Is Japan Buying The Nintendo Switch In Bulk To Be Ready For Mario?

There are many ways you can easily measure the success of the Nintendo Switch, but one of the biggest ones is that despite being over six years old, it’s still selling like hotcakes in various parts of the world. This is a testament to how good the system is and the many games that newcomers can get right off the bat to start their gaming journeys on the platform. To that end, in Japan, sales of the Switch have been higher than one would expect over both the last week and the fiscal quarter, pointing to an upcoming set of releases as the “catalyst” for this event.

As noted by Nintendo insider Stealth, last week, over 100K in Switches were sold in Japan. That’s a pretty good number for one week in one country, especially given that Japan hasn’t always been the best for sales on the hardware front at times. Plus, when you look at the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sales, you’ll see just how much the Nintendo Switch is dominating that market. It’s not even close if you really think about it. But wait! There’s more!

As noted by Bloomberg, the overall year-to-year sales of the Switch compared to last year at this time are up by a decent margin of a little over 100K. Part of this is likely due to the special Mario OLED systems and other special versions of the system that are out there to buy.

The other thing that many will easily note is that there are two titles with Mario coming out in the next month or so that will have plenty of people’s attention in Japan and beyond. The first of which is Super Mario Bros Wonder, which is set to amaze the gaming world with its unique gameplay mechanics and flair compared to past titles in the series.

Then, there’s Super Mario RPG Remake, the redoing of the classic SNES title by Squaresoft, where Mario and allies old and new must come together to fight off the Smithy Gang and save the Mushroom Kingdom! Many people are pumped for these two titles for various reasons. Games with Mario are some of the easiest sellers for Nintendo systems, so long as the games are good. And based on previews of the one and the first looks at the other, the quality will not be an issue here.

So it seems like the Switch sales aren’t ending anytime soon.