Nintendo Switch Outsells Wii Worldwide - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 January 2022 / 12,640 Views
The Nintendo Switch has outsold the lifetime sales of the Nintendo Wii, according to VGChartz estimates.
The Switch sold 1.16 million units for the week ending December 25, 2021 to bring its lifetime sales to 101.88 million units. This compares to the Nintendo Wii with sales of 101.63 million units lifetime. The figure for the Switch includes the combined sales of the original Switch model, the Switch Lite, and Switch OLED.
Nintendo's hybrid console has now become the sixth best-selling video game platform of all time. Next up is the PlayStation at 102.49 million units, then the PlayStation 4, which has sold an estimated 116.80 million units to date, then the Game Boy (plus Game Boy Color) at 118.69 million units.
The Switch is just 0.61 million units away from the PlayStation, 14.92 million units away from the PlayStation 4, and 16.81 million units away from the Game Boy.
Breaking down the sales of the Switch, it has sold 34.74 million units in the US, 26.90 million units in Europe, and 22.98 million units in Japan. Breaking down sales in Europe even further, it has sold 5,14 million units in the UK, 6.68 million in France, and 5.44 million in Germany.
Shipment figures for the Nintendo Switch reached 92.87 million units as of September 30, 2021, while 681.00 million Switch games had been shipped lifetime.
Here is a list of the top 10 best-selling Nintendo Switch games, according to Nintendo's shipment figures through September 30, 2021:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 38.74 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 34.85 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 25.71 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 24.13 million
- Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield – 22.64 million
- Super Mario Odyssey – 21.95 million
- Super Mario Party – 16.48 million
- Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! – 13.83 million
- Splatoon 2 – 12.68 million
- Ring Fit Adventure – 12.21 million
The Switch launched worldwide on March 3, 2017, while the Nintendo Wii launched in North America on November 19, 2006, in Japan on December 2, 2006, and in Europe on December 8, 2006.
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.
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The day has finally come
NOT SO FAST.
The next few weeks will have millions of disappointed Switch owners returning them to stores, pushing the Switch back below the Wii and maybe even the PS3.
The cliff is still looming ahead for the Switch. Don't get your hopes up, Nintendopes. Accept the cliff and move on.
Are you stupid or Just want to be strangely funny dude
Breaking the threshold violates the scientific barrier - better known as “the threshold” - put in place by Cliff theory.
The cliff is still going to happen any day now. The Switch will fall flat this year and come to an ignominious end. It will never surpass the PS1 globally in the US. Nintendo is still doomed. The sooner Nintendo fans make peace with that the better.
Being this much of a screeching "NintenDOOMED" loser
My sides are gone, keep being in denial. :>
My sides are gone that you don't realize he is joking.
Well deserved.
One step after the other on it's way to take the throne from the mighty PS2.
It’s on its way, but we might have to settle for it taking the throne in Japan,
and instead establishing a newer slightly small kingdom in North America.
The land that looks back fondly on a time of having competing monarchies on their soil.
Europe is a bit more imposing suggesting an impenetrable fortress and the rest of the world had quite the fondness for PS2 that never seems likely to be swayed.
Glad to see this has been achieved before the end of 2021.
Some other milestones for Switch to look forward to during 2022:
Globally:
Overtaking PS1 (102.50), PS4 (116.8 and still selling), Game Boy (118.69)
North America:
PS4 (38.52 and still selling), GBA (40.39), PS1 (40.78), Game Boy (43.18).
Europe:
PS1 (31.09).
Japan:
PS2 (23.18), 3DS (24.67* and still selling last few hundred units in Japan).
Rest of World:
PSP (15.26).
It already overtook the PS1 in the remaining few days of 2021.
That’s good news. I wasn’t sure if those were results that would come out in the next weeks reporting period. Sales data for a period ending January 2nd definitely counts as 2021 data in my books.
Thank you for the extra info.
It's been exciting watching Switch knock down the 3DS, GBA, and the 7G HD twins. And now the Wii and probably the PS1. It's amazing that a system that was originally supposed to sell on par with the Wii U is now seen as a potential challenger to the PS2.
Yeah, it’s crazy. Even when the launch was successful I was still only thinking it would reach the 90 million mark.
Now anything less than 130 million would be a shocking drop from expectations.
The bonus being that Nintendo is set up to have a lot more of a chance with the next generation. They have the ability to build up new support studios to help development, attract more third party interest, and develop slightly better hardware to launch at a time of their choosing.
If Switch was less successful there’s a lot less that they could do to improve their chances of being competitive in the future.
I feel confident that even if the next system only sold something middling like 60 million units they would at least be in a strong position to continue being a big publisher and developer making great games for people for whatever ways we’re playing them in 2030 and beyond.
Your inicial assumption is wrong. Switch not origally suppose to sell on par with the Wiiu, but with Wiiu + 3ds + Psvita minimum.
My favorite console...
Switch outsold Wii in Japan and rest of the world, but in the US and Europe Switch is still a couple of millions behind Wii. Switch is already the most successful Nintendo console in rest of the world (even ahead DS), but still behind PS2, PS4 and PSP.
So the worldwide numbers is false?
Switch outsold Wii worldwide because of Japan and rest of the world. That's what I wanted to point out. This is a big achievement. And there's still potential left in the US and Europe.
Globally in the US?
