No Contest, Nintendo Won This Round of the Console Wars
It will surprise absolutely no one to learn that the Nintendo Switch is one of Nintendo’s most successful consoles, but it might surprise you to learn exactly how successful it is. The weird little console that has both home and portable functions, which can be played with a ton of different controller configurations, and which has some of the most creative and colorful games this generation has to offer, has utterly crushed every other console in the running for 2020. Chris Dring, the head of GamesIndustry.biz, sums it up like this: the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite sold more units in the UK than the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X combined.
In the UK last year, if you add every PS5 sold to every PS4 sold to every Xbox Series sold to every Xbox One sold… you get pretty much how much Nintendo Switch sold
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) January 7, 2021
Yeah, that’s right: the Switch outsold every single next-gen console, plus the old classics, and then some. Obviously, you have to take into account the smaller stock of PS5 and Xbox Series S|X units and the existence of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but still. That’s what we call a power move. Way to go, you funky little console, you.
We’re not trying to say the Switch is perfect–in fact, it has plenty of room for improvement–but the numbers don’t lie. The people have spoken. Maybe the real reason the new console wars are being pitched as Sony vs Microsoft is that they both know Nintendo would curb stomp them. Nintendo has already begun discussing plans for the Switch’s successor console, which we anticipate to be launching sometime in 2024. Assuming the utter disaster that was 2020 didn’t throw off their schedules too much, anyway.
What’s your favorite Switch game? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.