Nintendo revealed this week that it has now shipped almost 93 million Switch consoles, bringing it even closer to the lifetime sales of the Wii.
Nintendo followed up on the huge success of the Wii by launching the incredibly disappointing Wii U. The follow-up console's sales didn't compare and Nintendo needed something big in order to bounce back. Enter the Switch, a console that has been so successful that it will eventually eclipse the sales of the Wii.
That day might come sooner rather than later too. Nintendo published its financial report for the quarter ending September 30, 2021, in which it was revealed 3.83 million more Switches were shipped during that three-month period. That brings the Switch up to 92.87 million units sold since launch, solidifying its spot as the seventh best-selling console of all time.
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The Wii is in the sixth, and the Switch is now less than nine million consoles short of surpassing it. There's a very real chance the Switch manages to break the 100 million mark at some point in 2022 and surpass the Wii shortly after that. Especially considering the latest number only counts Switches sold before the launch of the OLED model last month. There's also this holiday season to account for during which Nintendo anticipates it literally won't have enough consoles to go around.
Despite what are irrefutably impressive numbers above, the report also reveals Nintendo has once again scaled back its forecast for how many consoles it predicts it will have sold during the current financial year. The number has been dropped from 25.5 million to 24 million. Part of the reason the forecast is so high is because Nintendo sold a higher than expected number of Switches last year due to the pandemic. The number dropped off to a larger extent than Nintendo clearly thought it would.
If and when the Switch marches past the lifetime sales of the Wii, it's highly likely it will move up into fifth and overtake the PS1 too. The original PlayStation sold just north of 102.49 million units. Next up is the PS4 with 116 million consoles sold and counting. That number is naturally movng up at a much slower rate than before as the PS5, which is already at 13.4 million units sold, is in the process of replacing it.