Switch Sales Surpass 8.2 Million Units in the US, Best-Selling Nintendo Console Ever for Thanksgiving Weekend - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 December 2018 / 5,834 Views

Nintendo announced the Nintendo Switch set two new records in the US for the five day Thanksgiving weekend. The first record is that it became the best-selling Nintendo console ever for the long weekend, even surpassing Wii sales. It was also the best-selling week ever for the console.

The Nintendo Switch was one of the most-purchased items online on Thanksgiving day, according to Adobe Analytics. It was the top-selling video game product online during the five day period.

More than $250 million in Nintendo products were sold over the long weekend. This includes sales for the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, NES Classic, SNES Classic, software, and accessories. Total hardware sales increased 45 percent year-over-year.

Here is an overview of Nintendo sales in the US from November 22 to 26:

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch hardware sales grew 115 percent compared to the same period in 2017.
Lifetime sales of Nintendo Switch, which is entering only its second holiday season, have reached more than 8.2 million units.
Sales of first-party games, including digital downloads, topped 1 million units Nov. 22-26, beating 2017’s totals by 78 percent.
Nintendo Switch games Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! have hit combined U.S. sales of more than 1.5 million units since their Nov. 16 launch.
Super Mario Party surpassed lifetime U.S. sales of 1 million units, becoming the fastest-selling game in the Mario Party series and the fifth million-selling first-party Nintendo Switch game in the U.S. alone, joining The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2.

Nintendo 3DS

Thanks in part to strong Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday sales, the total installed base for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems has hit 22 million.
Additionally, after 12 months of availability, lifetime combined sales of the Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon games crossed 2.2 million.

Classic Gaming Systems

Also aided by strong Nov. 22-26 sales, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition system surpassed lifetime sales of 2.5 million.
And the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition system surpassed lifetime sales of 2 million.

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.

18 Comments

PAOerfulone (on 28 November 2018)

Even beating the Wii? Now THAT'S an accomplishment!

StriderKiwi (on 28 November 2018)

I'll say it again, Switch has the potential to be Nintendo's best selling console of all time.

The_Liquid_Laser StriderKiwi (on 28 November 2018)

I totally agree. :) In fact, I think it definitely will become the best selling console of all time.

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AngryLittleAlchemist StriderKiwi (on 28 November 2018)

@CaptainExplosion It won't be easy with what the Wii did? Are we just talking about home consoles? Because the Switch's biggest competition for best selling system would be DS, not Wii, if it were to aim to actually be Nintendo's best selling console.

Manlytears StriderKiwi (on 28 November 2018)

It will have good numbers, but it will not beat wii. I think ~80M at best.

HylianSwordsman StriderKiwi (on 28 November 2018)

We'll have a better idea once this holiday is over, since this is shaping up to be Switch's worst year software wise but with strong holiday titles, so it should only get better from here. But we won't really know how high Switch will go until we see how the release of PS5 and XB Scarlet affects Switch sales momentum. If they release 2020 and Switch can keep it's momentum beyond that, it'll stand a chance at Wii since Wii went downhill fast after the first 4 years, with only 1 or 2 decent years after that.

Beating the 3DS and even the GBA should be no problem, and the 360 and PS3 aren't a huge stretch from there, but it needs to pick up the pace a bit to beat Wii, and while it's actually ahead, launch alined, of DS for now, it needs to pick up the pace a lot to stay ahead for long, as we're not even at the point where DS Lite would have released yet.

Paatar (on 28 November 2018)

Pokémon, Smash Bros, positive Warframe reception and New Super Mario Bros Deluxe (people seem to forget about this one) will most definitely drive sales for the Switch, and if we see some good things at the Game Awards and maybe even a direct in Jan for 2019, they can easily hit their goal for the fiscal year, especially since it ends in March.

Masked_Muchaco Paatar (on 30 November 2018)

Is warframe a system seller?

Paatar Paatar (on 10 December 2018)

With the sudden new burst of Warframe popularity I can only imagine it will help contribute, similar to Fortnite. Warframe is different though since it is also proving that huge 3rd party games can be done on the Switch extremely well and the praise around how well it runs on the Switch has definitely gotten a ton of coverage. So I would say it's contributing, but definitely no where near as much as the other 3.