The Nintendo Switch was released almost two weeks ago on March 3rd. The console has since then been sold out at major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Toys “R” Us and more. Many have tried to get a hold of the hybrid console by buying it from eBay and other trading websites well over the $299 retail price. It comes at no surprise that Nintendo has now announced that 1.5 Million units have been sold since launch. Reggie – President of Nintendo North America has stated earlier that 2 Million Nintendo Switch consoles would be made available at launch worldwide.

In Japan the console has sold 329,152 in it’s first week, followed by a sharp decline in the second week of only 61,998 consoles sold. This means the Nintendo Wii U performed better in it’s first two weeks than the Nintendo Switch. Multiple factors may have contributed to this – the Wii U had launched in December. The holiday season is always beneficial when launching a new product. The Switch was launched in the beginning of March, and sold 1.5 Million units without the help of the Christmas and gifting season. Furthermore limited stock could also have contributed to the sharp decline in sales within the second week, as many people are still trying to buy a Nintendo Switch without much luck. Nintendo has recently promised to make more consoles available towards the end of March.

Japan Hardware Sales

Switch – 61,998 (329,152)
PlayStation 4 – 28,902 (31,065)
New 3DS LL – 18,360 (18,433)
PlayStation Vita – 8,398 (9,889)
PlayStation 4 Pro – 6,398 (6,742)
2DS – 4,094 (4,147
New 3DS – 1,227 (1,268)
PlayStation 3 – 639 (615)
Wii U – 430 (565)
Xbox One – 117 (147)

Nintendo is hard at work on making sure enough games will follow the few, but excellent launch titles. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the next major game to be released, but still 6 weeks away. Nintendo has pushed the advertising machine on the Splatoon 2 Testfire weekend, possibly to fill the gap in between now and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe release day.

Either way Nintendo will certainly focus on selling their console to make the platform more attractive to more developers. As 3rd party publishers naturally will want to release their games on the hybrid Console if Nintendo manages to sell a lot of them. Let’s not forget that Nintendo still has many aces up it’s sleeves, given that most of the popular IP’s are yet to come to the Switch. Animal Crossing, Smash Bros, Pikmin and more are just a few of them. Mario Odyssey, Mario kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and Skyrim are only a few highlights we will get to see on Nintendos Console this year.

The future of the console is bright, and early sales numbers seem to be overwhelmingly positive.