Switch Surpasses Wii to Become Fastest-Selling Home Video Game Console in US History - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 January 2018 / 5,782 Views

The Nintendo Switch has surpassed the Wii to become the fastest-selling home video game console in US history, announced Nintendo. The hybrid console launched on March 3, 2017 and in 10 months has sold more than 4.8 million units.

"Fans across the country have experienced the joy of playing their favorite games at home or on the go," said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s President and COO. "Now that many more people have received Nintendo Switch systems for the holidays, we look forward to bringing them fun new surprises in 2018 and beyond."

More than 60 percent of Switch owners have Super Mario Odyssey, and over 55 percent own The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. More than 50 percent of owners also have Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and 20 percent own Splatoon 2.

More than 300 games from third-party developers have been released for the Switch.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

56 Comments

Mandalore76 (on 04 January 2018)

So, what Reggie said recently was not just "PR spin that only applies to a certain point of view" as some were claiming/accusing.

FloatingWaffles (on 04 January 2018)

You can probably guess who the people are that are gonna come to this article downvoting comments because they don't like the good news about Nintendo because they feel it somehow makes their system not look as good, just like in a lot of the other articles of Switch success where that has happened lol.

Mandalore76 FloatingWaffles (on 04 January 2018)

Incoming!

OTBWY (on 04 January 2018)

Member when people laughed at the idea that it could be a Wii-like success? Watch as the narrative changes, and the same goalposts will be set as it was with the Wii.

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method114 OTBWY (on 05 January 2018)

Every successful console goes through this. PS4 had it's fair share of backlash like that. No games, it's just a fad, it wont last,now after a few years people can't say anything.

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OTBWY OTBWY (on 05 January 2018)

It happens more to successful Nintendo systems than any other platform.

Ljink96 (on 04 January 2018)

Kimishima wasn't lying. The Switch is going to the moon!

Ganoncrotch Ljink96 (on 04 January 2018)

COS COS.... COS... ZEDLA IZ DA ONLY GAEM ON IT?!!!11

I'm so sorry :(

Switch is amazing.

KrspaceT (on 04 January 2018)

Bring on the salt! I will lick it

Stuart23 (on 04 January 2018)

Nintendo: The king of comebacks.

XD84 (on 04 January 2018)

Amazing! How many would have expected that success after the January 2017 presentation.

FloatingWaffles XD84 (on 04 January 2018)

The January 2017 presentation was good though, at least imo. Could have been better but they still had plenty to show.

Jranation XD84 (on 04 January 2018)

The 1 thing no one expected was the stock lol

VAMatt XD84 (on 05 January 2018)

Certainly not me. That presentation killed my excitement for the system. I didn't gain the excitement back until I played SMO.

Ryng (on 04 January 2018)

I remember back in 2016 there were rumor about a 250$ price launch, and people were skeptical at that price. (that's why the first reaction after the Nintendo presentation of January was "OMG NINTENDO IS DOOM")

All those performance are with a 300$ price, with no bundle (we saw some limited Splatoon 2 and Mario odyssey bundle at 370$ but right now they are all gone) AND with stocks problem for most of the year.

Imagine if Switch launched at 250$ as many people thought and with no stock problem all the year.

...Boy... 2018 is gonna be insane!

VAMatt Ryng (on 05 January 2018)

I must admit - I thought it was gonna be in trouble at $299.

zippy (on 04 January 2018)

Can't argue with facts. Well done Nintendo on creating a superb gaming device.

Nintendoisnumber1 (on 04 January 2018)

Nintendo ftw!!!!!

Teriol (on 04 January 2018)

The Return of The King!! Go Ninty Go!!!

Redguy (on 04 January 2018)

Odyssey selling more than botw or mk8 is mind blowing

Gamer147 (on 04 January 2018)

Very nice.

TheSource (on 04 January 2018)

The Wii US trajectory was something like:
2006: 1.1m
2007: 6.2m (12 months)
2008: 10.1m
2009: 9.6m
2010: 7.0m
2011: 4.5m
2012: 2.0m
2013: 800k

Someone should do the math and estimate what Switch did in December.

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Lucca (on 04 January 2018)

This is huge. Who would have guessed that after the failure that was the Wii U?

NSS7 (on 05 January 2018)

I thought Wii sold way more than that. Congrats Nintendo.best selling conosle US and selling faster than PS2 in Japan (best selling home console in Japan) is huge success.

gentii (on 05 January 2018)

The King is Return

AlfredoTurkey (on 05 January 2018)

Impressive but, word of caution, the Xbox 360 ended up selling more consoles in the US than Wii. So, it's a good start but caution should be applied.

thismeintiel (on 04 January 2018)

So, what should that put it at for Dec?

PAOerfulone thismeintiel (on 04 January 2018)

I'd say roughly 1.3-1.5 million. Depends on if December is being counted as a 4 week or 5 week month.

thismeintiel thismeintiel (on 04 January 2018)

Thanks. And yeah, I couldn't find out what the NPD Dec frame time was, either.

Ryng thismeintiel (on 04 January 2018)

It's at 1.4 million minimum. Will probabily be 1.45-1.5 million

Seventizz (on 04 January 2018)

Mario Oddesey is the only thing that interests me about the Switch. But my rule is three games I want and I buy the console. My Xbox One (and now X) stands alone another year. Sad because I usually buy all the relevant consoles in a generation.

Jranation Seventizz (on 04 January 2018)

"Relevant consoles" What is that?

Dravenet7 Seventizz (on 04 January 2018)

This like the third time I've seen this comment regurgitated from you.

Lucca Seventizz (on 04 January 2018)

His profile pic has "Only on Xbox" written in it. We can't expect unbiased and reasonable opinions from a fanboy. It's better to just downvote and move forward.