Ever since its very successful launch back in March, the Nintendo Switch has begun to rival its competitors, the PS4 and Xbox One, with popular console exclusives such as Arms and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Its also been responsible for pushing Nintendo back into the forefront of home console gaming, something the company desperately needed after the past four years it spent languishing in obscurity with the Wii U. The Wii U was only able to sell a meager 14 million units during its four-year lifespan (compare that to the PlayStation 3’s 80 million and the Xbox 360’s 84 million), earning it the title of least-selling Nintendo home console.
The Switch has without a doubt already beat that number, but just how many units will it sell during its lifetime? Its impossible to say for certain, so some analysts decided to do just that, according to Nintendo Life.
Brokerage firm Credit Suisse had previously predicted that the Nintendo Switch would reach 70 million systems sold by 2022, noting that Nintendo’s stock would remain “neutral.” They have now made a significant change to their prediction, now projecting that the Switch will sell 130 million units by that time, noting that Nintendo’s stock shows that it is on “outperform” levels now. This change comes after company analyst Keiichi Yoneshima noticed that the system’s ability to play home console games on the go might make it even more popular than they initially predicted.
Nintendo might have a hard time reaching that number, considering they’re still struggling to make enough supply to meet the fan demand. Nintendo has made a point to push their number of Switch units into the millions in time for the holiday season, though, so they could be well on their way to meet that lofty goal.