Nintendo Switch Cumulative Sales Now Top N64 And Gamecube Combined

Nintendo this week released its fiscal year earnings statement and tucked away inside all the data were sales numbers for the Nintendo Switch family of game consoles. Nintendo sold 21.03 million Switch family consoles during its fiscal year spanning April 2019 through March 2020. Switch sales for the fiscal year pushed its lifetime total to 55.77 million units.

The sales numbers do include sales of the Switch Lite, which sold 6.19 million units out of the 55.77 million total since it launched in September 2019. With 21.03 million units sold, hardware sales increased 24% year-on-year. Nintendo did point out in its earnings report that the coronavirus pandemic has led to production and shipping delays for Switch consoles and accessories. However, Nintendo says that the pandemic had limited impact on its business results for the fiscal year.

The coronavirus pandemic will likely impact Nintendo's results for the current fiscal year. Nintendo has struggled to produce and ship enough consoles to meet demand in recent months, and it promised last month to increase production slightly to help meet demand.

With the new sales numbers figured in, the Switch currently sits in the third-place spot for hardware sales for Nintendo right behind the NES, with 61.91 million units sold during its life. The Nintendo Wii is still by far the most popular Nintendo console, with 101.63 million units sold during its lifetime.

On the software front, sales totaled 168.72 million units during the fiscal year, which is a significant 42.3% increase year-on-year. Software sales for the lifetime of the Switch reached 356.24 million units. Interestingly, the Switch has racked up more console sales than the SNES with a lifetime sales total of 49.10 million units, but the SNES has a higher software sales total at 379.06 million units.