On December 26, 2020, the Nintendo Switch finally sold out the 3DS, according to sales tracking website VGChartz, with an estimated 76,285,948 units sold. Released in 2011, the 3DS has sold 75,906,986 units to date.
Wikipedia’s “Best-Selling Game Consoles List” page has not been updated at the time of writing, but increased Switch sales late last year – no doubt due to Christmas purchases – would make it the 11th best-selling console of all time. behind the Game Boy, the Wii and the Nintendo DS family. However, the Switch still has a long way to go until it reaches the top five: the limit is 102 million units sold.
However, with the Switch selling more than any other console combined last year, we could see the emergence of a worthy successor to the Wii’s lifetime sales (101.63 million). It’s also worth noting that the 3DS has been out for nearly a decade and the Switch managed to hit the same number of sales in just under four years – and given predictions that we could see a Switch Pro this year, that number could only go up to go.
If you’ve read all this and you are still hungry for more sales, check out this visualization of the past 20 years of Nintendo console sales, or learn how Animal Crossing: New Horizons helped the UK video game industry pass £ 4 billion for the first time. If so still not enough, maybe you are beyond help.
Do you think the Nintendo Switch will enter the hallowed halls of the best-selling consoles of all time? How long do you think it will take to reach the coveted 100 million sales? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.