Nintendo Switch Outsells Nintendo GameCube - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 February 2019 / 7,453 Views

The Nintendo Switch has outsold the lifetime sales of the Nintendo GameCube, according to our estimates.

The Switch sold 208,718 units for the week ending November 3, 2018 to bring its lifetime sales to 21.78 million units. This compares to the GameCube with sales of 21.74 million units.

Breaking down Switch sales by region, it sold 8.15 million units in North America, 5.89 million units in Europe, 5.35 million units in Japan, and 2.39 million units in the rest of the world. The GameCube sold 12.55 million units in North America, 4.44 million units in Europe, 4.04 million units in Japan, and 0.71 million units in the rest of the world.

Nintendo shipment figures for the Nintendo Switch as of September 30 are 22.86 million units, with 111.10 million games shipped. GameCube shipped 21.74 million units and 208.57 million games shipped.

The best-selling Switch game is Super Mario Odyssey with 10.29 million units sold to date and climbing, while Super Smash Bros. Melee was the best-selling GameCube game with 7.07 million units sold.

The best-selling third party game on the Switch is Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle with 2.19 million units sold, while Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was the best-selling third party GameCube game with 2.56 million units sold.

Here is the list of the top 10 best-selling Switch games to date:

Pos	Game	Year	Genre	Publisher	North America	Europe	Japan	Rest of World	Global
1.	Super Mario Odyssey	2017	Platform	Nintendo	4.47	3.15	1.93	0.73	10.29
2.	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	2017	Racing	Nintendo	3.57	3.56	1.89	0.65	9.67
3.	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	2017	Action-Adventure	Nintendo	3.92	2.55	1.16	0.63	8.27
4.	Splatoon 2	2017	Shooter	Nintendo	1.68	1.45	2.82	0.29	6.24
5.	Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle	2017	Strategy	Ubisoft	0.89	0.93	0.21	0.16	2.19
6.	1-2-Switch	2017	Party	Nintendo	0.52	1.01	0.48	0.12	2.13
7.	Arms	2017	Fighting	Nintendo	0.80	0.44	0.45	0.12	1.81
8.	Kirby	2018	Platform	Nintendo	0.59	0.31	0.65	0.09	1.64
9.	Pokken Tournament	2017	Fighting	Nintendo	0.73	0.42	0.30	0.11	1.57
10.	Xenoblade Chronicles 2	2017	Role-Playing	Nintendo	0.43	0.43	0.23	0.08	1.16

Here is the list of the top 10 best-selling GameCube games:

Pos	Game	Year	Genre	Publisher	North America	Europe	Japan	Rest of World	Global
1.	Super Smash Bros Melee	2001	Fighting	Nintendo	4.41	1.04	1.39	0.22	7.07
2.	Mario Kart: Double Dash!!	2003	Racing	Nintendo	4.12	1.77	0.87	0.19	6.95
3.	Super Mario Sunshine	2002	Platform	Nintendo	4.01	1.26	0.87	0.17	6.31
4.	The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker	2002	Adventure	Nintendo	2.60	0.99	0.89	0.13	4.60
5.	Luigi's Mansion	2001	Action	Nintendo	2.38	0.67	0.46	0.10	3.60
6.	Animal Crossing	2001	Simulation	Nintendo	1.92	0.16	0.99	0.09	3.15
7.	Metroid Prime	2002	Shooter	Nintendo	1.96	0.67	0.10	0.09	2.82
8.	Sonic Adventure 2 Battle	2001	Platform	Sega	1.70	0.59	0.21	0.07	2.56
9.	Pokemon Colosseum	2003	Role-Playing	Nintendo	1.21	0.57	0.70	0.07	2.54
10.	Mario Party 4	2002	Misc	Nintendo	1.13	0.36	0.92	0.07	2.47

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.

12 Comments

StriderKiwi (on 24 November 2018)

Switch has the potential to be one of if not the best selling Nintendo consoles.

Comment was deleted...

Mnementh (on 24 November 2018)

Grats for the milestone. Onto the next, XBox.

HylianSwordsman (on 24 November 2018)

I should certainly hope it outsells the Gamecube. Gamecube will always be my favorite console, but if Switch couldn't beat Gamecube after the Wii U's performance, it really would be time for Nintendo to go 3rd party. Here's to outselling the 64 in a year or so, and the SNES a year or so after that, and then the NES, 3DS, and Wii. (coughandDScough)

avanzo85 (on 26 November 2018)

Very happy for the well-deserved success of the Switch. But at the same time it is sad to remember once again the commercial failure of the Gamecube, a console that I liked so much and had a great library of games. Ps2 really was a grim reaper in that generation.

ResilientFighter (on 23 November 2018)

Well it is a far superior console and im not talking about graphics power. The switch will go down as the modern nintendo 64. I hope nintendo doesn't release a new console until after the next ps and xbox release.