Nintendo Switch is the fastest selling console of this generation in the US (Smash 3m, BotW 4m, SMO 4.7m)

Deleted member 18161 · Dec 21, 2018

Nashklasher said:
Nintendo is doomed . Switch is flagging . People who are excited for smash , would have picked up a switch by now . LOLLLL

Great going Nintendo . Just goes to show what an absolute behemoth this company could be , if it plays it's cards correctly .

They were a sleeping giant for a lot of years. Frightened to death of leveraging their incredible collection of IP that only Disney can begin to compete with.

Things are going to get truly crazy once the Pokémon and Mario movies release, Mario Kart mobile releases, their Netflix shows come out and their theme parks open. Switch will merely be one part of a giant successful business.

Nolbertos · Dec 21, 2018

Congrats Nintendo. You made the Switch to me my 3rd party machine. I rarely touch my PS4 or Xbox One. No need unless its good exclusives. Portability FTW and vice-versa

SiG · Dec 21, 2018

Nashklasher said:
Nintendo is doomed . Switch is flagging .

Nintendo, meanwhile, is flipping the bird on all the naysayers.

zero_suit · Dec 21, 2018

WestEgg said:

Hmm. All signs pointing to Switch taking #1 in YTD sales.

DarkChronic · Dec 21, 2018

yeah yeah i don't do the console war thing cuz it's dumb and i love all 3 of my consoles equally but it brings a warm fuzzy feeling whenever i see nintendo killing it.

the king is back, baby

UltraMagnus · Dec 21, 2018

Most anecdotal of takes, but saw multiple Switch systems being sold while I was doing some final holiday shopping at Best Buy. Giant Smash Ultimate mural outside the store too (something I've never seen Best Buy do for Nintendo), overheard a mother and her teenage son talking about it.

HououinKyouma · Dec 21, 2018

I'm pretty sure I have a Switch lying no more than 10 feet away from me right now, wrapped as a present. The urge is real to open it...

Congrats to Nintendo. What a comeback.

ffdgh · Dec 21, 2018

WestEgg said:

Smashing.

hussien-11 · Dec 21, 2018

WestEgg said:

That Yuji Nakamura guy said Switch need a Christmas miracle to hit its target
well, it looks like the "miracle" is happening lol.

Version 3.0 · Dec 21, 2018

Man God said:
It's the only console in this generation so far as the PS5/Next Box haven't launched yet.

Switch isn't a new generation. Two consoles can be part of the same one. The Atari 2600 and 5200 were in the same gen (or the 5200/7800, if you prefer). Either way, Atari had 3 consoles in 2 generations. And now so does Nintendo. Either the Wii and the Wii U, or the Wii U and the Switch belong to the same gen.

Wikipedia, for what it's worth, has very sensibly included the Switch in the 8th generation of home consoles, along with the Wii U, Playstation 4, and Xbox 1. They make note of the dispute of where to place the Wii U (7th gen or 8th).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_generation_of_video_game_consoles

For the sake of on-topic conversations for years to come, get over it.

oracion · Dec 21, 2018

Nice.

Lwill · Dec 21, 2018

Was Nintendo's US launch week a little short of 1 million? If it's at that level, I don't see how the total of the month can be less than 2 million with the previous info Benji gave us.

LegendofLex · Dec 21, 2018

Version 3.0 said:
Switch isn't a new generation. Two consoles can be part of the same one. The Atari 2600 and 5200 were in the same gen (or the 5200/7800, if you prefer). Either way, Atari had 3 consoles in 2 generations. And now so does Nintendo. Either the Wii and the Wii U, or the Wii U and the Switch belong to the same gen.

tbh, the only reason why the very early 80s consoles get lumped into 2nd gen was that they were very clearly not part of the transformational shift we saw with NES, even though that shift happened at around the same time.

They were still successor consoles to the 2nd-gen boxes and should have been part of their own distinct generation.

