Nintendo Switch Approaches 15 Million Sales, Already Topping Wii U Lifetime

The Nintendo Switch is selling really, really well. Few have doubted this since the console’s debut in early 2017, but the magnitude of its success only becomes clear every once in a while, as Nintendo releases figures at various milestones. Today, as part of their mid-year financial briefing, we got a look at just how well the Switch is doing, with the system just shy of 15 million units sold around the world, which is pretty shocking given that its predecessor, the Wii U only ever hit around 14 million across its entire lifetime.

The Wii U, of course, was a bit of a failure though, so this was inevitable once the Switch started selling out from every store. Just how fast it has happened though is pretty surprising, taking less than a year to do what the Wii U did in five years.

And hardware isn’t the only place where the Nintendo Switch is doing well, its software library is selling well across the board. Super Mario Odyssey has sold 9.07 million units, marking it as a massive hit. Just behind it is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with 7.33 million, which puts it close to the 8.4 million of the Wii U original. And then there’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which has sold an astonishing 6.7 million units. Expect all of these to go up as the Switch reaches more houses as well.