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Nintendo sold more Zelda games than Switch consoles in March

Published Apr 14th, 2017 6:50AM EDT
Nintendo Switch vs. Zelda Sales
Image: Nintendo

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Nintendo’s hottest new product isn’t the Switch, if you look at sales numbers alone for the month of March, it’s the new Zelda game that comes bundled with the console, the company revealed.

Nintendo said that it sold 906,000 Switch units in the US alone for the month of March, GamesSpot says, which makes the Switch the fastest-selling console in Nintendo’s history. According to the company, the Switch is also “one of the fastest-selling video game systems of all time.”

What’s more impressive is that Nintendo pulled this fantastic launch during a “nontraditional month,” as new consoles are usually released in the months leading up to the holidays. The company acknowledged that “shipments have not yet been able to keep up with such high demand,” and said that more systems are “continually being shipped. Nintendo added that it’ll offer more details about its Switch sales during the company’s next earnings report, due on April 27th.

As for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game sold 1.3 million units in America during the same period, including 925,000 copies for the Switch, and 460,000 units for the Wii U.

“That means that Nintendo sold more of this game [Breath of the Wild] for Nintendo Switch than it sold Nintendo Switch systems, for an attach rate of more than 100 percent,” Nintendo said. “This may be attributed to people who purchased both a limited edition of the game to collect and a second version to play.”

This makes the new Zelda game the fastest-selling Nintendo launch title in its 30-year history.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.