Nintendo’s consoles generally tend to have life cycles of five or six years, but the Switch is clearly an anomaly. By now, it’s sold over 84.5 million units worldwide, and even though it’s now in the fifth year of its life, it seems to be showing no signs of slowing down. Nintendo has previously said that it expects the Switch to have longer life than their previous consoles, and recently, speaking with The Washington Post, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser briefly spoke about that again.
“As we enter into our fifth year, Nintendo Switch really is redefining what a console life cycle can look like, and the vibrancy of that overall life cycle with a strong cadence of content,” he said. A little over a year ago, Nintendo said that it considered the Switch to “barely” be in the middle of lice cycle at that point.
The Switch’s hybrid design is, of course, a major factor that has propelled sales, while the introduction of the cheaper Switch Lite in 2019 also boosted numbers. But of course, the biggest factor has been the excellent support the console has received, from third parties, indies, and of course, Nintendo itself.
Meanwhile, the coming months and years are also looking stacked for the Switch. The remainder of 2021 is going to see the releases of games like Shin Megami Tensei 5, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Metroid Dread, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, among others. Meanwhile, the likes of Splatoon 3, Project Triangle Strategy, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and more are targeting 2022 launches.
With that sort of a lineup, it doesn’t look like Switch sales are going to slow down any time soon- especially if that long-rumoured Switch Pro launches not long from now.