Nintendo Switch Nears Game Boy’s Lifetime Sales as Animal Crossing Passes 40 Million Copies Sold

 

With only 4 million consoles to go, the Nintendo Switch is looking like it’ll soon be passing the lifetime sales of the classic Game Boy. Yesterday Nintendo had its quarterly results briefing, revealing the latest updated statistics for the Nintendo Switch console and its many games as well as how the company is looking right now – hint: it’s very good.

 

For the Nintendo Switch console itself, Nintendo has confirmed that it has surpassed 114 million units sold through to stores and is only a little over 4 million sales away from overtaking the Game Boy in total sales. 

 

Though this milestone is close, Nintendo has lowered its Switch sales forecast for the fiscal year 2023 from 21 million consoles to 19 million. President Furukawa noted that while “hardware production is on a recovery trend due to gradual improvement in procurement of semiconductors and other components, [Nintendo] have revised the sales forecast based on the production and shipments to date.”

 

Despite this, thanks to the weak yen, Nintendo’s overall net profit forecast has increased to 400 billion yen for the year, up from 340 billion.

 

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In terms of software sales, the last quarter saw digital software sales account for 51% of all software sales for Nintendo, with 56.2% of that being digital versions of physical games and the rest being DLC, Nintendo Switch Online and more.

 

In the games area, as of September 30, 2022, it was revealed that Splatoon 3 had sold through to stores (and digital versions) 7.9 million copies, with 5.01 million of those in Japan and 2.89 million coming from international sales. The game was only released three weeks earlier, making it one of the quickest-selling titles on the Switch (and in Nintendo history).

 

RELATED: Splatoon 3 Has Biggest Three-Day Launch Ever in Japanese Video Game History

 

The other milestone was with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which has solidified its place as the second-highest-selling Switch game at a little over 40 million copies sold. This is around 4x the amount Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Animal Crossing: Wild World has sold in its lifetime and is second only to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

 

Source: Nintendo Investor Relations

 

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.