Nintendo Switch software sales pass 163 million.
The Nintendo Switch is continuing its successful run as sales of Nintendo’s latest console have surpassed 32 million units since its launch on March, 3, 2017.
Nintendo announced the news this morning and confirmed that, as of December 31, 2018, the Nintendo Switch sold 32.27 million units and software sales for the console have reached 163.61 million units.
The Switch sold 14.49 million units between April and December of 2018 and, as of October, Nintendo confirmed Switch was at 22 million units sold. These sales numbers helped the Switch become the best-selling console of 2018 and become the best-selling Nintendo console during a Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S.
Another interesting fact, courtesy of ZhugeEX, is that when you compare the Switch to other consoles in each of their first 36 months, the Switch is “tracking above PS4 and inline with Wii (Although will likely not keep up with Wii next year.)”
The Nintendo 3DS, which launched in 2011, has sold 74.84 million units and has software sales of 375.97 million, while the Wii U, which launched in 2012, has hardware sales of 13.56 million units and software sales of 102.69 units sold.
Nintendo also lists the current sales figures of all of its other consoles, all the way back to the NES, which has sold 61.91 million units and has software sales of 500.01 million units since its launch in 1983 in Japan.
Alongside this information, Nintendo also revealed that its total sales for “the nine months ended December 31, 2018,” reached ~997.2 billion yen ($9.1 billion USD), which is up from “the nine months ended December 31, 2017,” sales which equaled ~857 billion yen ($7.8 billion USD).
Sales figures for Nintendo’s first party titles released last year were also given, including that Super Mario Party, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 5.3 million, 10 million, and 12.08 million units, respectively.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate achieved those numbers in a short time as it launched on December 7, and since then it became the best-selling game in December 2018 and sold over 3 million units in only 11 days.
As for the Nintendo’s forecast for 2019, it was originally aiming to hit 20 million switch consoles sold by the end of the fiscal year, but reduced that projection to 17 million.
Nintendo also confirmed that Mario Kart Tour, the mobile title originally scheduled to release by March 2019, has been delayed to Summer 2019 “in order to improve quality of the application and expand the content offerings after launch.”
Nintendo fans have a lot to look forward to in 2019 with the release of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and the upcoming titles anticipated for this year including Yoshi’s Crafted World, Fire Emblem: Three Heroes, and Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Switch.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who applauds Nintendo for its performance in 2018 and wishes it the best for 2019. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.