Same is true with Switch: it absolutely isn't part of the same gen as 3DS or Wii U, both of which aren't part of the same gen as DS and Wii, both of which aren't part of the same gen as GameCube and GBA.

Now that Nintendo's doing its own thing, it's never going to matter whether Nintendo's consoles get lumped with PlayStation and Xbox. But that doesn't mean we start pretending that Nintendo's new consoles aren't generational shifts within the context of Nintendo's own hardware history.

Dekuman · Dec 21, 2018

skittzo0413 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but almost all of the bundles are indeed full price for all of the bundled items. The only one that was a price drop was the temporary MK8D bundle which was only a Black Friday item in the US.

I can see it the other way as well, but basically to the consumer they're getting a Switch plus a $60 game included. But most likely that $60 they would have spent on a game is spent on another game or eshop immediately. Compared to March 2017 where it was $300 + $60 BOTW the value proposition is $300 + bundled game + purchased game.

Rion said:
They were a sleeping giant for a lot of years. Frightened to death of leveraging their incredible collection of IP that only Disney can begin to compete with.

Things are going to get truly crazy once the Pokémon and Mario movies release, Mario Kart mobile releases, their Netflix shows come out and their theme parks open. Switch will merely be one part of a giant successful business.

Nintendo's always seen themselves as an entertainment company but when their consoles are bombing they tend to get shunted aside and told to exit the market by armchair analysts. Hopefully they can truly transform into an entertainment company and exist because they are who they are. Haters won't go away but 'exit' won't be a talking point.

DeuceGamer · Dec 21, 2018

Lwill said:
Was Nintendo's US launch week a little short of 1 million? If it's at that level, I don't see how the total of the month can be less than 2 million with the previous info Benji gave us.

It's looking like 2.5m may not be too farfetched. That would be an incredible result and put them ~4m in Q3 in the US alone.

Mory Dunz · Dec 21, 2018

why is everyone surprised at Benji's tweet?
This being Switch's best week outside of launch was expected.

We knew December was going to be huge, and no other week would compare.
The only competition would be last year Devember, which was riding SMO from October.

So of course this will be the best swelling Switch week.

Starwing · Dec 21, 2018

WestEgg said:

I definitely see the momentum Switch has. Just before Smash released, both of my brothers got a Switch, the first and so far only time where all three of us got the same console.

Adventureracing · Dec 21, 2018

Mory Dunz said:
why is everyone surprised at Benji's tweet?
This being Switch's best week outside of launch was expected.

We knew December was going to be huge, and no other week would compare.
The only competition would be last year Devember, which was riding SMO from October.

So of course this will be the best swelling Switch week.

Well it means this week will be bigger than Black Friday week which I don't think was always going to be the case.

Toni · Dec 21, 2018

I would buy a Switch now if I wasn't so invested in waiting until the revision and till the end of next year to go in with a more fleshed out library (and a proper Pokemon entry).

I already know 4 people in my job that are getting a Switch or got one already for their family/relatives. And I've never seen a gaming console talked about in my workplace.

I'm committed to sit back and watch what happens after December is over. As I got a hunch Switch is going to have it's PS2 December moment.

Dekuman · Dec 21, 2018

Toni said:
I would buy a Switch now if I wasn't so invested in waiting until the revision and till the end of next year to go in with a more fleshed out library (and a proper Pokemon entry).

I already know 4 people in my job that are getting a Switch or got one already for their family/relatives. And I've never seen a gaming console talked about in my workplace.

I'm committed to sit back and watch what happens after December is over. As I got a hunch Switch is going to have it's PS2 December moment.

You could always trade it in later.

Skittzo · Dec 21, 2018

Mory Dunz said:
why is everyone surprised at Benji's tweet?
This being Switch's best week outside of launch was expected.

We knew December was going to be huge, and no other week would compare.
The only competition would be last year Devember, which was riding SMO from October.

So of course this will be the best swelling Switch week.

I think he's saying that even without the enormous boost it's going to see Saturday this would be the best week it's had since launch. That's the surprising part, if this was a normal Saturday in December it would still make this the best week. Instead this Saturday is the biggest shopping day of they year, so it's going to be even more on top of that.

