TOPSHOT – A Super Mario character is pictured at a Nintendo display ahead of the launch of the company’s Switch 2 console, an electronics store in the city of Nagoya, Aichi prefecture on June 2, 2025.
Richard A. Brooks | Afp | Getty Images
The Switch has become Nintendo‘s best-selling console of all time, nearly nine years after its release.
The device’s importance to the Japanese gaming giant cannot be understated. Ahead of the Switch’s release in March 2017, Nintendo was coming off the back of a flop with the Wii U, with its share price having declined in the years prior.
Since the Switch’s release, Nintendo has more than tripled its valuation with its brand arguably becoming more popular than ever.
“The company was in shambles after the previous console flopped hard, so the Switch marks a major turnaround in Nintendo’s long history,” Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, told CNBC. “It could have not come at a better time.”
The gaming giant said Tuesday that lifetime sales of the Switch now total 155.37 million units, surpassing the record of 154.02 million units that was held by the Nintendo DS, the company’s most popular console. In third place sits the iconic Gameboy with 118.69 million units sold.
Switch timing key
Before the Switch came the ill-fated Wii U which Nintendo hoped would be as successful as the innovative Wii console. The Wii, released in 2006, was known for its handheld motion controllers that allowed users to mimic playing sports such as tennis.
Nintendo sold more than 100 million units of the Wii. But the WiiU, released in 2012, sold just 13.56 million units. Some critics say confusing marketing over the console was to blame. Others say that it was facing intense competition from Sony‘s PlayStation 4.
A Nintendo Wii U touch-screen controller displaying the “Super Mario Bros.” game
Akio Kon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
But the Wii U gave some hint for what Nintendo was going to attempt next. The company had employed a strategy of separate handheld consoles and those that hook up to a TV.
The Switch in 2017 blurred the lines. It was a console that gamers could play on a large screen, but users can also attach controllers to a portable screen and continue gaming on the go.
“What is fundamental is that with the Switch’s form factor — a innovative hybrid console offering both a handheld and TV console experience — Nintendo took the decision to combine its historic dual product strategy into a single product line,” Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games research at Ampere Analysis, told CNBC.
“This had the impact of combining its handheld and TV console audiences, thus laying the foundation for a new level of success from a single product.”
The timing was important. Nintendo’s base of young casual gamers was being tempted by an onslaught from popular mobile games, and the Switch enabled Nintendo to counter that.
“Switch reinvigorated Nintendo’s console business after mobile gaming rose to prominence to eat 3DS and Wii U’s lunch,” James McWhirter, senior analyst at Omdia, said.
What drove Switch’s popularity
The Switch was a new concept when it was launched in 2017, combining a traditional console and handheld.
Nintendo’s success with the Switch stemmed from its ability to leverage its in-house console design and first-party games based on its most popular franchises and characters.
“Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” was the most popular title with more than 70 million units sold. “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” and a slew of games based on Super Mario and friends, Zelda and Pokemon, made the rest of the best-seller list.
The Switch also saw increased interest during the Covid-19 pandemic when people were stuck at home and looking to video games for entertainment. And just when it looked like interest may fade, the Super Mario movie in 2023 helped to breathe fresh life into the console.
Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voice Mario and Luigi, respectively, in Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
Universal
Nintendo has expanded the way it spreads its intellectual property beyond the console to toys, theme parks and movies, which brought the audience back to the Switch.
“The Switch generation was also defined by Nintendo making a broad effort to expand the reach of its globally-recognisable IP via theme parks, movies, museums, and collaborations,” McWhirter said.
Nintendo is hoping to replicate that playbook with the Switch 2 which was launched last year. So far, the console has sold more than 14 million units and Nintendo said the device is its fastest-selling of all time.