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Nintendo Switch sales surpass 50 million, nearly quadrupling those of the Wii U

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Nintendo Switch My Way - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Despite being nearly three years old, the Nintendo Switch continues its dominance in the video game realm. During its latest financial report, Nintendo revealed it has sold more than 50 million consoles, putting it ahead of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and almost quadrupling the lifetime sales of the Wii U.

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Nintendo’s total Switch hardware sales now stand at approximately 52 million units, about 3 million more than the SNES.

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The Wii U, which was available for nearly five years before the Switch launched, only managed to sell about 13.5 million units and a little over 100 million games. More than 310 million Switch games have been sold since the hybrid console was released in March 2017.

Nintendo attributed the strong numbers to the debut of the Nintendo Switch Lite and releases including Pokémon Sword and Shield, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Super Mario Maker 2. The latter two have sold more than 5 million copies each, while the dual Pokémon titles eclipsed 16 million combined. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains the best-selling Switch game of all-time, which can be partially attributed to its inclusion in console bundles during holiday periods.

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Switch sales will likely spike in the first quarter of 2020 when Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes out on March 20. It’s the first full game in the series since New Leaf from 2012, and the first on a home console since the Wii’s City Folk over a decade ago. The rest of 2020 is less certain as Nintendo has not confirmed release dates for upcoming games like Bayonetta 3 or its The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel. The Switch will also have to compete with Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, which both launch later this year and are set to feature massive performance improvements.

Despite going all-in on Switch development and moving on from the 3DS, Nintendo has another major revenue source: Mobile games. Nintendo has generated more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue through its mobile games, according to Sensor Tower, with the majority coming from Fire Emblem Heroes. This game uses a free-to-play model, as does the newer Mario Kart Tour, which has made more than $86 million since its launch in late 2019.

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Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Pick up these 7 great Switch games before Nintendo’s big eShop sale ends
Lego rey fighting kylo.

Steam isn't the only platform holding a big summer sale. Nintendo Switch users can currently get a whole bunch of games up to 50% off on the eShop from now through July 6 in a "Big Ol' Super Sale." While gaming sales are a dime a dozen, a Nintendo sale is especially significant. The company is usually stingy when it comes to discounting its exclusives, so events like this are rare.

The list of discounted games isn't one to ignore. While it doesn't include any recent releases, like Mario Strikers: Battle League, it's a great way to get some of 2021's best console exclusives at half price. Here are the games you should grab before the sale ends. Get them this week and you can take them on your Fourth of July vacation.
Monster Hunter Rise | $31

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Nintendo Switch lifetime sales beat PlayStation 4
Person holding Nintendo Switch, looking at the home screen.

The Nintendo Switch's versatility has made it the bestselling console for the last five years. It has sold so well, in fact, that it has surpassed the lifetime sales of the PS4, according to The NPD Group.

Mat Piscatella, executive director and gaming industry advisor for The NPD Group, tweeted the sales figures for the Switch on Friday. He points out that the Switch is now the fourth highest unit selling console in U.S, and the sixth highest selling console overall, coming behind just three other bestselling consoles of all time, the PS2, Xbox 360, and Wii, Nintendo's legacy console. He also said that the Switch sold more units than any other console last month and outpaced Xbox Series X/S year-to-date.

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I paid $2 a day to play an abandoned Wii Sports sequel
wii sports club retrospective boxing

