Nintendo Switch Sales Are Off To A Very Strong Start
Nintendo delivered its financial report for the fiscal year ended March 31 today, and in that report we get another glimpse at how well the Switch is performing. Earlier numbers coming from Nintendo told us that the Switch sold just over 900,000 units during the month of March in the US, but now this financial report is painting a more global picture. In short: The Nintendo Switch seems to be off to a solid start.
Nintendo's report says that the Switch has sold 2.74 million units thus far. It had an excellent start compared to Nintendo's projections, as the company originally wanted to sell 2 million units throughout the month of March. If Nintendo can keep this momentum up, it should have no problem turning the Switch into a hit.
Software sales for the Switch were pretty impressive as well. Software sales have reached 5.46 million units, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild leading the charge and claiming 2.76 million units for itself. Nintendo also called out 1-2-Switch as a title that has been "generating buzz", but it didn't give us any solid sales numbers for any games aside from Breath of the Wild.
READ MORE: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review
Nintendo's good final quarter and overall fiscal year weren't just down to the Switch launch, however. As it turns out, Pokemon still prints money all these years later, with Sun and Moon selling an amazing 15.44 million units since launching in November. 3DS hardware sales, bolstered in regions outside of Japan by the launch of Pokemon GO, were up 7% year-over-year to hit 7.27 million units, while software sales climbed an impressive 14% to hit 55.08 million units.
Though Breath of the Wild managed to sell 1.08 million units on the Wii U – bringing the total sales count up to 3.84 million units – that's about the only good thing to report about the Nintendo's beleaguered console. Software sales were down 44% year-over-year to 14.8 million units, while hardware sales didn't even top 1 million units, ultimately coming in at 760,000 Wii Us sold. That the Wii U stalled isn't much of a shocker, but rather just one more indication that it was time to move on from the platform.
One important thing to note about the Switch's sales numbers is that Nintendo managed to hit nearly 3 million sold in a non-holiday period. That's straight up impressive, and it suggests that it could be a continuing success as the launch hype surrounding it dies down. Nintendo, for its part, plans to keep hype high with releases like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (which lands tomorrow), ARMS, and Splatoon 2.
As a result of this early success, Nintendo has set a confident projection for fiscal year 2018. It expects to sell 10 million Switches during the year, which means that 12 months from now, we could see Switch sales numbers sitting as high as 13 million. It may be tough to reach that goal, but the launch of Super Mario Odyssey just in time for the holidays should certainly help with that.
Super Mario Odyssey will unquestionably make the Switch a hot item over the holiday shopping season, but the more interesting thing to watch will be the Switch's near future. In order to hit that FY 2018 goal of 10 million units sold, Nintendo will need to keep interest in the Switch high over the summer. Will Splatoon 2 and ARMS be enough to do that? Time will tell, but it's definitely a tough call to make.
Check out the source link below to have a look at Nintendo's full report. Head down to the comments section as well to let if know if you contributed to the Switch's success, or if you're going to wait longer to pick one up.
SOURCE: Nintendo