2.74 million Switches sold worldwide in March
Nintendo has said all along it is aiming for 10 million Switch sales in its first year. The company’s fiscal earnings report for fiscal year 2016 revealed that it did more than a quarter of that in the console’s launch month. Hoping to sell at least two million Switches in the initial month, Nintendo got that and then some, moving 2.74 million worldwide.
The Wii U ended its five-year life with 13.6 million sales, 670,000 of which coming between April 2016 and March 2017. The 3DS, meanwhile, churned out 7.27 million consoles for the year. Nintendo states Pokémon GO drove 3DS sales outside of Japan.
The hottest game, no surprise, was Pokémon Sun & Moon, selling 15.44 million worldwide. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold more than the Switch itself at 2.76 million Switch versions sold, 3.84 million including the Wii U version sales.
Due to less downloadable content, earnings from download sales dipped from 43.9 billion yen the previous year to 32.5 billion yen. Total income from mobile games and other related sources was biggest in Japan with over 11.8 million yen, totaling 24 million yen for the world.
Nintendo is aiming for 35 million game software sales by the end of the fiscal year in March 2018 to accompany its projected 10 million Switch console sales. The Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki states that Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima “said repeatedly there are ‘more unannounced titles’ that should boost Switch itself’s sales (no mention of whether he means 1st, 2nd or 3rd [party]).“
Consolidated Results for the Years Ended March 31, 2016 and 2017 [Nintendo]
