Nintendo has sold 52.48 million units of its Switch console as of December 31st, 2019, according to the Japanese gaming giant’s latest earnings report.
The company’s previous earnings release noted that 41.67 million Switches were sold as of September 30th, meaning that sales increased by nearly 11 million over this three-month period. This was Nintendo’s best quarter since the console launched in March 2017.
Breaking down the sales further, Nintendo says 5.19 million units of the dock-less Switch Lite were sold during this quarter, while the standard Switch accounted for the remaining 47.3 million units sold.
While Microsoft doesn’t release specific console sales figures, research firm Statista estimates that as of December 2019, roughly 46 million Xbox Ones have been sold since the console launched in November 2013. If true, this means that the Switch has already surpassed the Xbox One in sales, despite launching nearly three-and-a-half years later.
That said, Sony’s PlayStation 4 — which launched alongside the Xbox One in November 2013 — has surpassed 106 million in sales, making it the second best-selling console of all time after the PlayStation 2.
Looking at Nintendo’s own console history, though, this latest sales figures place the Switch above the 49.1 million SNES units that were sold during the retro console’s 13 years on the market. The next Nintendo console, the Switch, is on track to outsell is the NES, which managed 61.91 million sales.
Outside of hardware, Nintendo also pointed to some key exclusive Switch titles that have sold exceptionally well. Most notably, 16.06 million copies of Pokémon Sword and Shield were sold during this quarter — a remarkable figure, given that the games launched on November 19th.
Additionally, mega-crossover Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reached 17.78 million copies sold in this quarter, allowing it to pass Street Fighter II as the best-selling fighting game of all time. This is also an especially notable milestone, as Smash Bros. launched somewhat recently in December 2018. The only Switch game that has outsold Smash Bros. is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has sold 22.96 million copies.
Other notable Switch game sales figures from this quarter include 5.37 million copies of the Vancouver-developed Luigi’s Mansion 3, 4.19 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake and 2.17 million copies of exercise title Ring Fit Adventure.
Beyond the Switch, though, Nintendo only briefly talked about its mobile business. The company reported mobile game income of 36.9 billion yen (roughly $447.8 million CAD), without breaking out figures for specific titles. Mario Kart Tour launched during this quarter and has generated $86 million USD ($113 million CAD) in revenue so far, according to a recent report from analytics firm Sensor Tower. Altogether, Sensor Tower estimates that Nintendo’s mobile games have generated more than $1 billion USD (about $1.32 billion CAD) to date.
Looking forward, Nintendo’s software lineup for 2020 remains largely unclear. So far, only a few of the year’s new Switch games have been confirmed, such as the recently released Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore and March’s Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Source: Nintendo
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