New figures from Circana show that the sales of the Switch have surpassed those of the Wii in the US, and it’s catching up to the PS2.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the Nintendo Switch has hit a historic milestone – it has now sold more than the Wii in the United States.
Driven by the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, US Switch sales shot up in 2023, and surpassed the US lifetime sales of the Wii in July. The data comes from Circana, formerly known as NPD, which also predicts that the US video game market will grow by 3 percent in 2023, reaching $58.3 billion.
Circana says that in the US, sales of the Switch now trail those of the Xbox 360 by under one million, and those of the PlayStation 2 by less than five million.
Globally, the Switch has sold 129.53 million, according to Nintendo, and software sales are north of one billion. By comparison, the Wii sold 101.63 million globally, while the Wii U only managed 13.56 million.
The best-selling home console of all time is currently the PlayStation 2, which has sold more than 155 million units worldwide. Will the Switch catch up? The console has at least a few months to do so, if recent rumours are correct; there have been persistent reports that a successor to the Switch will emerge at some point in the middle of 2024. If that happens, there’s likely to be overlap between the new console and old, as the Switch is gradually phased out in favour of its replacement.
Whatever happens, the Switch has already enjoyed a long and startlingly successful life. That the system can still enjoy such a sharp uptick in sales, despite being six long years into its life cycle, is quite remarkable.
Read more: Nintendo Switch successor could be out in mid-2024, report suggests
