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It’s been two good years for the Nintendo Switch. According to Nintendo, the gaming tablet has been the best-selling console in the United States for 23 consecutive months. And according to NPD Group data, it just had its best October, moving 735,926 units of the Switch and Switch Lite to the United States. The company says this is a 136% increase from last year. To date, the Switch has sold 22.5 million units in the United States and last week Nintendo revealed that over 68 million units have been sold worldwide. “We’re thrilled with our momentum,” said Nick Chavez, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America.
Chavez attributes the company’s great October to two main factors. One is a better supply of inventory; this year in particular, it has often been difficult to find a Switch on store shelves. This has only been exacerbated by increased demand due to a combination of the pandemic and the success of Animal Crossing: New horizons. “Certainly the covid pandemic has created more opportunities to stay at home, more play time at home,” he says. The edge. “We have seen unprecedented demand for Nintendo Switch throughout the year.”
The second reason is the Animal crossingThemed Switch that was introduced earlier this year. “It returned to the market around October 4, and a lot of people were excited to get their hands on it ASAP,” Chavez says. “And we will continue to have enough of it throughout this holiday and into 2021.”
Like last year, Nintendo says a lot of its growth comes from continued adoption by women and families. “This year, a lot of our growth has been driven by an influx of women playing Nintendo Switch, more and more children and teens playing Nintendo Switch, and parents,” Chavez says. When it comes to the hardware people buy, he adds that “we still see a strong preference for the flagship system at $ 299”.
The timing of the announcement is particularly interesting as this week also saw the launch of the PlayStation 5 and two new Xbox consoles from Microsoft. As the ever-expanding holiday season approaches, there will naturally be increased competition, which could end Nintendo’s 23-month streak. Nintendo has a few big releases to support its vacation – including Mario Kart Live: Home circuit and the next one Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity – but the company also believes it is not necessarily in direct competition with Sony and Microsoft.
“It’s always exciting when new consoles enter the video game market. It’s great to see the PS5 and the Xbox Series S and X come to market, ”says Chavez. “But we think the Nintendo Switch is in a fundamentally different position and really has a unique proposition for buyers and gamers.”
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