Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has announced that Nintendo Switch sales have climbed to an impressive 41.67 million units, with 6.93 million units shipped in the latest quarter. These are big numbers, but how do they compare to other consoles?
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad shared a helpful graph on Twitter that shows the cumulative global console shipments for most of the major systems. Looking at the numbers, after 31 months on sale, the Switch is on a similar growth trajectory as the PS4 and PS2, which are some of the best-selling systems of all time. Only the Wii got off to a faster start.
Helping improve Switch sales was the recent introduction of the Switch Lite. It sold nearly 2 million units in its first 11 days to get off to a very good start for Nintendo.
The graph doesn’t include Xbox One, and that’s because Microsoft no longer announces sales numbers for its consoles.
Here is a look at cumulative global console shipments for key consoles (Launch aligned).
After 31 months on the market, the Nintendo Switch has sold in 41.67 million units and is tracking alongside PS4 and PS2 which were at a similar total in the same timeframe. Wii was ahead. pic.twitter.com/Hd4ZKDXEkG— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 31, 2019
Looking at Nintendo consoles alone, the Switch is selling about as well as the original DS over its first few years. Ahmad notes that it “will be tough” for the Switch to match pace with the DS in 2020. DS sales picked up with the introduction of the DS Lite in 2006.
Same chart as above, but this is the Switch compared to key Nintendo platforms when launch aligned.
At this point in its lifecycle, the Switch is doing considerably better than the 3DS was and more in line with the original DS. Will be tough to keep up with DS next year. pic.twitter.com/s0Hw5aMEBD— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 31, 2019
In other news about console sales, Sony announced recently that PS4 sales have climbed to 102.8 million units, which surpasses the Wii (101.63 million) to become the second best-selling system in history. The PS2, with its 150 million units shipped, remains the best-selling console in history.