As of December 26, 2020, according to sales tracking website VGChartz, the Nintendo Switch has finally surpassed the 3DS, reaching some 76,285,948 units sold. The 3DS, launched in 2011, has so far sold 75,906,986 units.
Wikipedia’s “List of best-selling video game consoles” page hasn’t been updated at the time of writing, but the Switch’s sales increased late last year (no doubt due to Christmas shopping ) would make it the 11th best-selling console of all time, behind the Game Boy, the Wii and the Nintendo DS family. The Switch has a long way to go until it reaches the top five, though the limit is 102 million units sold.
However, with the Switch selling more than all other consoles combined last year, we could see the rise of a worthy successor to the Wii’s lifetime sales (101.63 million). It is also worth noting that the 3DS has been released for almost ten years and that the Switch managed to make the same number of sales in just under four years, and given the predictions we could see a Switch Pro this year, this number can only go up.
If you’ve read all this and you are yet Looking forward to more sales figures, then check out this look at Nintendo’s last 20 years of console sales or read about how Animal Crossing: New Horizons helped the UK video game industry approve £ 4bn for first time. If so yet not enough, you may be out of our help.
Do you think the Nintendo Switch will enter the established boards of the best-selling consoles of all time? How long do you think it will take to achieve the desired 100 million sales? Give us your opinion in the comments below.