While Switch proved to be a major hit in the heavily disrupted 2020, production and distribution challenges nevertheless meant some sales were left behind. It seems that 2021, with some improvements in supply levels, was another strong selling year for Nintendo; now there are Japanese sales figures to reinforce that data.
In data gathered by Famitsu and shared with GamesIndustry.biz, the Switch was comfortably the best-selling console in Japan in 2021 – it’s the calendar not financial year, so the data is from 28th December 2020 to 19th December 2021. In that period the Switch sold around 5.3 million units at retail in Japan, this compares to 5.1 million in the previous year – the numbers are largely on par due to a difference in dates.
Below is a breakdown of the broader hardware sales, showing Nintendo’s system outselling every other platform combined.
- Nintendo Switch – 5.3 million units
- PlayStation 5 – 942,798 units
- PlayStation 4 – 103,786 units
- Xbox Series X|S – 95,598
- Nintendo 3DS – 28,224
Nintendo’s overall estimate for global sales over the current financial year are lower than 2020/21, but the target is still an impressive 24 million units.
