Nintendo has shipped more Switch consoles than Wii Us
Nintendo has shipped 14.86 million units of the Switch since the console launched in March. Of the Wii U, which was on sale between 2012 and the end of 2017, Nintendo delivered 13.56 million.
In the last three months of 2017, Nintendo shipped 7.2 million units of the Switch. This is evident from the quarterly figures that Nintendo has published. In the previous quarter, Nintendo shipped 2.9 million copies. The fourth quarter is a period when many consoles are always sold because of the holidays. While the Switch has overtaken the Wii U, deliveries aren’t even close to those of the original Wii. Nintendo delivered 101.56 million of that console over its lifetime.
The numbers show that Super Mario Odyssey is a huge success. The game, which came out at the end of October, has been shipped 9.07 million times in the past quarter. This makes it the most delivered title for the Switch at once. In second place is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with 7.33 million copies and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is number three with 6.70 million copies. However, those games have been on the market for a long time. Splatoon 2 is also a success, with 4.91 million copies delivered, the game is in fourth position.
In total, Nintendo has now shipped 52.57 million games for the Switch. This concerns both downloads and physical sales. This brings the average to more than three and a half games per delivered console. Nintendo does not mention any new details about upcoming games in its quarterly report. The company does report that the Fire Emblem and Yoshi games for the Switch will be released this year and that the Pokémon RPG for the Switch will appear “or later” this year. Nintendo hasn’t mentioned the year of release of Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4 yet. At least that seems to indicate that these games won’t be released in 2018.
Nintendo states that the arrival of the Switch has not had a bad impact on 3DS sales. More 3DS handhelds are said to have been shipped in the US during the holiday season than a year earlier. Worldwide, the number of 3DS handhelds delivered between April and December decreased. That was 5.86 million, compared to 6.45 million in the same period a year earlier. Furthermore, Nintendo calls the SNES Classic Mini a hit, but the company does not give sales figures.
In the past quarter, Nintendo had a turnover of 483 billion yen and profit came in at 116.5 billion yen. Converted that is about 862 million euros. The quarterly profit was thus almost four times higher than a year earlier.