20 years of Nintendo console sales

Since its launch in 2017, the Nintendo Switch has become a home video game console for gamers and non-gamers alike.

Few consoles penetrate the mainstream deep enough for parents to refer to a console by its own name, rather than their children’s “Gameboy” or “Wii”. Even fewer come together as a complete package that unites the ideologies and technical ideas of their previous consoles, as the Nintendo Switch has.

This chart visualizes the Nintendo Switch sales success story alongside more than 20 years of Nintendo console sales.

The history of Nintendo console sales

Nintendo has a long and historic gaming history, but since the launch of the original Game Boy in 1989, Nintendo has preferred a dual approach with its game consoles: having a portable handheld console and a home console that connects to a TV in the market.

The Game Boy and SNES (1990) were the first iteration of this strategy, and achieved more than 160 million units sold combined by establishing legendary game franchises with sequences revered as Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: a link to the past.

Game Boy variants such as Game Boy Pocket (1996) and Game Boy Color (1998) have extended the handheld’s useful life long enough to accompany another home console, with the Nintendo 64 coming out in 1996 and selling 32.93 million own units.

These successes proved that the gaming audience would support two separate Nintendo consoles on the market, and Nintendo maintained the strategy for generations to come.

Nintendo console lifetime sales

Console	Release year	Units sold (on September 30, 2020)
NES	1983	61.91 mi
Game Boy	1989	118.69 mi
SNES	nineteen ninety	49.1 mi
Nintendo 64	1996	32.93 mi
Game Boy Advance	2001	81.51 mi
Nintendo GameCube	2001	21.74 mi
Nintendo DS	2004	154.02 mi
Nintendo Wii	2006	101.63 mi
Nintendo 3ds	2011	75.94 mi
Wii U	2012	13.56 mi
Nintendo Switch	2017	68.3 mi

Source: Nintendo

The next generation of Game Boy Advance (2001) and Nintendo GameCube (2001) had slightly lower sales figures, but was competing with Microsoft’s game debut with the original Xbox (2001) and Sony’s incredibly popular Playstation 2 (2000).

While the GameCube sold 21.7 million total units and the original Xbox sold ~ 24 million total units, the Playstation 2 dominated this generation and is still the best-selling video game console of all time, with 155 million units sold.

The sales success of the Wii and Nintendo DS

While Sony and Microsoft pushed for HD rendering and increased graphics fidelity in their next generation of consoles, Nintendo focused on how games were played, rather than raw power.

This brought the Nintendo DS (2004), which added a second touchscreen for developers to build games, and the Nintendo Wii (2006), which pioneered motion controls and accessibility with the simplest Wii remote.

Both the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii were big hits, dominating their generation with more than 255 million combined consoles sold.

At the same time, Sony tried to replicate Nintendo’s strategy with its own handheld consoles, the PSP (2004) and PS Vita (2011), and while they sold 80 million units and ~ 10-15 million units respectively, Sony ended up abandoning the handheld console market.

The drop in sales of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U

Nintendo was clearly the queen of the handheld console market. While cell phones were feared for being a portable console killer, the Nintendo 3DS sold well when it launched in 2011 (75.94 million units) and was the saving grace of Nintendo for its generation.

What did not work well was the successor of Nintendo’s home console to the Wii, the Wii U. The console only reached 13.56 million lifetime sales, and was quickly overshadowed by the Playstation 4 (113.5 million units sold) and Xbox One (~ 51 million units sold) launches in 2013.

Poor Wii U sales have brought one of Nintendo’s worst periods in recent history, with two unprofitable years for the company in 2012 and 2014. While developers previously came together to create games for the Wii motion controls, the Wii’s controller Wii U tablet does not attract the same type of innovative software development.

Nintendo’s net profit since 2000

Year	Net profit (USD)
2000	$ 490 mi
2001	$ 734 mi
2002	$ 896 M
2003	$ 627 mi
2004	$ 324 M
2005	$ 742 mi
2006	$ 827 mi
2007	$ 1,561 M
2008	$ 2,838 M
2009	$ 3,003 M
2010	$ 2,819 million
2011	$ 1,010 M
2012	– $ 498 M
2013	$ 67 M
2014	– $ 194 M
2015	$ 348 M
2016	$ 141 M
2017	$ 910 mi
2018	$ 1,273 million
2019	$ 1,787 M
2020	$ 2,500 M

Source: Nintendo

How the Nintendo Switch unified Nintendo’s strategies

With the poor performance of the Wii U leaving Nintendo in a difficult situation, the next launch of the console was crucial to the company’s success.

The Nintendo Switch arrived just in time in 2017, when Wii U sales dried up, and the new portable, home hybrid console was an instant success. At the end of fiscal 2018, the Switch had already outperformed Wii U sales with 17 million units sold.

While the Nintendo Switch sales success story came largely from how it unified home and handheld games, the console has brought many of Nintendo’s technical strategies and decisions into practice over the generations.

Many of the Wii Remote’s abilities are still present in the Switch’s Joy-Cons, with built-in accelerometers and gyroscopes for motion controls, along with the ability to rotate them sideways for a more classic control setting. The Nintendo DS touchscreen permeated many Nintendo consoles and is still present on the Switch, and looking at the Wii U tablet controller, it now looks like an initial prototype for the Switch’s free-form portability.

Combining Physical and Digital Play

Nintendo’s onslaught on physical toys, which began with Amiibo dolls, is also gradually developing and merging physical and digital play thanks to the Switch.

In 2018, the company launched Nintendo Labo, a custom cardboard construction set that integrates with the Switch and its Joy-Cons for a variety of games and experiences. The 2020 launch of Mario Kart Live: home circuit took it further, with players able to build a Mario Kart circuit in their home to race on physical karts controlled by the Switch.

The company continues to branch out into other spheres with the opening of the Super Nintendo World theme park at Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan, on February 4, 2021. The theme park will also combine the digital and physical world with coin collecting virtual and other prizes tracked on mobile, gamifying the experience for visitors.

Expanding Nintendo’s audience to more than just players

The success of the Nintendo Switch brought more experimentation and new ideas from the company, and the COVID-19 pandemic made it an essential product of 2020. With many families at home due to locks, being able to slide the console out of its dock and shut down the TV to play in portable mode was a game changer.

While Nintendo’s development team can prepare for its next console with a little more financial slack thanks to the Switch’s excellent sales, the company has been working hard to expand its audience. Physical toys for the younger crowd help capture a new generation of Nintendo fans, while older generations of fans will be eager to visit the Super Nintendo World and indulge in nostalgia while introducing Nintendo to their children.

As the excellent Nintendo Switch game library continues to expand, new and old fans will be excited to see which consoles, games and other products will be launched by the legendary game company.