Nintendo Boasts of Strong Switch Sales Over Holiday Long Weekend

Nintendo reported this week that it experienced record sales of the Switch video game console over the Black Friday sales period in the United States.

“Strong demand resulted in shoppers buying more than $250 million in Nintendo products from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday,” the firm reported, “according to Nintendo’s internal sales figures, demonstrating that Nintendo has something for everyone this holiday season.”

This news is notable for a few reasons. First, it applies only to the United States; Nintendo hasn’t released new worldwide sales figures. And second, the video maker didn’t offer any notable Black Friday deals. That makes Nintendo’s new sales milestones all the more interesting.

According to Nintendo, U.S. consumers made the Switch Nintendo’s best-selling console in history for the five-day Black Friday sales period, surpassing the previous record set by the Wii. Likewise, last week was the Switch’s best-selling week in the U.S. ever; Thanksgiving Day was apparently the high point.

The $250 million figure refers to all of Nintendo’s products, so not just Switch but also the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition and Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition retro consoles, and all Nintendo-produced games and accessories. Total U.S. hardware sales for Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday increased 45 percent over the same period in 2017, Nintendo says.

To date, Nintendo says it has sold over 8.2 Switch consoles in the U.S., though again it declined to provide a new worldwide sales figure. Switch hardware sales grew 115 percent compared to the same period in 2017, presumably in the U.S. only. Over 1 million Nintendo-produced game titles were sold over the five-day holiday period, up 78 percent from 2017.

Sales of the handheld 3DS family of systems has reached 22 million in the U.S., Nintendo says, with two games, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon, surpassing 2.2 million units each.

And Nintendo’s retro consoles have also sold well: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition system has sold over 2.5 million units to date, while the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition system has landed at over 2 million units so far.