The Nintendo Switch has surpassed 100 million console sales. This makes it better than the Wii, the game maker’s most popular console to date. In the Benelux, the device has been sold 1.5 million times.

 

The Nintendo Switch is now officially the most popular classic game console from the Japanese game maker. The company indicates that it has sold more than 103 million of the devices as of December 31, 2021, making the Switch already outperforming the Wii, Nintendo’s previous best-selling console. The Switch has also surpassed 100 million consoles sold faster than any other game console, including devices from Sony and Microsoft. In the Benelux alone, 1.5 million copies were sold in five years. With this, the Switch also surpasses the sales record of the Wii, Nintendo writes in a press release.

This is good news for Nintendo, especially since the Switch is far from the end of its production. “Switch is only in the middle of its life cycle, and the momentum for this year is good,” said Nintendo’s chief executive Shuntaro Furukawa, presenting its quarterly results. The company expects to sell 23 million consoles this quarter. However, that is less than initially expected because the company now also takes chip shortages and reduced production into account.

The Switch is Nintendo’s best-selling console, but not yet the best-selling device. Purely portable game consoles such as the Nintendo DS (with 154 million units sold) and the original Game Boy (with 118 million units) have fared even better in the past. By turning the Switch into a device that can be portable as well as hanging from the television, Nintendo is eating a bit of both. This also turns out to be in favour of the company.

The Switch was released in March of 2017 and was able to seduce a lot of people with ‘lockdown hits’ such as Animal Crossing. Nintendo is now releasing three versions of the device, the classic Switch, which costs about 300 euros; the Lite system, which is basically just a portable game console (about 200 euros); and a more expensive OLED model, which came out in October.