Nintendo Switch surpasses 125 million sales, but decline trend continues

One billion Switch games sold to date

Nintendo has revealed the newest sales figures regarding its Nintendo Switch platform, which sees the console pass the 125 million unit mark, as well as hitting an all-time record in regards to software sales.

According to the data, 3.07 million Nintendo Switch consoles were sold during the first quarter of 2023, (ending March 31), which pushes total unit sales to 125.62 million. While an additional three million sold Switch consoles is not to be sniffed at, it does represent a huge 22% sales drop on the previous year, continuing a downward trend for Switch hardware sales in general. At this rate, it seems very unlikely that the Switch will surpass the sales of Nintendo’s best-selling hardware, Nintendo DS, which closed on a staggering 154 million units — making it the second best selling console of all time.

Nintendo is openly aware of the sales decline, but still hopes to sell a further 15 million units by the end of March 2024. Speaking in a conference call attended by Bloomberg, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa called the target “a bit of stretch”, but hopes that the holiday season will help the company to hit its targets. Furukawa said that no new or upgraded hardware was being factored into the prediction, somewhat furthering whispers that the company has no plans to release a new edition of the Switch in the near future.

In regard to software sales, Switch has shipped 1.036 billion games since its launch, which is the most titles ever shipped for any Nintendo platform. The three best-selling first-party titles remain Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (53.79 million), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (42.21 million), and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (31.09 million). Nintendo’s next major release, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, launches this week, and is expected to carry the lion’s share of the company’s software revenue for 2023.

Chris Moyse

Senior Editor – Chris has been playing video games since the 1980s and writing about them since the 1880s. Graduated from Galaxy High with honors. Twitter: @ChrisxMoyse