There was some concern that sales of Nintendo’s new video game console might be stunted by the sour taste left in gamers’ mouths from the Wii U. The post-launch frenzy seemed to dispel those concerns, and we can now confirm that sales of the new Nintendo Switch console are soaring. Along with the company’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, Nintendo announced that Nintendo Switch sales in the month of March totaled an impressive 2.74 million units.
Despite continued supply shortages — paying a premium for the Switch on Amazon is still the only way to buy one online right now — Switch sales have indeed been impressive so far. What’s more, Nintendo has issued an even more impressive forecast for Switch sales in fiscal 2017.
On top of sky-high Nintendo Switch console sales in the month of march, Nintendo confirmed in its fiscal Q4 2016 earnings report that sales of Switch games reached 5.46 million copies. Incredibly, that includes 3.84 million copies of the Switch’s flagship launch title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That figure includes Wii U titles, but believe it or not, the Switch version of the game did in fact out-sell the Switch console itself — Nintendo says 2.76 million copies of the Switch version were shipped.
For fiscal 2017, Nintendo expects the strong demand for its new Nintendo Switch console to persist, and it expects to increase production so that supply will eventually catch up with demand. Nintendo says that it expects to sell an additional 10 million Switch consoles in fiscal 2017. If that figure is accurate, the company will have sold nearly 13 million Switch units by this time next year.
