Nintendo Switch Ships 2.74 Million Units Worldwide

Today as part of Nintendo's latest earnings report for the fiscal year ended March 31, Nintendo provided the first worldwide shipment update for the Nintendo Switch. The console has shipped 2.74 million units around the world since launch in March, while it has shipped 5.46 million games.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has now sold 3.84 million units worldwide, including 2.76 million units Switch and 1.08 million on Wii U. Nintendo also called out 1-2 Switch, though all it said was that the game is "generating buzz"; no sales numbers were provided.

Nintendo thinks the good times will keep rolling for the Switch, predicting to ship 10 million more units of hardware in the current fiscal year and 35 million games over the same period of time.

On the portable front, 3DS game sales were strong, Nintendo said, specifically calling out Pokemon Sun and Moon, which have now combined to sell 15.44 million units. Super Mario Maker for 3DS is now up to 2.34 million units, while Kirby: Planet Robobot has risen to 1.36 million.

3DS hardware sales amounted to 7.27 million units for the period, up 7 percent year-over-year. Nintendo has now sold more than 66 million 3DS units worldwide, making it something of a juggernaut that Nintendo said it sees as "a platform that we can rely on for software sales."

For Wii U, the system sold 760,000 units during the period, down 77 percent year-over-year. A dramatic sales decrease was of course expected, given the launch of the Switch. Nintendo sold 14.8 million Wii U games during the period, down 46 percent compared to last year.

Some other notes from Nintendo's earnings report is that Amiibo sales were described as "limited," coming in at 9.1 million figure units and 9.3 million card-types. Another tough spot for Nintendo was in the area of DLC. "There were relatively fewer offerings of downloadable content during this period, so digital sales were also down to a large extent on the same period last year," Nintendo said.

In terms of financials, Nintendo's net sales for the period amounted to 489,095 million yen, down 3 percent compared to last year. Profit was 102, 574 million yen, which is up 521.5 percent, though this includes the hundreds of millions that Nintendo made from its sale of the Seattle Mariners.

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What I do find odd is that they shipped 2.74mil consoles, but Zelda sold 2.76 times on Switch, which means 20k Zeldas were bought double? Or are these video game numers also shipped, and not really sold?

Pokemon numbers are crazy big. It's game over when that series releases on the Switch.

Very impressive numbers all around, I can see switch outselling the WiiU by this years end.

1-2 switch is "generating buzz"; no sales numbers were provided.

lol

Wow. If I recall correctly, the goal was to ship 2 million, and the highest estimate before this report was that they had pushed through 2.4 million.

No wonder they're having shortages. Despite producing 35% more than planned, they still can't come close to meeting demand.

These are the situations where it hurts them to be just a game company. If they were a larger conglomerate, they could have factories pushing out Switch, 3DS, and NES Minis by the millions and would sell through them all.

Great news for them regarding Zelda, too. It reportedly needed to sell over 2 million to earn a profit, and it was already near 4 million after its first month. It's on track to be the top selling Zelda of all time.

@FastRobby: If you want to update the title/OP, they are projecting 10 million units sold this year:

To start with the March sales of Nintendo Switch, the initial stated target prior to launch had been two million units, but high demand prompted Nintendo to work on pushing extra stock into stores. Some estimates had placed sales nearer 2.4 million units, but Nintendo has confirmed that the official figure of shipped consoles in March was 2.74 million units, beating official and unofficial projections.

For this current financial year - 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2018 - Nintendo is estimating that it'll ship 10 million Nintendo Switch consoles, which would take the lifetime to date up to just under 13 million. This is below some of the bolder predictions of recent weeks. There are a couple of factors to consider - Nintendo may opt for a sensible number in order to manage expectations, or may expect some quieter periods in the financial year in which hardware sales slow down. To be clear 10 million units is a solid number, but below the 12 million+ units that 3DS would typically ship in a good year during its peak.

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Time to start porting those Gamecube classics and Wii U games Nintendo!

I just hope the Switch version of Pokemon is something entirely new, and not just an upgraded looking GameBoy pokemon game.

@kjtc1979: It's up-to-date now

Mine's collecting dust.

It's doing exactly what I thought it was gonna do.

That seems pretty good so far. Lets see if they keep it up! :)

Not getting MK8?

No. C'mon, now.

My exact reaction lol

@freedomfreak: Well omfg!

I believe the 2.74 million consoles # is for March only, as the financial report data is through March 31.

