It seems that the incredible success of the Nintendo Switch cannot be stopped… although, it may be starting to slow down a bit at long last. Nintendo’s quarterly reports are out, and it paints an incredibly rosy picture for all of its incredible IP and the many games from them onto the Nintendo Switch, but the report does show us that the train might be beginning to slow on its way into the station for the revolutionary console/portable hybrid platform. So, without any further stalling, let’s get into that juicy sales data.
Firstly, the Nintendo Switch console itself, which, through the window of July 1, to September 30, 2022, the console’s sales have grown from an already impressive 111 million to now 114.3 million, and 3.3 million growth over the three-month period. While another fantastic achievement, the figure does represent a 19.2% slowdown when compared to the same window of 2021. Nintendo has also lowered their sales projections for the Switch for the fiscal year, ending March 2023, reigning the numbers back from 21 million consoles to 19 million.
On the software side, things are looking great for the House of Mario, with Nintendo posting some incredible figures pertaining to many games it has previously launched, but also some of the quarter’s newest faces, including Splatoon 3, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the former shifting a mindblowing 7.9 million copies worldwide since it’s launch on September 8, 2022, meanwhile Xenoblade Chronicles achieved a more modest, but still very respectable 1.72 million sales for the more niche JRPG. Both Kirby’s Dream Buffet and the Square-Enix developed (but Nintendo published outside of Japan) Live-A-Live have both sold under one million units so far.
Other titles that launched outside of that three month window that have particularly noteworthy sales included, Nintendo Switch Sports with 6.15 million sales, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe adding another 3.07 million sales, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land notching up another 2.61 million copies sold, making it the highest selling Kirby game of all time, less than a year into the game’s lifetime.
As it loves to do, Nintendo have shared a list of the best selling games on the platform, up until September 30, 2022 with many familiar faces consolidating their places even further
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 48.41m
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 40.17m
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 29.53m
- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 27.79m
- Pokemon Sword/Shield – 25.37m
- Super Mario Odyssey – 24.40m
- Super Mario Party – 18.35m
- Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl – 14.92m
- Ring Fit Adventure – 14.87m
- Pokemon Let’s Go – 14.81m
Of course, while things may have slowed in the console sale space for Nintendo, that could possibly be set to change yet again as the launch of Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet near launch, a duo of games that, if they sell anything near what their predecessors have, will likely drive high adoption of new consoles.