Nintendo revealed in its most recent earnings report to investors that 8.2 million Switch game consoles were sold in the final three months of 2022, bringing the total number of sold Switch consoles to 122.55 million. This increase propels the Switch, which debuted in March 2017, to the position of the third-most popular gaming console in history.
With 154 million units sold, the Nintendo DS handheld is in second place, followed by Sony’s PlayStation 2 home console, which is in first place by a hair at 155 million. It was able to surpass the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, which sold 118.69 million each, and Sony’s PlayStation 4 (which sold just over 117 million), for the top spot thanks to recent sales.
The Switch comes in at a distant third. To be honest, it might not last long enough to reach the first or second place milestones.
Although PlayStation 4 production has slowed to a trickle, and it has reportedly only been manufactured recently because Sony was having such a hard time meeting demand for the PlayStation 5, the Switch is the only console in the top five that is still being manufactured. However, the PlayStation 4 clearly has very little, if any, runway left at this point because supply of the PlayStation 5 appears to finally be meeting or exceeding demand in many regions.
On the other hand, the Switch is still Nintendo’s most recent product, and there hasn’t been a single announcement or release of a rival, so it probably has a long time to go. However, it is unclear whether there will be enough for it to surpass the DS or PlayStation 4. Recently, sales of the Switch have slowed significantly; if this pattern continues, it may encourage Nintendo to develop a successor.
We wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the Switch is also nearing the end of its life cycle in the not too distant future, given that it is just six years old and has significantly inferior technology to the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. It could happen today or in two years, but it will definitely happen sooner rather than later.
A brand-new Nintendo Direct livestream is scheduled for today at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Although Nintendo tweeted that the stream will be “mostly focused on #NintendoSwitch games launching in the first half of 2023,” the company claims that the stream will last about 40 minutes. However, new hardware is unlikely.
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