While Sony’s report for the last quarter of 2021 had some disappointing sales figures, Nintendo’s prospects seem to be much more positive. The best way to discover more about a company is to dive into its numbers. With the final quarter report for Nintendo hitting us now, we’ve got the chance to see what is happening in Mario’s house.
As expected, the Switch continues to hit sales milestones. In the last quarter of 2021, it broke 100 million units sold. Worldwide, the Switch has sold just over 103.5 million units. It reached the milestone faster than the PlayStation 4 and Wii, and has surpassed the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 1 and the Wii. While it is unfair to compare sales across console generations, since the gaming industry is much bigger than it was when the PS4 was launched, it is still an important milestone for the console to hit.
The OG Switch accounts for 81.68 million units of that number. The Switch Lite accounts for 17.87 million, while the Switch OLED makes up 3.99 million units.
These numbers make Switch the second-fastest Nintendo console to hit the 100 million sales record, while the Nintendo DS still holds that crown.
It isn’t all good news for Nintendo, however. Despite healthy sales to date, it seems the worldwide chip shortage that has plagued other companies is hitting Nintendo as well. Supply issues, which the company says hit North American sales particularly hard, remain a barrier. This supply constraint, along with the Switch’s general age, has caused Nintendo to lower their sales forecast for the fiscal year ending in March 2022 to 23 million units. The original prediction was 25.5 million, though that was lowered to 24 million last year.
With titles such as Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Kirby and the Forgotten Land due to be included in this year’s financial data, Nintendo is expecting continued growth in their software sales figures. The company’s first-party software sales are always strong and will continue to increase profit even as Switch sales slow down over time.
