Nintendo Switch’s 100 million sales exceed Wii’s lifetime figure

Japanese company Nintendo sold 18.95 million Switch units in the nine months to the end of December, the company said on Thursday, bringing total sales to more than 100 million units and surpassing the lifetime sales of the Wii-console.

Although the figure is lower than the 24.1 million units sold during the corresponding period a year earlier, this milestone highlights the continued demand for the aging device.

Nintendo cut its Switch hardware sales forecast for the full year to 23 million units from 24 million previously.

The Kyoto-based games maker and its peers Sony and Microsoft are grappling with chip shortages that have affected hardware supply.

On Wednesday, Sony cut its forecast for full-year PlayStation 5 sales to 11.5 million units from 14.8 million.

In 2021, an OLED variant of Nintendo Switch was announced in July. Available in two color options, it went on sale in the United States in October, as well as other select regions.

Priced at $349.99 (approximately Rs. 26,200), Nintendo Switch (OLED model) is compatible with all current Nintendo Switch games and current Joy-Con controllers. The OLED model brings a slightly bigger screen but in the same console size, which means the bezels have shrunk a bit. It also comes with double the internal storage compared to the original console.

The screen size has changed from a 6.2-inch LCD to a 7-inch OLED. The resolution remains the same at 1,280 x 720 pixels. The OLED model is powered by the same Nvidia custom Tegra processor but comes with 64GB of internal storage compared to 32GB on the previous generation Switch. It is expandable via microSDHC or microSDXC cards (up to 2TB).

---