It’s hard to find someone who was alive during the Wii’s heyday that hasn’t at least tried Wii Sports. It’s one of the bestselling games of all time, and its simple but accurate motion controls made everyone from young kids to seniors feel like they were an athlete for a few minutes. Those are big shoes to fill for any game trying to follow it up, and Nintendo Switch Sports is poised to reinvigorate the formula on April 29 with its reworked visuals and new sports offering.
But did you know that another Wii Sports game came out between those two titles? In the early days of the Wii U, Nintendo released Wii Sports Club, a remake of the classic casual sports title for the failed Wii U console. It enhanced the controls and visuals and tried to give the Wii Sports series a lively community.
Nintendo Switch Sports rekindled my memory of Wii Sports Club's existence, and following the announcement of the Wii U eShop's impending closure, I knew I wanted to check it out and see why this follow-up fell into obscurity. This meant paying $2 a day to access a remake of Wii Sports with broken features that almost no one was playing. Was it worth it? No, but it's a very fitting Wii U game as it's also a product completely overshadowed and made redundant by its predecessor. 
Wii U - Wii Sports Club All Sports Trailer
Pay to play
I was able to find Wii Sports Club on the Wii U eShop and download it for free. While free-to-play Wii Sports seems like a fantastic idea, it doesn’t last long. The first time I booted up the game, I had a 24-hour free trial to try any of the five sports -- tennis, bowling, golf, baseball, and boxing -- that I wanted. I got a bit of tennis and bowling in on my first day with the game, but didn't see everything it had to offer.
After that first day, it was time to pay up. I was given two payment options in-game that would then bring me the Nintendo eShop. I could purchase the individual sports for $10 each, which would give me access to them and their associated minigames forever. My other option was to pay $2 a day to access everything.
Although having to buy a $2 day pass several days in a row for an abandoned Wii U game wasn't really a wise financial investment, I was curious enough to succumb to this microtransaction and keep playing. Doing that and only spending around $14 makes a lot more sense than paying $50 for remakes of games I got for free with my Wii over 15 years ago. This monetization scheme doesn't seem like it was that good of a deal in 2014, and it definitely isn't one now when there are tons of cheaper or free fitness apps that people can get much more out of. But what exactly did I get for that money?
Reinventing sports
Since June 2014, Wii Sports Club has featured the same five sports as the original Wii pack-in: Tennis, bowling, golf, baseball, and boxing. The individual sports play as you remember them in the original Wii Sports for the most part. Swinging the Wii Remote causes your character to make the same motion with a tennis racket, golf club, bat, ball, or fist. Some training mode minigames do shake the formula for each sport up a bit, but none kept my attention for long.
The most significant gameplay differences between the original Wii Sports and Wii Sports Club are Wii MotionPlus support and the Wii U GamePad. Wii MotionPlus is obviously more responsive than the basic Wii Remotes, so the movement of whatever you’re holding in-game does feel more accurate in Wii Sports Club. That said, the game is still easy and accessible enough that I’d call it a must-try for players who love Wii Sports.
Then there’s the Wii U GamePad, which comes up in golf and baseball. In golf, you place the Wii U GamePad on the ground, and it displays the ball you have to hit. It’s a fun visual touch but very gimmicky. Meanwhile, the GamePad’s gyroscope is used to aim pitches and catch balls in baseball. Although baseball makes much better use of the GamePad, constantly switching between it and the Wii remote can get tiring. Outside of those features, the Wii U GamePad is fairly useless in Wii Sports Club, so it isn’t nearly as good of a tech demo for its system as the original Wii Sports was.

Overall, these five sports are only slightly enhanced versions of what you remember from the original Wii Sports. It’s a remake that’s not wholly necessary, considering one can play the original game on Wii U via backward compatibility. That’s not a good thing when there are over six times more copies of Wii Sports out there than there are Wii U systems. It's a bite-sized version of the conundrum that the Wii U also found itself in. 
Gone clubbing
Wii Sports Club is so named because Nintendo focuses on in-game clubs. Each day, players can choose to join a club -- many of which are based on states, regions, or countries. These clubs are then ranked individually for each sport, depending on their players’ performance.
I joined the Illinois club, but this didn't have a noticeable impact on my experience because Wii Sports Club's social functionality doesn't really work anymore. While it still tracks clubs' performances online, there's no good way to communicate.
Playing Wii Sports Club is a lonely experience in 2022.

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