Nintendo didn’t just top the software charts for the month, or have a pervasive presence on the software charts for the year, according to the NPD Group. No, they also had the bestselling console for December 2018 in the United States, with the Nintendo Switch beating the Xbox One and PS4 alike as the top console in the country last month.
Buoyed by the success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo Switch wasn’t just the bestselling console of the month, it was also the best December on record for any console this generation so far. Not only that, but it generated more money in December than any console has since the Wii in 2009, and more unit sales for any console in the month since 2010.
“Nintendo Switch generated the highest December-month hardware dollar sales for a single platform since the Nintendo Wii in December 2009,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said to VentureBeat. “And it achieved the highest December unit sales for a single platform since December 2010.”
On the whole, this is another vindication of Nintendo’s first party driven strategy, and how much their hits drive hardware sales for them. Hopefully, going into 2019, Nintendo can end up having better spaced releases for the entire year relative to 2018, where they backloaded most major releases for the last few months.
