Switch is officially Nintendo’s best-selling home console ever

Nintendo Switch is officially the best-selling Nintendo home console of all-time.

In its latest financial results published on Thursday, the company confirmed that Switch has sold 103.54 million units as of December 31, 2021 – up over 10 million since September – meaning that the console has now eclipsed Wii’s 101.63 million.

Overall, Nintendo sold 18.95 million Switch consoles during the first 9 months of its 22 fiscal year, which is down 21.4% when compared to the previous year. After multiple reductions in recent months, the company says it expects to ship 23m consoles before the end of March.

Nintendo blamed some of the decline on the global semiconductor shortage, as well as the previous year’s Animal Crossing sales phenomenon. However, it noted that hardware sales for the quarter were still the best during Switch’s generation, and rising to their second-highest level ever in the company’s history.

The majority of this FY’s sales were of the standard Switch model at 11.79m, or 62%. The Switch Lite and new OLED model sold 3.99m (21%) and 3.17m (16.7%).

Although Switch is a hybrid console that is also capable of being used as a portable, Nintendo classifies it as “a home console that you can take with you on the go”.

Switch still has significant ground to cover if it’s to become Nintendo’s all-time best-selling games hardware. Nintendo DS is the company’s best-selling hardware ever at 154.02 million units sold, ahead of Game Boy (and Game Boy Color) at 118.69m.

Outside of Nintendo’s own consoles, only PlayStation 4 (116.6m) and PlayStation 2 (155m) have outsold Nintendo Switch.

Switch launched in March 2017, Switch Lite released in September 2019, and the new Nintendo Switch OLED model launched in October 2021.

In software, the biggest sellers during the first 9 months of Nintendo’s FY22 were Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (13.97m), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (7.96m), Mario Party Super Stars (5.43m) and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (4.99m). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has now sold a huge 43.35 million units in total.

Nintendo said that sell-through of first-party software during its latest quarter (Oct – Dec ’21) were the highest since the launch of Nintendo Switch.

“During the nine months ended December 31, 2021, in the Nintendo Switch business, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model launched in October and got off to a good start,” Nintendo said in its results.

“Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite also sustained sales momentum following the launch of Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, and all three models sold well while maintaining a good sales balance.

“Last fiscal year, the March 2020 release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a major driver of hardware sales, so compared to the same period of last year, the unit sales declined for hardware resulting in 18.95 million units (a decrease of 21.4% year-on-year).”

Looking ahead, the company pointed to the releases of Pokémon and Kirby titles in its final quarter of FY22.

“For Nintendo Switch, we will continue to convey the appeal of the three models and work to further expand the install base.

“Regarding software, Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released in January, and we plan to follow that up with the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land in March.

“There is also a robust variety of appealing titles from other software publishers scheduled for release, and we will work to strengthen sales through the combination of existing popular titles and a continuous stream of attractive new titles.”