The original Switch is officially Nintendo’s best-selling console of all time after surpassing the DS handheld in lifetime sales. In its latest earnings release, Nintendo reports that the Nintendo Switch has, as of December 31, 2025, sold 155.37 million units since its launch in 2017, compared to 154.02 million units for the 2004 Nintendo DS.
I am not surprised. I was always more a fan of portable consoles and the switch combining portable play with normal console play on TV is really a dream come true. The variety of games is a huge plus too.
A fact that is often missed is also the game state. Be it saved games or a game in standby, I can just take it with me. Of course cloud save tries to do this but does not succeed fully and (worse) locks it behind a subscription.
So whether I move to another room or go on vacation, the switch is an easy decision to take with me, making it a win there.
Yep. Steam Deck does a great job with this, too.
Direct link to Nintendo’s financial data: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
Looking at the best selling consoles, ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles ) there are some other interesting things too. Switch is already # 2 and Nintendo Switch 2 is too new so not much to see there, but when looking at PlayStations, PS5 (84.2 M units sold) is currently the least sold Sony home console, but should take over PS3 (87.4 M) soon enough. I think it will cross PS1 (102.49 M) too, but whether it can cross PS4 (117.2 M) sales remain to be seen.
If the rumours about delaying PS6 to 2029 are true, then it has good chance to take over PS4, but with the way the prices and economic condition are going, who can say what will happen.
I’m not surprised, but man am I not a fan of the switch. It’s not great as a portable (too big, terrible battery life), and too weak for a stand alone console. So you end up with a ton of compromises and a higher price. My Switch is my least used console by far.
Different use cases for different people I guess, and there is nothing wrong with that. As a parent of a little kid, Switch was a godsend when it released, and while it was unarguably weak when compared to other consoles, it worked really well for indies and many non-AAA third party games.
It is my most used console so far, let’s see if Switch 2 will surpass that or not.
Glad to hear that it worked out for you. If not for a few specific non-first party exclusives (that I really, really, wish were not), my Switch would just be a rarely used Mario Kart Machine. I had a feeling this would happen when i got the Switch, since it was exactly how it played out with the Wii (except it became a rarely used Wii Sports Machine). No chance I’ll ever buy a Switch 2 or probably any other Nintendo console at this rare. It’s been all down hill for Nintendo since the SNES :)
Yeah, doesn’t sound like Nintendo is for you anymore. If you are still interested, you can try looking at existing library in a few years and see if it something catches your eye, otherwise just ignore the console.
Have fun wherever your play!
Yeah, they definitely aren’t for me anymore. I will definitely miss the Xenoblade games, but that’s about it. The last first party series that kept my interest were the Zelda games, but I really didn’t care for the last two. They just weren’t what I wanted in a Zelda game, they felt like Zelda themed open world sandbox games that were just OK. I probably would have liked them more if they hadn’t carried the name and baggage of my favorite Nintendo series.
That is a problem with long running series, for instance my biggest complain with Pokémon is that they just keep making the same game without trying new things, so the balance of doing something new but also keeping with the core of the series can be a tough challenge.
As for the Zelda games, they will probably make something new / different now, but I don’t think they will go back to the old formula. We will just have to wait and see.
The Zelda series has always been tried new things so I don’t think I’d put it in the same category as Pokemon, but BOTW and its sequel sold quite well, so I don’t think they will go the direction I’d have preferred. As a weird coincidence, yesterday my wife asked if I’d set up the NES Classic and she and the kids played SMB, Dr Mario, and other classics. Nintendo really was in a class of its own back then.
It might stay that way for a while.
Switch is a fusion of their handheld and home console lines and had an effective product run of over a decade going through multiple periods of greatly increased sales. Its not that surprising.
Tbh im still surprised the DS sold so well
Never seen anyone in the wild
And l only know 1 guy who had one
Interesting, around me everybody had one
Definitely felt like everyone had one. Nintendogs, Cooking Mama, just something basic PictoChat were all super popular. I felt like Diamond and Pearl were really hyped up. The power of casual games and local multiplayer made the DS so much more popular than hardcore home console and PC gamers ever recognized. I imagine the Switch being the only console to be as much of a menace in the classroom for teachers as the DS was
Between the DS/DS Lite/DSi/DSi XL, every family around me had at least one. Some of those parents, now grandparents, are still playing Clubhouse Games and Picross 3D to this day.
The DS, like the Wii, had a lot of games that drew in people who were not “core gamers”, such as Brain Age and Nintendogs.
The fragile hinge between the two screens also reduced the number of cheap used systems on the market.
Switch is a good concept executed poorly. The controllers are total junk, constantly disconnecting and just too small and awkward.
