Nintendo Switch Lifetime Sales Surpass 92 Million, Breath of the Wild & Skyward Sword HD Sales Remain Strong
Posted on November 04 2021 by Sean Gadus
On November 4th, Nintendo released some key financial data for 2021, focusing on the six-month period from March 1st, 2021 to September 30th, 2021. The company announced that it has sold 8.28 million Nintendo Switch units during this period, including 6.45 million standard Nintendo Switch units and 1.82 million Nintendo Switch Lite units. Sales from the past six months bring the lifetime Switch sales to 92.87 million units. The Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, which launched on October 8th alongside Metroid: Dread, was not included in any of these sales figures.
Despite approaching such a massive milestone of 93 million units sold over the Switch’s lifetime, Nintendo reminded their shareholders that there is “continued uncertainty” due to the worldwide pandemic, as well as a global chip shortage. Nintendo’s profits and revenue were both down during the period from March 2021 to September 2021. For example, the 8.28 million Switch units sold during this time period was a decrease from the same period last year. Nintendo also cut their forecasts for the current fiscal year. Originally, Nintendo expected to sell 25.5 million Nintendo Switch units by the end of the fiscal year. That total has now been updated to 24 million units.
In other news, Nintendo has updated their list of best selling first-party Nintendo Switch titles of all time. Keep in mind that this list only includes sales data up until September 30th, 2021, so sales numbers beyond that date will be included in the next update:
1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 38.74 million
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 34.85 million
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 25.71 million
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 24.13 million
5. Pokémon Sword and Shield – 22.64 million
6. Super Mario Odyssey – 21.95 million
7. Super Mario Party – 16.48 million
8. Pokémon: Let’s Go (includes both versions) – 13.83 million
9. Splatoon 2 – 12.68 million
10. Ring Fit Adventure – 12.21 million
As one can see, Breath of the Wild remains a strong seller on the Switch with 24.13 lifetime units sold. In other Zelda news, Nintendo has revealed that Skyward Sword HD, which launched in July, has sold 3.6 million copies. This impressive statistic means that Skyward Sword HD has nearly surpassed the sales numbers of the Wii original, which sits at around 3.67 million.
Lastly, Nintendo also shared a release forecast for upcoming titles, including the sequel to Breath of the Wild. The forecast re-affirms that the highly anticipated title is planned for release in 2022.
Overall, the Zelda series has been extremely successful on Nintendo Switch. It will be fascinating to see Skyward Sword HD and Breath of the Wild‘s sales numbers for the next sales period, as the holiday season often sees a host of video game and hardware purchases.
What do you think of the financial information that Nintendo has shared? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Nintendo (1, 2) (via Gamespot, Nintendo Life)
Sean Gadus is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. His first Zelda game was Ocarina of Time, and he loves all of the 3D Zelda games from 1998-2011. The final battle of Tears of the Kingdom is one of his favorite final battles in the entire series. He wants to help build a kinder, more compassionate world. You can check out his other written work at The-Artifice.com.
