Nintendo Continues To Thrive, Announces Best Quarter Yet For Switch Devices
Nintendo has been thriving even more than usual within the past year. The Covid-19 pandemic which has forced the world to stay home indefinitely has been amazing for the entertainment industry, and Nintendo is no different. Especially with the relatively recent release of their Switch and Switch Lite consoles, Nintendo has literally never been more popular.
Nintendo sold 11.57 million Switch Consoles last quarter alone, bringing the total sales to 79.87 million since the release of the devices in 2017. That marks a 7% increase in sales when compared to this time last year, it also marks the Switch’s best quarter to date. Switch has now surpassed Nintendo 3DS and 2DS devices in terms of sales; 3DS and 2DS devices currently stand at around 75 million units.
If the Switch manages to have a normal spring quarter this year, which would mean selling at least 2.5 million units, the device will pass the Game Boy Advance in sales which peaked at 81.51 million. The Wii, Game Boy, and DS family are the only other Nintendo devices currently above the Switch in terms of overall sales when they were released.
Nintendo Switch sales for last quarter are relatively surprising as well due to the fact that Nintendo didn’t have that many big Switch launches last quarter outside of the Legend of Zelda spin-off game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Beyond that Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and Pikmin 3 Deluxe were the only other major launches; each game sold a little more than 1 million units.
Older Nintendo Switch games have been continuously selling since their releases. Mario Kart Deluxe currently has over 33 million sales, and the extremely popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been thriving throughout the pandemic. The game is less than a year old and already has 31 million total sales.
According to their quarterly reports “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate takes the third spot with 22.85 million sales, followed by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (21.45 million) and Pokémon Sword and Shield (20.35 million). Rounding out the top 10 is Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Party, Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!/Eevee!, Splatoon 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.”
Super Mario 3D World and Bowser’s Fury, which is an updated version of the 3DS game, will be coming out February 12th which is expected to give Nintendo an even larger boost in sales. Following that release Persona 5 Strikers and Bravely Default II will both be released on February 23rd and 26th.
Nintendo also announces that later in the quarter the company Capcom will be releasing their Switch version of Monster Hunter: World, the widely popular PS4, Xbox One, and PC game, which will be titled Monster Hunter Rise. The company also announced that it would be releasing dozens of their other popular titles for the Switch this year; many of which were previously released for Nintendo 3DS devices.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.