Nintendo Switch officially outsold Xbox 360 and PS3

Nintendo’s most recent financial report indicates that the Nintendo Switch has outsold both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

To say that the Nintendo Switch has had a good run over the last few years is an understatement. The Switch has apparently eclipsed the lifetime sales of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, adding to its list of achievements.

Every few months, the Switch appears to set a new sales record. The groundbreaking portable console debuted in 2017 and instantly became a coveted commodity, allowing players to play console-quality games on the go. The Switch overtook the Wii as Nintendo’s second best-selling console earlier this year, with the expectation that it would eventually catch up and surpass it. The Switch’s success has been aided by a steady stream of first and third-party software, as well as the console’s novelty.

The latest financial report from Nintendo has been revealed, along with lifetime sales figures for the Nintendo Switch. As of June 30, 2021, the Switch had sold 89.04 million units, according to the document. This puts the Switch ahead of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which each sold 84 million units in 2014 and 87.4 million units in 2017. The Switch still has a long way to go before dethroning the Game Boy and Nintendo DS, with the Wii insight as to the next sales target at 101.63 million copies.

Despite this success in total sales, the report focuses on the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021, which was not as successful as it could have been. The Switch sold 4.45 million consoles and 45.29 million software titles during this time. Hardware sales are down 21.7 percent from Q1 of the previous fiscal year when software sales were down 10.2 percent. Much of last year’s success can be attributed to the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which coincided with the global COVID-19 outbreak.

With another 12 million units to sell before catching up to the Wii, the Switch has a long way to go if it is to become Nintendo’s best-selling console of all time. The recently unveiled Nintendo Switch OLED will undoubtedly help raise total sales of the console, but whether it will be enough is debatable. The Switch OLED, much to the disappointment of many, is not the speculated Switch Pro, as it lacks hardware improvements that would boost game performance or visual fidelity. And, whether Nintendo likes it or not, the Steam Deck, a more powerful portable platform, will enter the ring later this year, giving the Switch its first genuine competition.

The Nintendo Switch OLED launches on October 8, 2021.