The Switch Lite Has Almost Surpassed the Wii U
Nintendo has released their 3rd Quarter results for the fiscal year ending in March 2021, and sales of the Nintendo Switch are still booming with the console having now shipped nearly 80 million units worldwide.
This last quarter covers hardware and software sales from October 2020 – December 2021. The report itself includes sales figures from the full fiscal year so far covering Q1 to Q3.
As of December 31, 2020, the Nintendo Switch has shipped 79.87 million units, surpassing the 3DS family with 75.94 million units.
The report also confirms that the global cumulative sell-through (the number of units sold to customers) has now surpassed 74 million units.
This past quarter exceeded the same period last year, and was the most successful since the console’s launch.
The console is exceeding even more expectations as it has now passed the forecasted number of units shipped for the entire fiscal year. The previous forecasted amount was 24 million units, but the console has already shipped 24.10 million units. The updated forecasted amount is now 26.50 million units –an increase of 10.4 %. In other words, Nintendo expects to ship 2.4 million more units before the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2021 .
Software sales have also exceeded the previous forecast of 170 million units, having already sold 176 million. The new forecasted amount is 205.00 million units –an increase of 20.6%.
Now that the switch has sold more units than the 3DS family, it is currently the company’s fifth best selling system. While it has a long way to go to pass the DS family’s 154.02 million units, it is rapidly approaching the Wii’s 113.5 million units and the Gameboy family’s 118.69 million units. It is on track to surpass the Game Boy Advance family’s 81.51 million units by the end of this quarter.
Those numbers reflect the company’s best selling consoles, but on the other end of the spectrum, the Nintendo Switch Lite has likely already surpassed the Wii U’s lifetime sales of 13.56 million, as it had sold a total of 13.53 million by the end of this past quarter.