Nintendo Switch is the Best-Selling Console of All-Time in Japan - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 12 June 2024 / 7,737 Views
The Nintendo Switch has outsold the lifetime sales of the Nintendo DS in Japan to become the best-selling video game platform of all-time in the country, according to VGChartz estimates.
The Switch sold an estimated 184,846 units in in May 2024 to bring its lifetime sales to 33.05 million units in Japan. This compares to the Nintendo DS with sales of 32.99 million units lifetime in Japan. The figure for the Switch includes the combined sales of the original Switch model, the Switch Lite, and Switch OLED.
Worldwide the Nintendo Switch is the third best-selling video game platform of all-time. Next up is the Nintendo DS with 154.02 million units sold lifetime worldwide.
Shipment figures for the Nintendo Switch reached 141.32 million units as of March 31, 2024, while 1,235.82 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 March 31, 2024:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 61.97 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 45.36 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 34.22 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 31.85 million
- Super Mario Odyssey – 27.96 million
- Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield – 26.27 million
- Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet – 24.92 million
- Super Mario Party – 20.66 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – 20.61 million
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 17.45 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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Coming in as an underdog from the Wii U, and in spite of all the naysayers at launch, it seems that Nintendo has done it (again)! This is what happens when you focus on games first.
(Fun Fact! This was achieved w/out a price cut.)
Next stop: Oh, wait.
And it's still selling like some consoles do at their peak. DS and Gameboy were already so far ahead of other systems and it'll end up putting distance to those two.
Those sales numbers are monumental, I wonder if they can have a full top ten with +20 million sellers.
Very good sales performance and trajectory in Japan. Congrats!
Congratulations to Nintendo for this amazing achievement!
Typo in "of March 31, 2023"
Congrats Nintendo. I just hope that the massive increase in profits allows them to try making more powerful hardware again so they can get better third party support
Their 3rd party support this gen has been its greatest since the days of the SNES. What do you mean? lol
More powerful hardware equaling 3rd party support is a logical fallacy, the WiiU proves. 3rd party support necessary on Nintendo consoles is a logical fallacy, the switch proves.
They're not going to gamble their profits on a power arms race. They've seen how badly that's gone for their competitors and much of the third party market. Especially Xbox, which is in a distant third and appears to be under incredible pressure by Microsoft's higher-ups to justify the expenses. At some point, people have got to realize that trying to render the yellowheads on every ingrown hair on Lara Croft's cooter is too expensive..
PS4 was the most powerful console of the generation and they even used the marketing tagline of "the worlds most powerful console". It worked to brilliant effect making PS4 a massive success. It still gets great third party support and has 50 million MAU's to this day. The PS4 is proof that power matters.
PS1, PS2, DS, GameBoy, Wii, NSwitch. These systems were all considered “technically weak” for their respective generations, and yet, they occupy almost all of the top seven best selling systems of all time.
Your claim that PS4 was successful because it was powerful seems to be an incorrect assertion, as is reflected by several contradictory examples. As far as I’m aware, XBOne was about as power as (if not, more powerful than) PS4, and it was marketed as such. Yet it was nowhere near as successful as PS4. Why doesn’t your claim that “powerful => success” remain consistent with this case? Other examples include: GCN, Xbox, PS3, PSP, PSVita, N64, etc. These systems were all very powerful for their time, and were marketed as such, yet all fell behind the competition.
Actually Xbox One X was the most powerful console of this generation. Microsoft used this claim as well. If you look at the history, being the most powerful console isn't a guarantee to sell the most within a generation (for example N64, GameCube). And Switch also outsold PS3 or PS4.
Ok well, it was the most powerful console for MOST of the generation then. PS4 was most powerful for 4 years until XboneX, then XboneX was most powerful for 3 years until XBSX/PS5
I'm waiting for you to comment on this:
"PS1, PS2, DS, GameBoy, Wii, NSwitch. These systems were all considered “technically weak” for their respective generations, and yet, they occupy almost all of the top seven best selling systems of all time."
" GCN, Xbox, PS3, PSP, PSVita, N64, etc. These systems were all very powerful for their time, and were marketed as such, yet all fell behind the competition."
Are you still gonna state things like "the PS4 is proof that power matters"?
I disagree. Nintendo should continue and build on their winning strategies, not copy the losing strategies of others.
losing strategy? Sony just announced that their PlayStation division is more successful than ever in their latest quarter financial report. How is their strategy a losing strategy?
Sony's not even in the top 200 richest companies in Japan, meanwhile Nintendo is number one. (https://metro.co.uk/2024/02/20/nintendo-now-richest-company-japan-sony-dont-make-top-300-20315697/#:~:text=Other%20Japanese%20companies%20have%20reported,puts%20Nintendo%20at%20number%20one.) The PS5 has had the weakest lineup of any prior generation as a consequence of an imploding industry trying to keep up with demanding graphical expectations, meanwhile the Switch is arguably Nintendo at its "gaming-lineup prime". Matter of fact, the demanding specs on PS5/XBSX are -- from what I have heard -- a strong motivator as to why many developers have been pivoting resources toward Nintendo, for it is a lot cheaper and strong sales figures are almost certain. Specs are cool, but the burden they bring to the industry is not a reasonable trade off. To say it's not a "losing strategy" is just objectively wrong imo.
(How many more comments do you need from me? I've already given three lol.)
It's hard to respond to you because what you say is so detached from reality. I just googled the top 200 Japanese companies by market capital, Sony was ranked 2nd and Nintendo was ranked 17th. You think Nintendo is a better performing Company but it clearly isnt
Market cap is an indicator of investor confidence, sustained profit is Direct indicator of strategy sustainability and health.
If market capital is just an indicator of investor confidence then why is there a number next to their names. Sony has MC of 117B and Nintendo has MC of 61B. Doesn't just sound like an indicator of investor confidence to me
Sorry I don't understand that metric "Is beside name", best to ask another ai
I’ll edit my OP. You make a good point about the metric I mentioned at the start of my post: Could’ve certainly been a little more precise in what I mean by “richest”.
Please update your response to compensate for the adjustment, as well address all my other claims.
Not happening. It doesn't make Nintendo enough money to bother and they're too far behind now.
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