According to Nintendo’s latest quarterly financial report, Nintendo Switch has sold over 5.8 million units within the last three months. This is mostly due to the boom in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more students and workers stayed home. Along with a rise in Switch sales, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold 10.63 million units. As Nintendo continues to see this trend going upward, they have no plans to slow production down. With plans to release new games and updates soon, the Switch is predicted to have even better sales for its next fiscal quarter.
The effects of COVID-19
Although COVID-19 is still affecting the production of games and hardware, Nintendo is still optimistic about its future sales. Shinya Takahashi, General Manager of Nintendo EPD, shared some insight on the status of production for upcoming games. “While product development is a little behind schedule in some areas… game releases planned for this fiscal year are currently not affected.” The release of Pikmin 3 Deluxe, No More Heroes 3, and more is important to the future rise in sales for the Nintendo Switch, although as long as Animal Crossing is still available, there’s not much to worry about.
Unfortunately, time can only tell in regards to on-time releases. Nintendo continues to take necessary measures against COVID-19, with hopes that production will continue to go as planned.
Embark on new side-story missions featuring #Pikmin experts, Olimar and Louie! Give these new missions a try in Pikmin 3 Deluxe and learn a bit about what happened before and after the main story from their perspective! pic.twitter.com/F5ubkMVJtW
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 5, 2020
Surpassing sales and rising to the top
Overall, this year shows a total of 61.44million Switch hardware units sold, surpassing SNES sales at 49.9 million units. Compared to other consoles, the Switch is the third best selling item next to the Wii and NES. With over 245 titles released in Japan, this handheld console is a recent favorite amongst new and old gamers.
As a result of the recent boom in sales, the company stated they have “started out strong” with a 166% hardware sales increase on a year-on-year basis. Additionally, Nintendo’s newest releases Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and Clubhouse Games contributed over one million units in sales.
Since COVID-19 is an on-going pandemic, Nintendo may expect to see a steady trend in sales throughout the rest of 2020. As for your console-less friends, they may be able to get their hands on their own Nintendo Switch this Summer.
