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Switch Surpasses DS' Lifetime Sales to Become Nintendo's Best Selling Console Ever
posted on by Alex Mateo
Switch 2 software sales amount to 37.93 million units as of December 31, with the Mario Kart World launch game representing 14.03 million units, including bundle pack-ins. The Donkey Kong Bananza 3D platformer game sold 4.25 million units, the Switch 2 Edition of the Pokémon Legends Z-A game sold 3.89 million units, and Masahiro Sakurai's Kirby Air Riders sequel game sold 1.76 million units. Digital game sales accounted for 50.4% of total software sales this year so far for Switch and Switch 2. Pokémon Legends Z-A sold 8.41 million units on Switch for a total of 12.3 million units between both versions.
The Switch console has sold 155.37 million units as of September 30. This number includes sales for the Nintendo Switch, Lite, and OLED consoles. Switch software sales amount to 1.5 billion units. The Switch sold 3.25 million units so far in the fiscal year, a 66% year-on-year decline that the company had expected. Switch software sales for this fiscal year so far are 108.93 million units, a 12.1% year-on-year decline, with the company noting that Switch games are also playable on Switch 2.
The bestselling titles for Switch as of December 31 are:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 70.59 million copies
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 49.32 million copies
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: 37.44 million copies
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: 33.64 million copies
- Super Mario Odyssey: 30.27 million copies
- Pokémon Scarlet/Pokémon Violet: 28.08 million copies
- Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield: 27.08 million copies
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: 22.40 million copies
- Super Mario Party: 21.28 million copies
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: 18.80 million copies
The Switch 2 sold over 3.5 million units worldwide in the first four days following its release on June 5. According to the company, this is the highest global sales amount for any Nintendo hardware within its first four days. The system sold 5.82 million units in the fiscal year's first quarter ending on June 30. Switch 2 had sold over 6 million units seven weeks later. Switch 2 sold over 10 million units as of the end of the fiscal year's second quarter on September 30.
Nintendo is now forecasting that it will sell 19 million Switch 2 consoles in the fiscal year ending on March 31. The company is predicting it will sell 4 million Switch consoles in the next year. The company previously forecasted 15 million Switch 2 and 4.5 million Switch consoles for this fiscal year.
Nintendo released the Switch 2 console worldwide on June 5.
Nintendo launched the Switch console in March 2017.
The Switch surpassed Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Game Boy/Game Boy Color as of the end of 2022. It is now the second best-selling console of all time, and stands behind only the PlayStation 2.
