Nintendo Switch has officially overtaken the 3DS in the developer’s best-selling consoles of all-time list.
New sales data, published on the company’s finances website, revealed that 79.87 million units of its hybrid console have been sold worldwide since its March 2017 release. That figure means that the Switch has surpassed the lifetime sales of the 3DS by almost 4 million units, which makes it the most popular Nintendo hardware since the Wii.
According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, 66.34 million Switch units and 13.53 million Switch Lite consoles have been sold up to December 2020. Hardware sales accounted for 56% of Nintendo’s total revenue, and the company now expects to sell another 26.5 million units by March 2021. Nintendo had expected to ship 24 million consoles for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, but with sales hitting 24.1 million by December 31, 2020, that forecast has been revised.
If Nintendo meets that expected target, it will surpass 100m units sold by its fourth anniversary. Independent video game industry analyst Benji-Sales explained that the Switch would enter the top three best-selling Nintendo consoles ever if that happens and overtake the Wii, which sold 101.63m units across its lifetime.
The DS remains the best-selling Nintendo hardware of all-time, with global sales of 154.02m. Nintendo’s GameBoy is second with 118.69m units sold, and given its popularity, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Switch rein in that beloved console in the next 12 to 18 months.
