Switch sales break 150 million, Nintendo signals peak saturation

The Nintendo Switch console has sold-in more than 150 million units worldwide, with holiday quarterly shipments reaching their lowest point of the gen.

Switch sales break 150 million, Nintendo signals peak saturation
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Senior Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Nintendo announced that the Switch family has shipped over 150 million units worldwide as of December 2024. However, sales are declining, with a 30% year-over-year drop during the 2024 holiday period.

The Switch family of consoles has shipped over 150 million units worldwide as of December 2024, Nintendo has announced.

Switch sales break 150 million, Nintendo signals peak saturation 11

Nintendo's latest Q3'FY25 results gives us a refresher on how well the company did during the critical Holiday 2024 period. Switch sales finally broke 150 million, putting the system in closer proximity to the age-old best-selling titans the Nintendo DS (154.02 million) and the PlayStation 2 (160 million), but if trends are any indicator, the system may not break the DS' record.

Switch shipments are starting to peter out as Nintendo gears up for its next-gen Switch 2 console. The company shipped just 4.82 million Switch consoles in the holiday period, a substantial reduction of 30% year-over-year, or more than 2 million units. This is the lowest-ever holiday period for Switch sales, predictably downwardly weighing the holiday Q3'25 results, which were likewise down to their lowest point in the Switch generation.

Switch sales break 150 million, Nintendo signals peak saturation 8

"Nintendo Switch unit sales declined year-on-year, but even in the eighth year since its launch in March 2017, Nintendo Switch continues to attract the interest of consumers, and sales in some weeks during the holiday season exceeded same-week sales of the previous year," company CEO Shuntaro Furukawa said in the report.

Switch sales break 150 million, Nintendo signals peak saturation 5

Nintendo now expects to sell a total of 11 million Switch consoles throughout FY25, and it's almost there with 9.54 million consoles shipped in the first 3 quarters. That means Nintendo only expects to ship 1.46 million Switch consoles in Q4'25, which runs from January - March 2025.

This substantially low forecast could signal that Nintendo believes the Switch has reached peak installed base saturation levels.

As for its successor, there is speculation that the Nintendo Switch 2 could launch during Nintendo's Q2 period, which runs from September through October 2025. Nintendo has yet to confirm a release window for the Switch 2 and has only confirmed that it will launch sometime in 2025.

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Senior Gaming Editor

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Derek joined the TweakTown team in 2015 and has since reviewed and played 1000s of hours of new games. Derek is absorbed with the intersection of technology and gaming, and is always looking forward to new advancements. With over six years in games journalism under his belt, Derek aims to further engage the gaming sector while taking a peek under the tech that powers it. He hopes to one day explore the stars in No Man's Sky with the magic of VR.

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