article gives a way too exaggerated view of this, and it seems to have worked to skew views looking at some of these comments.

I'm from the UK - a small part called Wales, but have lived in many parts of England too. Most of my family and friends have been Nintendo fans for life and now have Switches, and if I travel by train I see Switch users frequently.

I see Nintendo doing just fine here. Maybe XBox and Playstation do well here too - it's just balanced. But Nintendo is not a weak presence here. It's just not.

Surprising, as I know many people around my age group in their 20s-30s that have one and not just my immediate social circle but work colleagues too. So maybe this is more of a sign of how shockingly well Xbox One did rather than how poorly Switch is doing?

Also, the small country thing is a bit odd reasoning. We have the worst public transport system in the western world, so there’s plenty of long journeys to be had!

@JetSetRennie Best comment on here - and cuts right through the nonsense.

@eltomo lol i have brother bother in law that all the play is cod fifa call themselves harcore gamers. my 70 year old father is like this is all the games ive completed this month thats hardcore lol

Hmmmm. I’m UK-based but my Switch was purchased in the USA where the dollar price was the same as the pound price so saved me £30 or so. I doubt people like me represent a huge number but possibly a decent number since there’s no region locking on Switch? Anyway to do my part for my favourite corporation I solemnly swear to purchase a Zelda SWOLED in the UK. I gotcha, Nintendo

@gcunit Don’t bring the politics of Brexit into this, that’s a nasty swipe, I know plenty of people who own switches who voted to leave, including myself, who are not in any way Johnson fans, you’re generalising over 17 million people, that’s bigoted itself.

I’ve always found UK numbers to be so insignificant.

@quinnyboy58 ridiculous comment. Look at the sales charts, it's varied not just FIFA and cod

@Deljo Retro gaming has a huge following in the UK compared to most other European countries. And you have awesome retro-stores, museums, conventions and lots of great retro Youtubers. Also, "retro GAMER" is a British magazine. Home computers were a big, big thing in the UK (C64, Micro, Spectrum, Amiga, ...) and many people still care about those.

@electrolite77 Gotcha! Don't blame you at all, that's the AAA content I'm here for 👏

I grew up in the 80's and 90's. Everyone at school seemed to start their gaming careers with the Spectrum or Commodore 64 in the 8bit era as they had cheap budget titles and you could persuade your mum or dad to buy you a 'computer' for education purposes as they had no idea the amount of cheap games you could get.
Then we progressed to the Atari ST or Amiga. Yeah some people had a nes or master system but it wasn't until the mega drive and SNES that EVERYONE I knew had one of the other. Since then all my friends had either a Nintendo, Sega, playstation or Xbox every generation since. Now, into our early 40's all my friends still have either a PS4/5, Xbox. They all have a switch too, either for them or their kids. Nintendo is HUGE in the UK and in general gaming is the biggest form of entertainment, unless you want to count Premier League Football

Is more that Nintendo is disproportionately popular in NA. Typically about half of all Nintendo console sales are in NA where it should be about 5% if sales were spread equally per person. The XB1 was a flop here too. Notice how the Switch is still behind the PS3 which is the worst selling of Sony's home consoles.

Kinda goes to show how small the UK market is, not insignificant, but definitely small. What matters more is the bigger picture and that is the Switch is closing in on the PS4 and Gameboy worldwide and at a quicker pace.

@UltimateOtaku91,

It was a flop considering how the 360 performed, but don't worry the Switch will surpass the PS4's worldwide sales before the new year arrives, if not already.

@johnvboy I don't doubt the switch will out sell the ps4, the switch still has 3-4 years left

@KryptoniteKrunch largest gaming market in Europe, 6th largest gaming market in the world. Not that small.

Any glance at a typical monthly sales chart from the UK shows how bad local tastes are. Sports, COD, and any overhyped mediocre big studio game generally does alright, combined with blind loyalty to Sony. Sad. 🙁

@EVIL-C same as the US and most other main gaming countries then. How dare people play and enjoy mainstream games solo and with their mates.
And with the price of consoles and games these days, I don't think blind loyalty is that big of a thing. Maybe they just enjoy playing great games, never mind what box they are playing them on. I think what's really sad is favouring one billion dollar company over another, when all any of them really care about is their bottom line

Does my head in when people say “UK is PlayStation territory.” 360 was the dominant console for a long time here at the time and everyone and their mums had a Wii (true of everywhere but still). Their home consoles have never been a home staple here besides the Wii but their handhelds have always been hugely popular and that’s true of the Switch, it’s everywhere.

UK literally just follows the trends of everywhere else in the world, with PlayStation being the most popular home console every gen (besides 360 for a while there), Nintendo most popular handheld.

@Serialsid LOL, then I certainly hope you're not someone who decries lack of industry innovation and gambles on new I. P.'s,. Maybe you are, I have no idea. Nowadays the most interesting stuff comes from smaller and/or independent studios, who lack the budgets of the big studios, yet give us COD #132 annually, cause it sells, despite being crap.

I’m my opinion the Nintendo switch is the best console made. Previous favs were snes, sega mega drive, psi and Xbox 360. The switch fits in to a lot holes for gaming. Once we get a switch pro with a bit more of a performance output and in 4K, I think that will just about be the golden child, I can only see gaming starting to plateau and decline after that.

Not surprising, because the UK is the only European country where Xbox One has sold well. In the rest of Europe, sales have been low.

@Rosona and it’sninsense anyway.. it’s not like nobody’s is commuting.. if this article was about my country, the netherlands’ where playstation is king as well, it .would probably sound like ‘people use there bikes, so portable gaming isn’t that big’

didn’t see another switch than my own in public here in thailand by the way … was kind of surprise at that…

Can we get some actual numbers here please? XboxOne did pretty well here in the UK so this is no mean feat. Why is everyone surprised by this? A console did well vs a console that’s doing well. Shock horror!

@EVIL-C It’s the same in every single market

@LUIGITORNADO
in general during the 90s it felt like there were more people who grew up with sega (which is why sonic tends to do pretty well here) though the switch has been doing pretty well especially considering how the xbox one had a head start, also fifa tends to dominate due to the high popularity of the sport (football fans definitely have a...reputation even over here) though platform games still tend to do well.

Nintendo does not have it easy in the UK.

Its to do with British culture. We are more Warner Bros then Disney. More Dreamworks then Pixar.

Sonic was cool as hell and Lara Croft has breasts 👍

@ThomasCasson They don’t have it easy anywhere though, not for a long time- at least as far as home console go. Handhelds though, from Game Boy to DS to Switch have always been massive over here. Same as everywhere. I don’t know why everyone pretends that Nintendo has never been big in the UK when their handhelds have always been massive over here.

Xbox sucks anyway, if it wasn't for Microsoft being able to chuck money at it to make it succeed. As a brand it would be dead in the water from the original system. The overrated Halo saved it unfortunately. Nintendo will always be bigger in Japan and the USA. Because the gamers in the UK are obviously brainless lol 😆 😂

@LUIGITORNADO don't fret bro we just like failure over here. Why do you think Sega consoles were so popular in our damp little isles?

PS3 was an absolute Sony banger. What a console! Go Switch!