Nintendo reports record sales for the Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch is fast approaching the coveted spot of second best-selling home console for the firm, with recent sales soaring. 

Nintendo announced on Friday that the console has achieved combined sales of 55.77 million units worldwide. That includes the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite units with the consoles selling 21.03 million units alone last year. That reflects a 24 percent increase in sales from the previous year. This is almost certainly down to the launch of the Switch Lite as well as the recent demand for consoles thanks to the global pandemic.

Of course, if you buy a console, you want to play a game on it and software sales have seen even better success. Those sales have soared by 42.3 percent compared to the previous year with 168.72 million units sold this year. That brings lifetime software sales for the Nintendo Switch up to 356.24 million units. 

While you'd think Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the biggest game for the console, it was actually Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield which sold the most. They achieved 17.37 million units sold while Animal Crossing: New Horizon achieved 11.77 million units. Granted, the village simulator came out a lot more recently than Pokémon which may explain those figures. Over 27 Nintendo Switch titles sold over one million units during the most recent financial year.

Such figures place the Nintendo Switch well ahead of most of the company's other consoles. Right now, it's fast approaching beating the NES to the number two spot with only 6 million dividing the two. The Nintendo Wii remains the best selling console for the Japanese firm with the Nintendo Switch needing to reach a whopping 101.6 million units to beat it.

All this news came as part of Nintendo's latest set of financials with the games giant seeing profits up 33 percent year-on-year. 

That's despite the fact that Nintendo needed to mention that production and shipments of the Nintendo Switch, accessories, and Ring Fit Adventure, had all faced various delays due to the pandemic. Nintendo reckons these delays "only had limited impact on business results for this fiscal year".

With the console going from strength to strength, we reckon it won't be long till it beats the NES in terms of lifetime sales. Will it beat the Nintendo Wii? We're not so sure.