Nintendo Switch sales hit 2.74 million since launch

Nintendo expects new console to outsell Wii U in its first year

Hard-nosed computer games company Nintendo has claimed that it has sold 2.74 million Nintendo Switch consoles since the device was released at the beginning of March.

The figures indicate that it will sell more units in its first year than its predecessor, the Wii U, shifted in five years. The company claims that it expects to sell 10 million units in its current financial year, meaning it expects to have sold almost 13 million total by April.

We already knew that the Switch was doing well, and Nintendo confirmed this during its latest earnings report.

Bizarelly, the firm sold more copies The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild than it did Switch consoles, with sales of the game coming in at 2.76 million copies. Including sales of the Wii U version, the total is 3.84 million copies.

The firm expects to sell 35 million games over the next 12 months, and is likely expecting a bumper payday from its upcoming Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Odyssey releases.

While the focus of Nintendo's earnings call was on the newly-released Switch console, the firm continues to see strong sales on the portable front.

Nintendo 3DS hardware sales amounted to 7.27 million units the last financial, up seven percent year-over-year, and Nintendo boasted that its Pokemon Sun and Moon titles have topped 15.44 million sales.

Super Mario Maker for 3DS sold 2.34 million units during the same period, while Kirby: Planet Robobot sold 1.36 million.

Things aren't looking quite so rosy for the Wii U, which sold just 760,000 units during 2016, down 77 per cent year-on-year, and, er, zero units in the past three months. Nintendo sold 14.8 million Wii U games during the period, down 46 per cent compared to last year.

Overall, Nintendo reported revenue of 489 billion yen (around £3.4bn) and an operating profit of 29.4 billion yen (around £205m) for its 2016 financial year. Revenue was down 3 per cent year-on-year, while operating profit was down 11 per cent.

Despite the strong debut for the Nintendo Switch, it will still trail rivals in terms of market share by a long way, with Sony's Playstation 4 already having sold more than 56 million units and the Xbox One on 29 million.

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