Nintendo Switch surpassed PlayStation 4 in sales in the world

Nintendo Switch sales exceeded 122 million consoles as of December 31, 2022, Nintendo announced. The hybrid platform has officially surpassed the Game Boy and PlayStation 4.

Now it ranks third in the ranking of the most popular consoles in the history of the industry, second only to the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS.

1. PlayStation 2 - 155 million
2. Nintendo DS - 154.02 million
3. Nintendo Switch - 122.55 million
4. Game Boy and Game Boy Color - 118.69 million
5. PlayStation 4 - 117.2 million
6. PlayStation - 102.49 million
7. Wii - 101.63 million
8. PlayStation 3 - 87.4 million
9. Xbox 360 - 84 million
10. Game Boy Advance - 81.51 million

By March 31, the company plans to increase this number to 18 million consoles. Despite the solid age of the Switch, there is no sharp drop in demand for the platform, Nintendo noted.

The decline in sales is primarily attributed to "a shortage of semiconductors and other components, which affected the pace of production and deliveries until the end of summer."

There are also no plans to reduce the price of the Switch — this is actually the only console in history that has not received a single permanent pricetag in six years of life.

Analysts interviewed by Bloomberg believe that Nintendo cannot delay the launch of the Switch successor, since the current console family has already passed its peak in sales.

"The Switch concept needs an urgent hardware upgrade," said Amir Anvarzade of Asymmetric Advisors.

Hideki Yasuda from Toyo Securities added that thanks to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the platform will still be able to perform well in the next financial year.

“If Nintendo prepares at least two special versions of Switch for the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it will have a chance to sell 20 million consoles in the next fiscal year.

Without them, I expect sales of 18 million consoles or lower, which, frankly, is still a lot for such old hardware."

Nintendo itself lowered its forecasts for total annual revenue and operating profit from 1.65 trillion yen and 500 billion yen to 1.6 trillion and 480 billion ($3.6 billion), respectively, citing the difficult economic situation in the world and fluctuations in the international currency market.