The Nintendo Switch was released last Friday, March 3. Retailer GameStop announced that the Switch had a very successful release in its stores. In an interview with Game Rant, Senior director of merchandising Eric Bright said that the launch was the “strongest and most successful gaming console launches” in recent years.
“Stores across the country [on Thursday night] were packed with customers who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the brand new Nintendo Switch,” he said. “This is one of the strongest and most successful gaming console launches for GameStop in the last several years. For those fans who are still looking for the Nintendo Switch, don’t worry–we’re getting more.”
Not only did players who pre-ordered the Nintendo Switch get their copies, GameStop was one of the retailers allowed to sell the system to walk-ins.
The Wii U, the previous console system released by Nintendo, wasn’t the follow up to the Wii that people expected. The Wii sold 100 million units, while the Wii U sold 13 million units. It is not anticipated that the Switch will also fail; Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said one of the reasons the system failed was because of the lack of games for the Wii U.
“Wii U will go down as having fantastic content–the issue was as you look at the reality of exactly when the games were launched, there were large gaps in between,” he said.
That does not appear to be a problem for the Switch. The Switch has five released date titles, including the highly anticipated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which Fils-Amie called “masterpiece.” Despite not being a launch title, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be released at the end of April, bringing the cornerstone game series to the Switch early one in the system’s release.
While Bright said that the Nintendo Switch had a real successful release, GameStop has not released the total amount of systems sold during the release.