Whatever you’d like to call the Nintendo Switch 2, you certainly can’t call it a flop. Since its introduction last June, the machine has comparably outperformed its 2017 predecessor in sales for every single month it’s been available — according to a graph, it breached 15 million units in 30 weeks, something the Switch 1 took over 45 weeks to achieve. Initially, Nintendo predicted they would sell 19 million Switch 2s in a year. The number is now at 17 million with four months to go and they should have no trouble going over that estimate.
Can’t call the original Switch a flop either. It’s still selling, breaching 155.37 million units, a number that takes it over the previous record of 154.02 million held by the Nintendo DS. It’s now the second best selling console of all time, with only the Playstation 2 overshadowing it. To overtake the PS2 it will have to sell a mere 5 million more units, which it could very well accomplish before full obsolescence.
Nintendo also reports that sales of digital games are up, going to 58% of al sales from 56% a year ago…but that’s not surprising. Physical games are always going to sell best on Nintendo consoles, because the largest market of video game collectors buy for those systems. However, when the vast majority of third-party games come on key cards — something collectors believe holds no value — they’re just not gonna go for it. The real surprise under those circumstances is that the uptick is so low. To put it another way, the Switch 2 version of Super Mario Bros Wonder will cost $20 for a digital upgrade…or $80 physical. Which would YOU pick?
If there’s a disappointment in all these numbers, it’s the fact that Metroid Prime 4 apparently fell below estimate and did not clear a million units…which isn’t surprising either. Nintendo barely promoted the game at all, focusing on competing holiday products like Kirby’s Air Riders (which did sell over a million). Then when it did come out, the fan opinion was largely negative, preventing any word of mouth sales. Nintendo’s behavior and the quality of the game makes me wonder if this was a dump. As in, the game has been in development for so long (they had to completely start over at one point) that they just got tired of waiting, threw up their hands, and kicked out what they had. Samus deserves better.
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