Report: Nintendo has sold 1.5 million Switch consoles in less than two weeks

By Gabe Gurwin March 14, 2017

Nintendo Switch review — Mike Epstein/Digital Trends

We haven’t been able to stop playing our Nintendo Switch systems, thanks in no small part to the incredible The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and it appears that we are not alone. A new report estimates that Nintendo has managed to sell more than 1.5 million consoles in less than two weeks on the market.

The figures, which come from game data research firm SuperData via Gamesindustry.biz, said that 500,000 Switch systems were sold during the system’s first week in the United States alone, with another 360,000 sold in Japan — the data didn’t give an exact total for Europe as a whole but stated that it was comparable to Japan’s sales, and France and the United Kingdom combined for 195,000 more units.

There does appear to be a slight discrepancy in the math based on the individual regions’ sales figures. Even when assuming that Europe managed to equal Japan’s sales, the total number given by the report only equals about 1.4 million — it’s possible that there were other regions not explicitly mentioned that were factored into that total.

In North America, the Switch’s sales are up by about 20 percent over the Wii U — a console that actually opened to a pretty strong reception before quickly fizzling out in 2013. The Switch also sold considerably better than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and at least in its first two days, outsold the Wii. The Wii went on to sell 600,000 units in only a week, but the Switch appears to be keeping remarkably close pace.

The GameIndustry.biz report also stated that 90 percent of Switch owners also purchased The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which would put total sales for that game at around 1.35 million. We’re just wondering who chose a different game with their system. Some people must really love 1-2 Switch.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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