It’s news to nobody at this point just how much of a powerhouse the Nintendo Switch is. The consoleÂsold consistently throughout the whole of last year and was theÂtop-selling console in the US for two years straight.Now, some new information has come to light that shows the console is not only dominant in the US but also the UK.Chris Dring, head of GamesIndustry.biz, shared on Twitter that theNintendo Switchand Switch Lite sold as many units in the UK last year as thePS4,PS5,Xbox Series S/XandXbox Onecombined.
While it’s little surprise that the Switch outsold any of these consoles on their own, the fact it outsold all of them combined is an astonishing achievement.
It goes without saying that both the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S sold less due to their late 2020 launches and the myriad of stock and scalper issues they faced. One scalping group, CrepChiefNotify,reportedly secured over 3500 PS5 consolesand1,000 Xbox Series X consoleswithin the first few days of launch which lead to scalpers making$29 million in less than a month.
Part of the Switch’s fortune can be attributed to the release of cultural phenomenonAnimal Crossing: New Horizons. The game became a beacon of hope during the pandemic, with players using their islands as virtual hang out spots and generally capitalising on the relaxed nature of the title. In the first eight months since it launched,Animal Crossing: New Horizonssold a staggering 26 million copies, instantly propelling it to the second best-selling Switch title of all time, just behindMario Kart 8 Deluxe.
With some big titles still yet to get release dates, includingThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildsequel,Metroid Prime 4andBayonetta 3, it’s likely the Switch’s fortunes will continue for a long time coming. Especially if theheavily rumoured Switch Proturns out to be true.
