New numbers from data firm Famitsu, reported in English on gameindustry.biz, reveal that the Nintendo Switch has officially surpassed Sony’s PlayStation 4 in sales in Japan.
Famitsu reports that 8.13 million Nintendo Switch consoles have been sold in Japan, beating the PS4’s lifetime 8.07 million units sold. This difference is significant because of the amount of time each console has been on the market; while the PS4 has been on sale for five years, the Nintendo Switch has only been sold for two.
Japan’s market has favored portable systems in the past, making this achievement unsurprising for the Switch, a hybrid system that functions both as a home console and a portable device. Handheld systems have the advantage of being purchased for individuals rather than being shared among an entire family or household. Nintendo seems keen to this, as they’ve previously discussed their belief that every individual person should own Switch.
Looking at sales on a global scale, however, the PS4 easily beats out the Switch, as Sony has sold 96.8 million PS4 units worldwide compared to Nintendo’s 34.74 million Switch units sold globally. Even so, the Switch has already beaten past Nintendo hardware sales, including the GameCube and Nintendo 64.
However, the Switch’s sales in its first two years are lower than those of the Nintendo DS and 3DS, as a recent financial presentation from Nintendo showed the 3DS inching toward 10 million sales after being on the market for two years, while the DS came close to 16 million sales after its first two years. Focusing solely on the United States, the Switch has surpassed the DS and 3DS sales in their respective first two years of life, but has yet to beat the Wii. In Europe, the Switch has only surpassed the 3DS.
Nintendo has more in store for the Switch, as new models are rumored to be rolling out sometime in the future, though Nintendo has stated they will not be announcing any new consoles at E3 in June. Nintendo is currently working to release the Switch in China with Chinese company Tencent, which could greatly increase their sales numbers.