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The Nintendo Switch is closing in on 80 million sales

24.1 million were sold in the nine months ending December 31st 2020

The Nintendo Switch is closing in on 80 million sales

The Nintendo Switch is set to close in on 80 million sales worldwide.

As detailed in Nintendo's latest financial report, the console has shipped 79.87 million units globally. Earlier this month, the Switch hardware outsold the Nintendo 3DS, which has 75.94 million lifetime sales.

However, the Switch family of consoles does sit behind the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and the Game Boy, which have moved 101.63 million, 154.02 million, 81.51 million and 118.69 million units, respectively.

It is worth noting that the Nintendo Switch has only recently entered the midpoint of its lifecycle, meaning that it could become the company's best-selling console by the time it is done.

Moreover, for the nine months ending December 31st 2020, Nintendo sold 24.1 million Switch systems, an increase of 36 per cent year-on-year. Of those sales, 16.77 were for the original Switch console, while 7.33 million were for the Switch Lite.

Previously, the Japanese games giant had projected 24 million Switch sales for the 2021 fiscal year. However, that number has now risen to 36.5 million.

Top games

Meanwhile, 532.34 million games have been sold worldwide for the Switch. However, it still trails behind the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS when it comes to software sales, with the platforms boasting 921.85 million and 948.72 million sales, respectively.

However, for the nine months ending December 31st 2020, total software sales for the Nintendo Switch reached 176.1 million, a rise of 43 per cent year-on-year. Moreover, 72.94 million were through first-party titles, an increase of 28 per cent year-on-year. A number of titles drove the impressive growth.

One such game was Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which has moved 31.18 million units since its release in March 2020. In recent weeks, the island life title has continued to prove its dominance as it topped the charts in Australia, Japan and the UK.

Of course, other Switch titles contributed to the success in software sales. Super Mario 3D All-Stars – which was also released in FY21 – managed to shift 8.32 million units.

Between Q1 and Q3 FY21, 29 Nintendo Switch games reached one million sales. Furthermore, 17 of these are first-party games, such as Pokemon Sword and Shield, Super Mario Maker 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Luigi's Mansion 3. Recently, Nintendo snapped up the team behind Luigi's latest adventure, Next Level Games.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.