The Nintendo Switch Has Managed To Outsell The 3DS

It’s been no secret that the Nintendo Switch has been incredibly successful, but the latest sales figures from Nintendo themselves have given us an idea as to how successful the handheld console has been. Since launch in 2017, the Switch has managed to accumulate 79.87m consoles sold.

 

That’s A Lot of Consoles, Huh?

It sure is, and it’s more consoles than the Nintendo 3DS has managed to sell in its lifetime. The 3DS sold 75.94m units during its lifetime, meaning the Switch has sailed past that target to become one of the biggest selling consoles in the company’s long-history. Better still, according to industry insider Daniel Ahmad, the Nintendo Switch is on track to overtake the Wii’s sales by the end of this year.

Here is how the Switch compares to other Nintendo consoles.

After 46 months:
NDS: ~83m
Wii: ~75m
Switch: 79.9m
3DS: ~50m
Wii U: ~13.m

Switch won't catch DS, but it'll track alongside Wii for most of this year, overtaking it by the end of the year. pic.twitter.com/adR5afwDmN

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 1, 2021

Whether or not the Switch will catch up to the DS, which was nothing short of a juggernaut for Nintendo, remains to be seen. Maybe that mythical Switch Pro will be enough to tip the scales, especially considering that the Switch Lite on its own is reportedly just a few thousand units short of overtaking the Wii U’s lifetime sales of 13.56m.

 

How About Individual Game Sales?

Recent first-party games like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Pikmin 3 Deluxe have managed to perform well, with 3.5m and 1.94m copies sold respectively. Their back catalogue is also performing fantastically, as is expected, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe having sold a whooping 33.41m copies since launch. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is closing the distance though, having reached 31.18m copies sold after less than a year on sale.

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