It’s been a a little over a week since the release of the Nintendo Switch and a new report states that the hybrid console has actually sold 1.5 million units in its first week worldwide.
According to GameIndustry.biz, data tracker SuperData has gathered data and numbers supplied to it by both Famitsu and GfK and came up with the following numbers: SuperData says that 500,000 consoles were sold in the US, 360,000 were sold in Japan while Europe has numbers close to 360,000. The data tracker observes that 85,000 units were sold in the UK while France managed 110,000.
Of course, those numbers have since grown but the initial Nintendo Switch sales estimate is around 1.5 million units sold.
More information provided by SuperData shows the driving force behind the strong Nintendo Switch sales, and that is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . SuperData says 89 percent of Switch owners have bought the new Zelda game, which amounts to 1.34 million in sales and does not include sales of the Wii U version.
The reported Nintendo Switch sales aren’t too surprising considering Nintendo was boasting about the console being the biggest seller in its first two days ever. The company also revealed that Breath of the Wild is the best standalone game (not a packed-in game like Wii Sports ) in Nintendo’s history beating out Super Mario 64.
Nintendo Switch’s launch success, while great for the company, isn’t indicative of how successful the console will be in the long-run. One of our criticisms of the Switch has been the lack of launch titles (which Breath of the Wild clearly mitigated) but if Nintendo can’t consistently produce quality first-party titles, sales of the Switch will begin to dwindle.
Thankfully, it seems Nintendo has spaced out its first-party titles to give both early and later adopters something to look forward to all year with the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe , Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey .
Are you impressed by the reported sales numbers for the Nintendo Switch? Do you think Nintendo can maintain this surge of sales? Sound off in the comments section below.
