According to Niko Partners’ Daniel Ahmad, the Nintendo Switch has hit quite the milestone for console hardware sales. This analyst has made a habit of tracking hardware sales across multiple console generations, and there have been some interesting insights gleaned. With the Nintendo Switch having sold 52 million hardware units so far since its 2017 launch, it has been exploding in popularity. The recent Chinese launch also helped push a sizeable number of the console. The Xbox One has been around since 2014 and is undeniably stuck around the 50 million consoles sold mark.
The Xbox One brand has been slowly trending toward winding down in sales. The final quarter of 2019 reported a sizable drop in revenue for the Xbox division within Microsoft, with all areas taking a hit. The console sales dip is primarily blamed on the hype for the Xbox Series X and PS5, which gamers appear to be saving up for when it launches later this year.
Going back to comparisons between the Xbox One and Switch, there’s been a pretty major trend developing that shows the strength of the Switch platform. The Switch has been out around 35 months, which is a time period where it has eclipsed 50 million units sold. The Xbox One took around 72 months to sell that same number of consoles. And it looks like the Switch still has plenty of gas in the tank, as the console is in the middle of its lifecycle. By comparison, the Xbox One is nearing the last few months of its main lifespan.
“Switch is currently tracking inline with the Nintendo DS, which had also received a boost due to the release of a new model.” There has been no news about a Switch Pro coming anytime soon, as Nintendo has shot down speculation over a Switch Pro in 2020. So it looks like Nintendo won’t be getting such a boost with the Switch.
Nintendo will be releasing another custom shelled console for the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons though. Gamers will probably give the Nintendo Switch a minor boost in console sales off the back of this.
