Wii only sold 12.7 million in japan. exclude GB because nintendo combined both original GB and GB color which really should have been a separate generation. 3ds will end up the second best selling handheld /console of all time in japan, and switch is selling nearly at the same rate, and that's with supply issues, so i would call that a beast.
Nintendo Switch sales numbers
- Thread starter mpg1
- Start date
Wii only sold 12.7 million in japan. exclude GB because nintendo combined both original GB and GB color which really should have been a separate generation. 3ds will end up the second best selling handheld /console of all time in japan, and switch is selling nearly at the same rate, and that's with supply issues, so i would call that a beast.
But we're talking about the first 26 weeks sales in Japan. https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1999380/
If you grade Switch as 'beast' selling 1.5 million in 26 weeks, NDS and Wii sold 50% more in the same time period so are graded as...?
If you grade Switch as 'beast' selling 1.5 million in 26 weeks, NDS and Wii sold 50% more in the same time period so are graded as...?
We can exclude the wii, because it's not a handheld, and went on to sell pretty bad compared to nintendo handhelds, plus the whole motion controls craze makes it an outlier. Then we have only the NDS which is best selling console of all time in japan. I always rather look at previous generation to compare, 3DS will end up 25 million in japan, and switch selling similar so far while having major supply issues is beastly to me, especially with how big the mobile market is now.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
However, the Switch is also a home console so it should be compared to the Wii as well as other home consoles (PlayStation/Xbox).
It's the one console that should uniquely be compared to both handhelds and home consoles.
And while supply is starting to catch up to demand it still remains supply constrained (to a much lesser degree than a few months ago) in NA and severly supply constrained in Japan.
Regards,
SB
You've completely lost me. In comparing sales of devices in the first 26 weeks, end-of-life sales are irrelevant. Even if Wii's sales dropped off a cliff from week 27, it sold 2.5 million units in that timeframe. This is relevant because the article was comparing Switch sales to PS4 in the 6 month period.
Given the following sales ranges, what description would you apply to each?
Sales in first 26 weeks:
0 <= n < 250k : Dead
250 <= n < 500k : Struggling
500 <= n < 750k : Healthy (PS4)
750 <= n < 1000k : Great
1000 <= n < 1500k : Beastly (Switch)
1500 <= n < 2000k : ???
2000 <= n < 2500k : ??? (Wii, NDS)
Personally I think that sort of scale ridiculous and hyperbolic. I'd go with something more like
0 <= n < 250k : Dead
250 <= n < 500k : Struggling
500 <= n < 750k : Healthy / Okay
750 <= n < 1000k : Great
1000 <= n < 1500k : Remarkable
1500 <= n < 2000k : Extreme
2000 <= n < 2500k : Beastly and other equivalent terms like gangbusters or crazy.
Really its nintendo next home console and handheld, we should be comparing it to nintendo 3ds and wiiu combined sales, because it's replacing both products.
The article makes pointless comparisons, ps4 is selling healthy for a home console in japan, but for a handheld it would be doing terrible
Yep. Launch aligned PS4 is currently selling a bit better than PS3 and Switch a bit worse than 3DS.
D
Deleted member 13524
Guest
So let me get this straight:
- The Switch has been promoted in the media as a "best-selling", "record-breaking" console. But in Japan it's selling less than what the 3DS sold during its first months, which at the time was being reported as a sales failure.
I guess we still need numbers from the west but boy, media spins are scary as hell..
- The Switch has been promoted in the media as a "best-selling", "record-breaking" console. But in Japan it's selling less than what the 3DS sold during its first months, which at the time was being reported as a sales failure.
I guess we still need numbers from the west but boy, media spins are scary as hell..
Well, there is a bit of a reverse situation here as well. The 3DS was the successor to the NDS, a highly successful part. Switch is the Frankenstein successor to the Wii U, which was probably the biggest Nintendo failure as a home console ever. That has an impact on perception.
Wii enjoyed the Christmas Holliday in its first 26 weeks, this is true of most console releases, but 3DS and Switch launched during the same time of year. 3DS was doing good in Japan at launch but stalled out quickly elsewhere. Switch is doing well globally, and still has Christmas coming to give it a big boost, assuming there is enough stock.
Nintendo has so much flexability with Switch. The cost of production goes down over time, and sharing so many parts with mobile devices brings the cost of parts down. A sub $200 Switch is going to sell huge numbers in Japan. Until demand drops, Nintendo won't be in a big hurry to make any price drops.
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Nintendo has so much flexability with Switch. The cost of production goes down over time, and sharing so many parts with mobile devices brings the cost of parts down. A sub $200 Switch is going to sell huge numbers in Japan. Until demand drops, Nintendo won't be in a big hurry to make any price drops.
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Silent_Buddha
Legend
The Switch is also extremely supply limited in Japan. The 3DS at launch was also supply limited, but obviously not to the extent that the Switch is.
With both memory and NAND being supply limited (hence rising prices on both memory and NAND) in the channel, it's going to be difficult for Nintendo to greatly increase manufacturing without greatly driving up the price to manufacture each Switch console.
Sony and MS are in a much better position as they don't rely on NAND (other than a tiny bit) and they've already contracted for large lots of memory prior to demand shooting up.
Nintendo is in a difficult situation where even if they doubled production they'd still likely sell every unit produced, but they can't currently double production without incurring large costs that would wipe out most of their profit potential.
