The Nintendo Switch is on track to becoming Nintendo's best selling console after selling 4 million units in Japan, following the Nintendo Wii's footsteps closely. The news comes from
Famitsu's videogame sales tracking and translated/reported by the people at
Siliconera. The report states that the Nintendo Switch has reached and surpassed 4 million units sold in Japan in its first 56 weeks since it was released. The Nintendo Wii was the last console to have sold 4 million units during its first 54 weeks so it is pretty safe to say the Nintendo Switch is doing pretty well in Japan.
The Nintendo Wii ended its run at 101 million units sold worldwide and it's Nintendo's second best selling console losing out to the Nintendo DS with a staggering 154 million units sold. Just for reference, Sony's PlayStation 2 is the best selling console of all time and ended its run with an incredible 155 million units sold worldwide.
It is important to keep in mind that the Nintendo Wii was a home console that catered to the casual gamer more than the "hardcore gamer", and that Japanese audiences have a history of preferring handheld consoles due to their busy life-style. Probably why the Nintendo DS was so popular that even outsold the GameBoy and GameBoy Colour, which were Nintendo's best selling handheld consoles at the time.
And that's where the Nintendo Switch may have the edge over the Wii, because it's focusing on delivering quality first party games like
Mario Odyssey,
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and the recently announced
Super Smash Brothers, not to mention a new
Pokémon title officially revealed to be in development.
All this while also getting support from third party developers. One of the developers that have shown great interest in the Nintendo Switch is Bethesda who brought
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,
Doom and have also announced
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus for Nintendo's hybrid console. Among other developers that have been vocal about supporting the Nintendo Switch we have Square Enix(
Octopath Traveler), Ubisoft(
South Park: The Fractured But Whole) and Capcom(
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and
Mega Man 11).
The report by Famitsu also shows that
Kirby Star Allies has been able to hold onto that Number 1 spot for two weeks in a row since its release by selling 94,000 units.
Detective Pikachu (for the Nintendo 3DS) and
Splatoon 2,
Hyrule Warriors,
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,
Super Mario Odyssey and
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, which are all exclusive for the Nintendo Switch, have managed to stay in the Top 10 best selling games in Japan. Showing that Nintendo's popularity has not decreased and the future seems to be looking pretty bright for the Nintendo Switch, both in Japan and the rest of the world.