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Nintendo's latest financials are live, and with the new sales figures comes another sale milestone for the juggernaut that is the Nintendo Switch. The Switch family of consoles, consisting of the standard Switch, the Lite and the OLED, has now sold 103.54 million units, reaching that number in only five years, faster than any other home console. Notably, the Switch still has some time left in its life cycle, while the Wii, Nintendo's previous best-selling home console, sold 101.63 million units in its lifetime, The Switch has now eclipsed the Wii U , which ended its life cycle with only 13.5 million sales.

While the Switch could be classified as Nintendo's best-selling home console, the hybrid console still lags behind some of the company's other handheld releases. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color sold 118.69 million units, and the Nintendo DS family of consoles sold a whopping 154.02 million units. Besides those two, the Switch is also still chasing the Sony PlayStation 4 at 116.6 million units and the PlayStation 2 at approximately 155 million.

Source

 

[yusuo]

The difference is that unlike the Wii, the Switch isn't everyone's dust collector.

It's my dust collector. If my kid don't play it, it would never get used

 

[TheGodMauro]

I swear I'll never understand the fetishism behind the WII U, but whatever. This milestone, and the others that will come later, shall serve as a reminder that the video game industry is far more than just the processing power of your plastic box.

 

[x65943]

even with that idea I wouldn't say it would be a clean cut in half considering the fact that I'm sure there was a heavy overlap between people who owned a wii and people who owned a ds. to be fair, we also count ps2 system sales of all the people who literally just bought and only ever used it as a dvd player...so not even a gaming system at that point for a chunk of households

But the people who owned a wii and a DS also paid for both systems - meaning a lot more revenue

The wii at launch was $250 which is $345 in 2022 dollars
The DS was $150 which is $220 in 2022 dollars

so combined that is $565 vs the launch price of the switch at $300 (which is about $341 today)

 

[Stealphie]

What's that "fact" you are talking about? Last time I checked top-tier Wii games had an MSRP of $50 (however, the Wii U raised that number to $60, but then again the Switch does not offer that much more raw performance) and handheld Nintendo games up until the 3DS almost always cost $40 or less. We could also argue about the cost of developing those games having increased that much, since the hardware requirements and art styles of Nintendo games might be on the less cost-intensive side of the spectrum. That being said, I think they're fine.

I'm pretty sure WiiU games still costed $50, could be wrong though.

 

[x65943]

I'm pretty sure WiiU games still costed $50, could be wrong though.

I think it was $60

 

[Ampersound]

They have no competition at this point. There are no other current handhelds.
All you can get are old handhelds, phones & tablets and mini PCs.
I hope the Gabegear is gonna have a bigger impact on the market, so there's finally some competition to Nintendo again.

But even more so, Sony and Microsoft should enter the space again.
Nintendo made cooler stuff when Sony tried to kick their butts. They just shot themselves in the knee over and over with proprietary bs and lack of support.

 

[WG481]

THE most iconic Nintendo console is the NES, second place is the N64
They are the most prized by collectors

Sure, in the eyes of collectors.
The Wii is really what brought a lot of people to gaming.
Everybody I know still has one, and they use it a lot more than their higher end consoles.

 

[Bladexdsl]

they won't fix the drift yet people keep buying these. how much of a fucking sheep can people possibly get!

They have no competition at this point. There are no other current handhelds.

steamdeck says hello

 

[Noctosphere]

Sure, in the eyes of collectors.
The Wii is really what brought a lot of people to gaming.
Everybody I know still has one, and they use it a lot more than their higher end consoles.

You clearly haven't heard about the video game crash, right?
In short, many many many video games of very very very poor quality popped up on 2nd gen consoles such as atari 2600
That led to the video game crash, peoples just gave up on video games, saying they were all trashes.
Which console brought back video gaming back on its feet?
You got it, the NES

 

[p1ngpong]

Maybe it is a silly idea of mine, but I think since Nintendo lost its individual home and portable console sales for this to happen - you really need to cut the number in half to directly compare to older systems

If you combined the Wii and DS sales you get something like 250 million units - so Nintendo has still lost market from that time imo

This 100%

Combine the sales of the Wii along with the DS series of handhelds and the switch sales are dwarfed.

Switch officially confirmed fail console like I predicted! ;O;

 

[Noctosphere]

This 100%

Combine the sales of the Wii along with the DS series of handhelds and the switch sales are dwarfed.

Switch officially confirmed fail console like I predicted! ;O;

Does the switch beats the 3ds/wii u combo though?

 

[Noctosphere]

I think it was $60

They were, in usd, they were 80 here in canada

 

[ChaosEternal]

Maybe it is a silly idea of mine, but I think since Nintendo lost its individual home and portable console sales for this to happen - you really need to cut the number in half to directly compare to older systems

If you combined the Wii and DS sales you get something like 250 million units - so Nintendo has still lost market from that time imo

A reasonable point, but you also have to consider that many individuals owned both a Wii and a DS. The same isn't true of the Switch as most average consumers wouldn't buy two. Thus, the true number Nintendo is aiming for should be closer to the total number of people who owned a DS and/or a Wii, not the total number sold Wii's + DS's .

