With Successor on the Horizon, Nintendo Switch Sales Surpass 140 Million
Posted on May 10 2024 by Nicole Scott
Nintendo is likely opening bottles of champagne as the Switch ascends the charts — it is so close to being the company’s best-selling console of all time.
On May 7th, 2024, Nintendo released its Financial Results Explanatory Material, detailing the company’s monetary wins for the last fiscal year, which ended on March 31st. Numbers are consistently up, despite a drought in game releases. A few titles will likely keep the Switch alive and profitable in the coming months, especially in light of the upcoming June Direct.
During Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, combined sales of the original Switch, OLED version, and Switch Lite amounted to 15.7 million units. Even though this is a 12.6% decrease compared to FY23, the numbers add up to something extraordinary — the Switch has officially sold 141.32 million copies since it was unleashed in 2017.
The DS is the only system outranking it with 154.02 million units out the door. In third place below the Switch is the Game Boy, with 118.69 million consoles sold. Forecasts anticipate 13.5 million more Switch sales in the coming year. If our math is correct, it wouldn’t just inch closer to the DS — it would surpass it, taking the gold-medal position.
The number of console sales is monumental, but Nintendo paired these wins with a successful year of software. This was due to the astronomical impacts of Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo Switch Sports, and 27 other titles exceeding one million copies sold. Tears drove past the 20-million-unit mark in December 2023. It remains the ninth best-selling Switch game as of March 2024. It’s likely it will slide above Super Mario Party as Tears encroaches its first birthday.
Sales Numbers from Nintendo’s 2024 “Financial Results Explanatory Material”
Fans know the Switch’s successor will get much-anticipated screentime in the next fiscal year, as confirmed by Nintendo’s President, Shuntaro Furukawa. Seeing their prized hybrid console climb up the ranks must be the perfect send-off, opening the door to Nintendo’s next era of hardware.
Do you think the Switch will outpace the DS before the new console arrives on shelves? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Nintendo (1, 2, 3) (via Nintendo Life)
Nicole Scott is writer for Zelda Dungeon from suburban Appalachia. She loves drinking espresso, seeing live music, building LEGO sets, being a completionist, and snuggling her two probably-alien cats, Tizo and Alarielle.
