We already knew the Nintendo Switch 2 was going to sell well. Demand has been feisty, and pre-orders sold out extraordinarily quickly. Nintendo now reports that it was even more popular than bad been expected, selling 3.5 million consoles in the first four days. For context, the original Switch took a month to sell 2.75 million units.
While numbers of consoles sold is a tricky statistic to accurately track—muddled by the confusion of analyst predictions and companies only putting out positive numbers—we do occasionally get useful glimpses. For instance, we know that the PS5 sold 4.5 million units in total by the end of 2020, which works out to across about seven weeks, and rather importantly included the holidays. (Despite being a launch beset by nightmares, from covid to supply chain disasters, it still pretty much matched sales for the PS4 in 2013.) Even more usefully, we also know that the PS5 had outsold the PS4’s 2.1 million units in its first two weeks, although without a specific number. That was described at the time as the “biggest console launch in history,” and given the Switch 2 massively beat that figure in less than a week, it’s safe to say the mantle has been passed on.
Nintendo stops short of the full boast, but observes this makes the Switch 2 it’s own fastest-selling device. The original Switch was reported by Nintendo as having sold 2.74 million units in its first month, which it then described as it’s fastest seller, meaning the Switch 2 has absolutely walloped it so far. (It’s fun to note that the Wii U sold a total of 3.5 million units over its first six months.)
Of course, initial sales are not a guaranteed predictor of long-term forecasts, but they do tend to bode well. Nintendo has rather modestly set its predicted sales for the year at 15 million, presumably trying to keep investors within reasonable expectations against a bemusing market that could be flipped upside-down at any point with the latest of Trump’s mercurial tariff idiocy.
Either way, it’s good times for Nintendo, and a good sign for a gaming industry that is having the shit beaten out of it of late. While the prices aren’t the same around the world, at the U.S.’s $450, that would mean sales of over $1.5 billion in less than a week. Now if only there was a new Super Mario game to play on it.
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