I wouldn't be all that shocked if it sells more this week than it did on launch week too.

m051293 · Dec 21, 2018

skittzo0413 said:
I think he's saying that even without the enormous boost it's going to see Saturday this would be the best week it's had since launch. That's the surprising part, if this was a normal Saturday in December it would still make this the best week. Instead this Saturday is the biggest shopping day of they year, so it's going to be even more on top of that.

I wouldn't be all that shocked if it sells more this week than it did on launch week too.

That's how I read it and I am not sure how it could be read any other way. The second sentence is meant to emphasize exactly that - sales trending toward best week of all time assuming Saturday trends like a normal Saturday.

Mory Dunz · Dec 21, 2018

GDGF · Dec 21, 2018

The world is nuts for Nintendo once again. Hate the word but I haven't seen such a yearning from the 'hardcore' audience for Nintendo hardware since the NES generation. And speaking of which...

Celine · Dec 21, 2018

JSG87 said:
Does anyone know the top 10 US December sellers console wise?

The best selling December this generation (3DS, XBO, PS4, NSW) for a single console is under 1.7M.

As for the best December ever (since 1995) there were 14 instances of sales over 2M sales (PS1 3 times, PS2 1 time, GBA 3 times, DS 4 times, Wii 3 times), 3 of which were over 3M (DS 2 times, Wii 1 time).

EDIT:
Excluding GB/C.

PillFencer · Dec 21, 2018

Mory Dunz said:
why is everyone surprised at Benji's tweet?
This being Switch's best week outside of launch was expected.

We knew December was going to be huge, and no other week would compare.
The only competition would be last year Devember, which was riding SMO from October.

So of course this will be the best swelling Switch week.

Launch week isn't Switch's best week since launch month was at ~900k and 2018 Black Friday week was at ~800k

Celine · Dec 21, 2018

Adventureracing said:
Crazy to be pulling these numbers at full price. A revision and price cut next year will see the switch head towards peak Wii/DS numbers IMO.

I don't think you remember or know how crazy high were the sales at DS/Wii peak.
The yearly sales peak for both DS and Wii was > 10M which is very very high.

Skittzo · Dec 21, 2018

PillFencer said:
Launch week isn't Switch's best week since launch month was at ~900k and 2018 Black Friday week was at ~800k

Oh wow it was that low? I guess I forgot the harsh shortages it had in its first month.

So yeah this should be the biggest week for the Switch ever in the US. Possibly Japan too.

Pooh · Dec 21, 2018

Restored said:
Man that's a bit antagonistic. That definition doesn't really work at all. Ps2 sold alongside PS3 forever. I think we got a Madden 2012 release on it, but that certainly doesn't make it the same generation.

Generations of consoles are clearly defined industry terms I thought applied in this particular thread.

Switch is the fastest selling console this gen, because it's the only console this gen.

OK, to put it in terms you'll appreciate more, then:

The Switch is the fastest selling console of this gen AND faster than any last gen consoles.

Malakai · Dec 21, 2018

I swear, I'm so happy the Switch is doing well. After enduring the shouting of the naysayer of Nintendo going third party and handhelds are pointless and fail to moblie Switch continues to serve up crow. The next thing for the Switch to do is to pull Wii/DS December 2009 and sell over 3 million in one month. (Wii sold 3.8 million and the DS sold 3.3 million in the US alone. The NPD software chart in Dec 09 looked like a current Mediacrate chart)

Slam Tilt · Dec 21, 2018

hussien-11 said:
That Yuji Nakamura guy said Switch need a Christmas miracle to hit its target

Who cares? Everyone knows that the real man with the down-low is Michael Pachter! Somebody go get his take already!

King Dodongo · Dec 21, 2018

Nintendo obliterating december as usual. The king is back.

delete12345 · Dec 21, 2018

GDGF said:
The world is nuts for Nintendo once again. Hate the word but I haven't seen such a yearning from the 'hardcore' audience for Nintendo hardware since the NES generation. And speaking of which...