Why did you buy one then? We all knew the line up at launch for the year. If you knew nothing was going to interest you why waste the money?

To tell people I own one, and it is collecting dust.

The reason why there were more Zeldas sold than Switches is probably a bunch of people who couldn't get the system but still bought the game so they have it when the system comes out, and probably a few people who bought a collector's edition for the extras, sold the game, and download the digital version. If these numbers are only until the end of March then the Switch should be well over 3 million shipped by now. Great start.

Money well spent then I guess!

You should get some of this Brasso gadget care polish

It keeps dust off stuff like the Switch, works a treat!

Yeah not sure about that since the article is saying since launch. Also 2.74mil consoles in 1 month isn't realistic in March.

If they show a Pokemon game this soon, it's bound to be Pokemon Star, the rumored Switch version of Pokemon S/M. (Sales wise I think that would do well.)

@FastRobby: It is in other articles reporting on the financial report. They shipped 2.74 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017 and they are projecting shipments of 10 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018. Any sales in April are part of that 10 million projection and will be reported on next year's year-end financial report.

@kjtc1979: You could be correct (indeed a lot of articles are saying March alone), that's a lot of consoles for just 1 month. Congrats to Nintendo

What is going to keep Switch selling is the "look what I got" effect that other systems cannot do. It is starting to show at my work. I show someone it at work in real time and they want it. (3 others have bought it 2 of them would not have if I would not have brought it in to show them.) Being a handheld with Nintendo games and those visuals really are going to push sales. The game that is really going to sell it is Mario Kart. What a great game to play on the go.

@mojito1988: I agree, and apparently so does Nintendo, as they've been hoarding some units to have on shelves for the MK8D launch tomorrow. Can't wait to see the Japan sales next week.

Hot damn, Switch exceeding expectations. Haters not gonna like this.

The Switch's sales are actually for less than a month- they're for the period ended March 31. Jesus that's huge.

@FastRobby: please edit the OP

Time to get Puyo Tetris, chap. And get wrecked of course!

No way, I was under the notion those things are harder and take longer to manufacture than Space Shuttles? :P

Anyhooie, grats I guess.

So much for crying about artificial shortages. Im pretty sure not even the most cockeyed optimist at nintendo anticipated this reception. Lets hope this results in some western 3rd party support.

Lol. I bought Zelda but then couldn't bring myself to get a Switch. I'll probably get a used one at some point.

So where's that Sony fanboy who predicted it flopping and Nintendo porting Zelda to PS4 in a year or two?

When does Monster Hunter and Pokemon come out for the Switch?? When are those games coming out for it?

Awwww yeahhhhh

@Heil68: did you get a Switch uet? I wanna play Mario Kart with you!

Not yet. And MK is a remaster with new stuff, not a new game! I still play MK7 on 3DS

Can't wait to see Aprils sales. Judging from fanboys reaction its going to clock in the same or greater numbers.

These "shipped" numbers don't mean squat. The Wii U sold almost 6 mil units by the end of 2013, And then sales stagnated so bad that Nintendo have since dropped out of the dedicated home console market.

Except given that this is perennially sold out, as you yourself don't tire of pointing out, sold in roughly equals sold through in this case.

Your persistent damage control is beyond amusing, however.

Man MS picked the wrong year to release the Scorpio. The Switch and Stars Wars bundled PS4s are going to destroy it . Which is sad, with all the power and being sent out to fail is going to make a lot of lemmings lose their sleep :(

Sheep dont understand that the 10 million new units is an estimate to happen by this time next year. There will still be shortages the rest of this year.

lol no different market entirely for Switch. And Star Wars bundle PS4s? lol. Why would I buy the inferior PS4 bundle version when I could get a new scorpio to play it on?

I'm not even sure what you are trying to say here

Literally no one in here is saying this. Can Nintendo fans not be happy about 1 month of sales... especially coming off of the WiiU?

The common sentiment I'm seeing is the wait and see approach, and hopefully they can keep the momentum going. The "I cant wait to tell you so" comments are really shallow... this notion that the Switch is expected to sell more than any other console till the end of time seems to only be coming from the Nintendo haters.

Don't mind him, he wants the Switch to die a painful and horrible death (his words, not mine), and he is probably salty that that's not happening.

Jesus Christ. Good job Nintendo!

PLEASE do this!!!!

He is right. Except the last part because it going to happen. :)

Congrats Nintendo. I have to give them credit.

@blessedbyhorus: I'm thirty and get all giddy just thinking 'bout all the possibilities lol ?