Edit: Ah, I see somebody else already brought up the same point. You're right about the revenue. One would definitely think that two separate product lines would produce more money for them overall.

 

[xpoverzion]

With as much disdain as I have toward Nintendo and the Switch system? It's the experience. They care more about the quality of gameplay over raw performance. Even though Breath of the Wild, Legends of Arceus, Xenoblade Chronicles, etc. have frame drops and performance issues? The games themselves are fun and memorable. Not everyone wants or cares about backwards compatibility. Hell, the number of people that do is smaller than one would think.

I agree, some nintendo games are high quality, and fun to play. However, you mentioned the big problem with the Switch. There is hardly anything new for it going on 5 years now. Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade were on the Wii U, and the performance was more or less the same. In 5 years, I can probably count the number of good, new games with one hand. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of garbage phone games that they have on the platform, or decent/good games that were already on the Wii U. The lack of performance with Nintendo's Switch means that they don't get any AAA open world or graphic intensive games, and there are a ton of good games out there that are made for multiple platforms, but not the Switch. Case in point, I tried to play immortals fenyx rising on the Switch recently, and that was complete garbage. They had to compromise the game too much to make it barely work on the switch. I think Nintendo has completely missed the plot lately. They should have two hardware platforms. A mobile one like the switch that can really only play phone games, and BOTW at 20-30fps, and a more powerful living room console that not only keeps their hardware relevant over the years, but also helps them compete with Sony, Microsoft, PC, etc by being able to play more AAA titles on their platform. Otherwise, if not for Zelda and Mario, I'm pretty sure Nintendo would cease to exist. Imagine playing BOTW at 60fps with little or no lag. How awesome would that be? Nintendo needs to raise their standards, especially in this tech driven age. I think Nintendo needs to clean the house and hire some visionary individuals that will not only deliver a console that can play the big titles with much higher performance, but also start producing more good games than just a few in 5 years.

 

[pedro702]

But the people who owned a wii and a DS also paid for both systems - meaning a lot more revenue

The wii at launch was $250 which is $345 in 2022 dollars
The DS was $150 which is $220 in 2022 dollars

so combined that is $565 vs the launch price of the switch at $300 (which is about $341 today)

you do realize companys dont make money selling hardware right? i mean sony and microsoft loose money even, while nintendo doesnt loose, they also barely make any back, they just dont sell at a loss, all the money comes from software.I remenber nintendo only broke even with the wiiu when wiiu passed 12 millions due to manufactoring costs and development time and such so yeah no company just makes money on hardware.

Also the wii was a fluke, they marketed to noone gamers and it worked but nintendo home consoles were on the decline for a long time.

nes 62 millions
snes 49 millions
n64 33 millions
GC 22 millions
wiiu 14 millions

So if you take out the wii you can see nintendo keeps diminishing its home console sales generation by generation so the wiiu kinda sold what it did and it isnt strange its just follwoing the home console trend barring the wii, so who knows if the next home console sells less than 10 even.

So yeah by making a hybrid they kinda saved their own home console folks, home consoles have much better alternatives with sony and microsoft so it was the best decision imo.

 

[Xzi]

Good to see the portable console market still alive and thriving. Unfortunate timing for Nintendo to be stuck on 2013's technology for several more years, though.

 

[andyhappypants]

Maybe it is a silly idea of mine, but I think since Nintendo lost its individual home and portable console sales for this to happen - you really need to cut the number in half to directly compare to older systems

If you combined the Wii and DS sales you get something like 250 million units - so Nintendo has still lost market from that time imo

Good valid point, Didnt think of it like that

 

[jt_1258]

But the people who owned a wii and a DS also paid for both systems - meaning a lot more revenue

The wii at launch was $250 which is $345 in 2022 dollars
The DS was $150 which is $220 in 2022 dollars

so combined that is $565 vs the launch price of the switch at $300 (which is about $341 today)

while the console sale itself does usually bring in money isn't it the game sales that are the real bread and butter of income for the company that makes the system, especially since they take a cut of even 3rd party game sales

 

[lordelan]

The difference is that unlike the Wii, the Switch isn't everyone's dust collector.

Not yet, at least.
(Steam Deck incoming)

 

[wiiAdventurer]

I find both pieces of hardware are very interesting.

I love the Wii. But in some ways the library as a whole I find underwhelming. Like, looking at my favorite games of all times, there's not many (any?) Wii games on it. It was largely a casual focused console with maybe 10 - 20% of its library having more gamer oriented titles. That being said, most of those titles are very unique and a good handful of them are still only available on the Wii.

I like the Switch. While many enjoy the portability of the console, that doesn't interest me personally. I can't deny the library is incredibly strong, some of the most critically or user acclaimed titles are available. However, I still feel like the system has too many multi-platform games and ports. It has little to call its own (in particular outside of Nintendo titles). I imagine most don't care about that and they are right, it is still an incredible line-up.

For me, it's a difficult choice, some of my favorite titles have been ported to Switch (some with enhancements!) but I have a fondness for the Wii selection of games. Still to this day I'm finding interesting Wii titles to pickup.

Regardless, congratulations are in order. Way to go Switch!