It's not at that level yet. :(

night814 · Dec 21, 2018

Dekuman said:
Nintendo's always seen themselves as an entertainment company but when their consoles are bombing they tend to get shunted aside and told to exit the market by armchair analysts. Hopefully they can truly transform into an entertainment company and exist because they are who they are. Haters won't go away but 'exit' won't be a talking point.

They got some stuff in that mindset in the works and already on it's way, Detective Pikachu and the new Mario movie. Not too mention the universal park Super Mario World and the long rumored Zelda Netflix show. They seem to be on the cusp of achieving that goal.

Version 3.0 · Dec 21, 2018

LegendofLex said:
tbh, the only reason why the very early 80s consoles get lumped into 2nd gen was that they were very clearly not part of the transformational shift we saw with NES, even though that shift happened at around the same time.

Atari's 7800 was part of the NES generation, despite being a failed also-ran. What company product something succeeds has no bearing on its placement in the industry as a whole. What matters is its competition and contemporaries. Atari rushing out an extra product because the prior one failed didn't speed up their competitors' timelines, so we don't record 3 generations just because Atari had 3 sequential products.

LegendofLex said:
Now that Nintendo's doing its own thing, it's never going to matter whether Nintendo's consoles get lumped with PlayStation and Xbox. But that doesn't mean we start pretending that Nintendo's new consoles aren't generational shifts within the context of Nintendo's own hardware history.

What a strange thing to say in a thread specifically about Switch's performance relative to the competition. That's what "fastest console of the generation" means. Literally no one is talking about Nintendo in a bubble. Why on earth would anyone debate Nintendo's hardware "within the context of Nintendo's own hardware history"? Its placement in Nintendo's timeline is automatic. As if someone said the Switch didn't release after the Wii U? Only its placement in the scope of the industry at large matters in terms of what generation it belongs in.

The Switch is selling faster than the Playstation 4 and Xbox One did in their first couple of years on the market. That's what the thread topic is. My response was to address all the "clever" replies that said "the Switch is all alone in its generation, of course it sold the fastest".

Version 3.0 · Dec 21, 2018

Celine said:
The best selling December this generation (3DS, XBO, PS4, NSW) for a single console is under 1.7M.

As for the best December ever (since 1995) there were 14 instances of sales over 2M sales (PS1 3 times, PS2 1 time, GBA 3 times, DS 4 times, Wii 3 times), 3 of which were over 3M (DS 2 times, Wii 1 time).

EDIT:
Excluding GB/C.

Yes. I'd like to add, the number to beat for the all-time December record is 3.8 million, the Wii's high water mark in 2008.

PortisheadBiscuit · Dec 22, 2018

Toni said:
I would buy a Switch now if I wasn't so invested in waiting until the revision and till the end of next year to go in with a more fleshed out library (and a proper Pokemon entry).

I already know 4 people in my job that are getting a Switch or got one already for their family/relatives. And I've never seen a gaming console talked about in my workplace.

I'm committed to sit back and watch what happens after December is over. As I got a hunch Switch is going to have it's PS2 December moment.

Andecdote in coming but, I haven't heard Nintendo talked about so much by casuals since the Wii/DS days. Seems like no one really knew what the Wii U and 3DS were, this time around people KNOW what the Switch is and what it does. Not sure we'll see the type of hysteria Wii/DS generated, but Switch mindshare is extremely healthy atm.

NicknameMy · Dec 22, 2018

skittzo0413 said:
Like I said in the other thread if the previous biggest week was this past Black Friday where they sold ~800k consoles then that means they're on pace to sell >800k this week alone.

Do we actually know how big week 49 with Smash release was?

Celine · Dec 22, 2018

Version 3.0 said:
Yes. I'd like to add, the number to beat for the all-time December record is 3.8 million, the Wii's high water mark in 2008.