Hindsight being 20/20 it's easy for us armchair watchers to say that Nintendo should have locked up much larger supplies of things prior to launching the Switch, but no one really knew how well it would do.
After all, many on this forum didn't think Nintendo had a snowflakes chance in hell of selling out of their initial manufacturing run of the console. Now that it has launched, it's quite obvious to us that there was a lot of pent up demand for a competent Nintendo console and there is growing demand for the games that they've shown.
Regards,
SB
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yep. Launch aligned PS4 is currently selling a bit better than PS3 and Switch a bit worse than 3DS.
Matching the PS3 in Japan isn't that great an accomplishment. PS3 didn't do particularly well in Japan, nor did it do particularly badly. It just followed the trend of diminishing interest in home consoles in Japan due to a variety of factors (economic, etc.). But there wasn't much they could do in the face of a shrinking home console market in Japan. PS4 being able to match PS3 is quite an accomplishment, however, as it stops the trend of shrinking sales for home consoles.
It's notable that while PS4 is having explosive growth outside of Japan, within Japan itself it's barely managing to match the PS3.
IE - a sign that the PS4 being so much better than the PS3 means that in Japan it can barely muster enough interest to match the previous lackluster sales of the PS3. Whereas in all other parts of the world the fact that it is so much better is allowing it to comfortably blow past the PS3.
Regards,
SB
I very much dispute that. I think everyone expected the Nintendo faithful to buy up the first few million units. The only question was long-term appeal and whether the sacrifices made to the device as a handheld would pay dividends in extending appeal or not.
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D
Deleted member 13524
Guest
I dare you to find such a statement.
There are about 12 million Wii Us sold out there and that's a reasonable indicator of how many die-hard Nintendo fans there are, who will buy any console that Nintendo puts out.
You think that Nintendo ordering more 32GB eMMC chips (which go for what, $15 tops?) would wipe out most of the profit potential of the console when it's going for $300?
Silent_Buddha
Legend
You are correct.
I just went through the following thread
https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/...017-01-12-and-switch-launch-discussion.59847/
People weren't disputing whether it would sell out at launch but whether sales could continue with some predicting it would bomb significantly worse than Wii-U. Not many expecting it to continue to be sold out 7 months after launch or even 3 or 4 months after launch.
But holy hell I had forgotten just how much negativity there was on this forum about the Switch. Although I can't really blame people after the Wii-U disaster.
Regards,
SB
"Sold out after launch" isn't a good reference as it's tied to supply. "5 million in six months" is the reference point. One thing not factored into early assessments of the expensive handheld was LoZ, 97% average rating, which has done wonders for generating early momentum. Nintendo are producing must-have titles for their fans, and given Wii U was a turkey it's not surprising that interest in Switch, a good quality product, is high. Early expectations it'll sell worse than WiiU are likely wrong at this point, but there's no knowing whether it'll sell 20 million or 50 million or more. I think a lot of the criticisms levied by core gamers remain true, and some of the added costs are going on features that'll never be worth their inclusion. I think a $200 handheld with a different TV out solution could possibly be selling twice as well, but that's all conjecture and this is just a sales thread.
The only real knowns at this point are expectations of dead-on-arrival were too pessimistic (thanks to Nintendo's software), regardless of 3rd party support, and the device is selling very solidly compared to other gaming devices - home console and handheld. It's not a runaway success (which as ToTTenTranz says, a lot of media seems to be running with at the moment saying Sony should be worried based solely on Japan sales) and it's not selling better than other Nintendo devices in Japan, and doesn't appear to be setting any sales records other than personal bests.
The only real knowns at this point are expectations of dead-on-arrival were too pessimistic (thanks to Nintendo's software), regardless of 3rd party support, and the device is selling very solidly compared to other gaming devices - home console and handheld. It's not a runaway success (which as ToTTenTranz says, a lot of media seems to be running with at the moment saying Sony should be worried based solely on Japan sales) and it's not selling better than other Nintendo devices in Japan, and doesn't appear to be setting any sales records other than personal bests.
You say Negativity while others say Reality.
Some say Positivity while others say Reality.
It all depends on your viewpoints and how much you feel being more expensive than other consoles plays into it.
Incorrect.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
Nintendo Switch had sold 4.7 million units as of June 30th. This is just shy of 4 months, and we know from Media Create sales that Japan sales in July and August alone put Switch sales well beyond 5 million units. NPD has shown about 200k per month in the US for July and August. I think its reasonable to assume it also did 200k or better in Europe and the rest of the world these months. Switch is likely sitting at around 6.5-7 million units after 6 months world wide.
There are times when a debate comes down to differences of opinons, and then there are times where someone simply refuses to acknowledge the information available. With each passing quarter it will be harder and harder to refute the fact that Switch is successful. This isn't saying the future is already told, Switch could lose momentum and fall well short of its current trajectory. Leading up to the launch of the Switch there were plenty of naysayers, and it was reasonable to be skeptical seeing the Wii U flop so hard, but there seems to be some stubbornness with accepting that Switch isn't going to bomb hard, and Nintendo is in a good position to keep the platform on track for success.
What about the 65+ million 3DS gamers? None of them are hardcore Nintendo fans? Lets face it, the 3DS had most of the big hitters the Wii U had. Mario 3D Land, Smash Bros and Mario Kart 7 gave a lot of people reason enough to pass on the Wii U. The natural progression from the 3DS will be to the Switch. 3DS and Wii U combined to sell over 75 million units to date.
