Following the massive flop in sales that was the Wii U, players still struggled to be convinced whether the all-new Nintendo Switch would manage to become the hit the Japanese company needed, or if it would also end up being one of Nintendo's biggest mistakes.
The Nintendo Switch was officially revealed in October of 2016, its features were properly presented during a special event that took place in January of 2017, and it was released in March of that same year.
To everyone's surprise, the console was a massive hit — even to the point where most players couldn't even get their hands on one because they were sold out everywhere.
Fast forward to May of this year, and Nintendo officially revealed that the Switch had already managed to sell a very impressive 55 million units since its original launch in March of 2017; coming very close to surpassing lifetime sales of the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES).
Now, only a couple of months after Nintendo's latest report in regards to the console's sales was shared by Famitsu, via Resetera, it has been confirmed that the Nintendo Switch has officially outsold the NES, with 62,035,250 units sold, as opposed to the NES' 61.91 million consoles sold. Which is very impressive, keeping in mind that the Nintendo Switch has only been on the market for a bit over three years.
As it stands right now, the Nintendo Switch is getting closer to the Nintendo 3DS, which has currently sold a very impressive 81.51 million units since 2011, but it may be a while until the handheld hybrid console manages to surpass it.
With that said, and at this rate, it could happen sooner than we think. Maybe, even, before the end of the fiscal year ending in March of 2021; it will all depend on how well the console sells this shopping season. If this were the case, the Switch would finally enter Nintendo's Top 5 of best-selling consoles.
For further reference, the best-selling console is the Nintendo DS, with a staggering 154.02 million units sold, followed by the Game Boy/Game Boy Color(118.69M), the Nintendo Wii(101.63M), and the Game Boy Advance(81.51M). Again, the Switch has been selling like hot cakes, but it will have to do even better if it wants to enter the Top 3, or even dethrone the DS.
In case you were wondering, the worst-selling Nintendo console is the Virtual Boy with 770 thousand units sold, followed by the Nintendo Wii U — which only managed to sell a very disappointing 13.56 million units worldwide. As disappointing as the Wii U may have been, however, it was the right mistake to make to point Nintendo in the right direction: the Nintendo Switch.