2009

Wii was severely supply constrained in December 2008 and risked to sell less than November cause of it (mind you they had a record breaking November 2008).

Adventureracing · Dec 22, 2018

Celine said:
I don't think you remember or know how crazy high were the sales at DS/Wii peak.
The yearly sales peak for both DS and Wii was > 10M which is very very high.

I don't mean yearly sales I'm just talking about the holiday sales. I don't think any console will ever pull off the sort of crazy non holiday numbers that were seen in the wii/DS era.

Celine · Dec 22, 2018

Adventureracing said:
I don't mean yearly sales I'm just talking about the holiday sales. I don't think any console will ever pull off the sort of crazy non holiday numbers that were seen in the wii/DS era.

At their peak, DS and Wii sold more than 5M during the Holiday (Nov.+Dec.).
Again I don't think you remember what kind of crazy sales DS and Wii were pulling off.

NicknameMy · Dec 22, 2018

Celine said:
At their peak, DS and Wii sold more than 5M during the Holiday (Nov.+Dec.).
Again I don't think you remember what kind of crazy sales DS and Wii were pulling off.

Isn't the Switch likely to do around 4 million this year in that timeframe with that high of the price? I mean, one week alone is basically around or even over 1 million.

Adventureracing · Dec 22, 2018

Celine said:
At their peak, DS and Wii sold more than 5M during the Holiday (Nov.+Dec.).
Again I don't think you remember what kind of crazy sales DS and Wii were pulling off.

I remember exactly what numbers they were pulling and I think the switch can pull similar types of numbers. Maybe not the crazy 3.8 million in a month but it can be in the same ballpark as some of those crazy years.

I won't predict 5 million across November and December but I think 4+ million is definitely doable.

Celine · Dec 22, 2018

Adventureracing said:
I remember exactly what numbers they were pulling and I think the switch can pull similar types of numbers. Maybe not the crazy 3.8 million in a month but it can be in the same ballpark as some of those crazy years.

I won't predict 5 million across November and December but I think 4+ million is definitely doable.

Yes, I too think 4M is the best Switch could hope to achieve.

Celine · Dec 22, 2018

NicknameMy said:
Isn't the Switch likely to do around 4 million this year in that timeframe with that high of the price? I mean, one week alone is basically around or even over 1 million.

My guess is between 3M and 4M (hopefully closer to 4M).
But even in the case of NSW can achieve 4M, a 1M difference in just two months is a lot.

Never say never but Switch have still to demonstrate it can match DS and Wii best months (which is fine, it can be successful even if it doesn't).

NicknameMy · Dec 22, 2018

Celine said:
My guess is between 3M and 4M (hopefully closer to 4M).
But even in the case of NSW can achieve 4M, a 1M difference in just two months is a lot.

Never say never but Switch have still to demonstrate it can match DS and Wii best months (which is fine, it can be successful even if it doesn't).

Well, Week 49 and Week 50 should have also sold really well thanks to Smash Bros. Both together should have sold at least 1.2 million as well.

1.3 (November) + 1.2 + 1 = 3.5

And then there is still week 48 and week 52. Plus 3.5 is more of a minimum.

ccieag · Dec 22, 2018

Switch needs a price cut to meet those 3DS types of numbers. When it hits 199 and below, then it's going to be something to watch. I love a $199 PS4, but the mobility of the Switch is its best selling point against Sony and Microsoft

Skittzo · Dec 22, 2018

ccieag said:
Switch needs a price cut to meet those 3DS types of numbers. When it hits 199 and below, then it's going to be something to watch. I love a $199 PS4, but the mobility of the Switch is its best selling point against Sony and Microsoft

Do you mean DS numbers? It's outpacing the 3DS by a wide margin in the US, and by a bit worldwide.

ccieag · Dec 22, 2018

Yeah, meant DS. Thanks for the correction

Thorsten · Dec 23, 2018

Congratulations to Nintendo :)

Nintendo Switch is the fastest selling console of this generation in the US (Smash 3m, BotW 4m, SMO 4.7m)

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