Nintendo Switch closes in on 80 million consoles sold mark

Nintendo released its third quarter financial results, a period that ended in December, and revealed that it has sold 79.87 million Switch consoles.

That’s just about 80 million units sold after 46 months on the market. That makes the Switch Nintendo’s second fastest console hit ever, only trailing the Nintendo DS.

Here is how the Switch compares to other Nintendo consoles.

After 46 months:
NDS: ~83m
Wii: ~75m
Switch: 79.9m
3DS: ~50m
Wii U: ~13.m

Switch won’t catch DS, but it’ll track alongside Wii for most of this year, overtaking it by the end of the year. pic.twitter.com/adR5afwDmN

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 1, 2021

The Switch was already doing well, but then the entire gaming industry got a boost when the pandemic hit. Social distancers have flocked to gaming as a source of entertainment, which has helped Nintendo’s revenues for the quarter grow 37.3% compared to the same period last year.

During the quarter, Nintendo released three games that have sold over a million copies: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (3.5 million), Pikmin 3 Deluxe (1.94 million), and Mario Kart: Home Circuit (1.08 million).

None of those may be the giant holiday hits you’d expect to see Nintendo release in its third quarter, but that didn’t matter. The Switch has amassed a huge library of Nintendo hits that continue to sell well months and even years after release. Six Switch games have sold over 20 million copies: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (33.41 million), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (31.18 million), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (22.85 million), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (21.45 million), Pokémon Sword and Shield (20.35 million), and Super Mario Odyssey (20.23 million).

Nintendo enjoys this success even as it faces competition from PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, both of which launched in November. Supply problems have made those machines hard to find for many consumers.