Nintendo Switch Surpasses 122.55 Million Units Sold, Breath of the Wild Rises To 29 Million Units Sold
Posted on February 08 2023 by Sean Gadus
The Nintendo Switch continues to break sales records and move up the list of all time video game hardware sales. The hybrid system has now sold a total of 122.55 million units, surpassing lifetime sales of the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Game Boy. With this latest update, the Nintendo Switch has now become the third best-selling video game system of all time. The only systems with more units sold are the Nintendo DS (154.02 million units sold) and the PlayStation 2 (159 million units sold). Whether the Nintendo Switch reaches the sales numbers of either the Nintendo DS or the PlayStation 2 will likely depend on how long Nintendo plans on supporting the hybrid system, or if the company plans on releasing a successor in the near future.
Nintendo also announced that a staggering 994.30 million units of Switch software have been sold. For context, the Nintendo Wii U only sold around 100 million units in its entire lifetime.
While the total system sales for the Nintendo Switch are impressive, Nintendo notes that the sales for the Nintendo Switch family of systems declined 21.3% year-on-year to 14.91 million units. Nintendo claims that this decline was partially due to the shortage of semiconductors and other components, which has plagued the industry for the past two years and impacted Switch production well into the summer. Additionally, no new hardware has been released this past year, where as previous years saw the launch of the Nintendo Switch Lite and the Nintendo Switch OLED Model, which potentially helped boost system sales.
In addition to the updates on the hardware sales, Nintendo also updated its list of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 52.00 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 41.59 million
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate – 30.44 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 29.00 million
- Pokemon Sword & Shield – 25.68 million
- Super Mario Odyssey – 25.12 million
- Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – 20.61 million
- Super Mario Party – 18.79 million
- Ring Fit Adventure – 15.22 million
- Pokemon Let’s GO – 15.07 million
Breath of the Wild continues to appear on the sales charts, despite being released nearly six years ago. Over the past year, the game has moved from 27.14 million units sold to 29 million units sold. It will be fascinating to see if the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom reaches the lofty sales heights of its lauded predecessor.
What do you think about Nintendo hardware and software sales numbers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Nintendo (via IGN, My Nintendo News)
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.
