Nintendo gave their fiscal briefing yesterday, detailing the state of the company with their software and hardware sales, along with plans for the future. We learned that software sales blasted through expectations with games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 going well beyond expectations. Their mobile revenue also saw pretty significant uptick. The hardware sales were also good, though the company did miss their forecast by bit– but it seems the Switch is on track to do at least what Nintendo’s last handheld handheld, the 3DS, did.
As you can see below from the charts provided by Nintendo and Media Create, as it stands now, the Switch and 3DS are pretty neck and neck in terms of the pace of their sales within the same time frame of their respective launches. There are parts where the Switch was a little below the 3DS, but that’s offset by large holiday spikes. If everything stays on course, the Switch will at least manage to get to the same level the 3DS did, which is currently at 75 million units sold.
Interestingly, each region also has its own story. While Europe reflects the global trend, Japan sees the Switch below the 3DS by a significant margin, while North America sees the Switch vastly outpacing the 3DS by nearly double the sales in its second year.