Switch Sales Cool as Nintendo Plots New Models

Sales of the Nintendo Switch are no longer meeting Nintendo’s predictions, suggesting that the success of the console will be short-lived.

As you may know, Nintendo Switch sales have been on a torrid pace since the portable video game console was released in 2017. The firm sold 15 million Switch consoles in its first year and a total of 22 million units by late 2018. That was enough to outperform previous Nintendo consoles like the GameCube and Wii U, but not the original Wii.

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As such, there’s been a lot of talk about Nintendo coming out of nowhere and dominating the industry again. But the reality is that Switch sales have never come close to surpassing those of the market leader, Sony’s PlayStation 4.

And now it appears they never will.

Nintendo now says it will sell 18 million Switch consoles in 2019, lower than the 18.5 million units that analysts expected. Last year, it sold 17 million units, below the 17.5 million that were estimated. But Nintendo had expected to sell 20 million units.

Software titles have also underperformed, with 119 million software units sold in Nintendo’s last fiscal year, less than the expected 121 million units. For the current year, Nintendo expects to sell 125 million software units, much lower than the expected 161 million.

Nintendo’s conservative estimates for the coming year and its slowness in bringing new Switch hardware to market have left a “negative impression” with analysts. The firm is widely expected to deliver two new versions of the Switch hardware sometime this year, including a cheaper model. But Nintendo said this week that it would not announce new hardware at E3, the industry’s key press event.

“As a general rule, we’re always working on new hardware and we will announce it when we are able to sell it,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said when asked about a lower-cost Switch. “But we have no plans to announce that at this year’s E3 in June.”

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Conversation 6 comments

  • Bibbit

    25 April, 2019 - 11:57 am

    <p>Give me a Switch with even more horsepower and I'd be very happy. As it is it's still a nice piece of hardware.</p>

  • provision l-3

    25 April, 2019 - 11:57 am

    <p><em>"</em><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Software titles have also underperformed, with 199 million software units sold in Nintendo’s last fiscal year, less than the expected 121 million units."</em></p><p><br></p><p>There is something horribly wrong with the math in that sentence. I'm guessing the that second number was supposed to be 221?</p>

  • Daekar

    25 April, 2019 - 12:28 pm

    <p>Well, I can't vouch for anybody else, but when the next iteration of the Switch comes out, I will seriously consider buying it despite there being nothing wrong with my present unit. I'd like to see a slight performance improvement, blueooth functionality for headphones, and an improved screen.</p>

  • ecumenical

    25 April, 2019 - 12:48 pm

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">But the reality is that Switch sales have never come close to surpassing those of the market leader, Sony’s PlayStation 4."</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Seems like a weird take. If you're complaining that the Switch hasn't sold more units in 2 years than the PS4 has in 6 years then… duh. Otherwise the Switch is easily outselling the PS4 in terms of both launch-aligned sales and current head-to-head sales. And they have yet to drop the price.</span></p>

  • Slvrgun

    25 April, 2019 - 3:22 pm

    <p>this must mean Xbox sales are at absolute zero</p>

  • Patrick3D

    26 April, 2019 - 5:00 pm

    <p>Paul must not have bothered to look at launch aligned sales numbers:</p><p><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4_FsieWAAAxtsp.jpg"></p><p>Xbox One would just be a rounding error.</p>

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