The Nintendo Switch has now sold more than 89 million consoles, which means it has now surpassed the PS3 to become the seventh best-selling console ever.
Consoles appear to be selling better than ever before right now. The Series X|S is the fastest-selling Xbox ever, the PS5 has already sold 10 million consoles, and the Nintendo Switch continues to go from strength to strength more than four years after its launch. In fact, Nintendo's latest numbers reveal that the Switch has now sold 89.04 million units worldwide.
That number is notable for a variety of different reasons. For starters, it means the Switch has now outsold the PS3 which finished its life on 87.3 million consoles sold. PlayStation's worst-performing home console to date, not including the PS5 which obviously has a long way to go. It also means the Switch is now the seventh best-selling console ever.
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The next target in the Switch's crosshairs is the second major talking point from this latest sales update. The Wii, Nintendo's most successful home console so far which sold more than 101 million units by the time it was replaced by the far less successful Wii U. 101 million might sound like a lot, but if Nintendo hits the target it has set for itself, it will be a record it breaks before the end of the current fiscal year.
Nintendo shipped 4.45 million Switches during the first quarter of this financial year, and it expects to sell 20.5 million more during the next three. Probably not an unrealistic prediction considering the third quarter of this FY will include the launch of Nintendo's new OLED Model, not to mention people buying all three members of the Switch family during the holiday season.
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Nintendo during this week's earnings call. The 4.45 million consoles sold during Q1 is actually a 21.7% drop versus the same period last year. However, the same period in 2020 came at the start of the pandemic when an unprecedented number of people faced with lockdowns turned to video games.