Nintendo Switch 2 Has Already Outsold These Consoles

Summary

Nintendo Switch 2 has already performed impressively, breaking many sales records.
It has already outsold some major home and handheld consoles from the history of video games.
The Nintendo Switch 2 should continue to be a bestseller, especially when considering some exciting upcoming exclusive games.

Due to the success of the Nintendo Switch early in its life cycle, speculation about the potential successor to the hybrid console had been rife for years. Two months since its launch, the Nintendo Switch 2 has already broken numerous sales records, including the fastest-selling Nintendo console, with 3.5 million units sold in the first four days alone.

The Most Important Nintendo Games Ever

Nintendo has been one of the most influential forces in the video game industry for decades, and these games show just how big their impact can be.

Posts

By Anthony Everett

The original Switch is currently the third best-selling console of all time, behind Sony’s juggernaut PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS, so the company will be hoping that the Switch 2 can maintain its trajectory and possibly even surpass its predecessor. Within its first two months, the Nintendo Switch 2 has already outperformed the total sales of these consoles from days gone by, with roughly six million units sold at the time of writing.

Honorable Mentions: “Classic” Consoles

In 2016, Nintendo released a “Classic Edition” of the NES featuring 30 built-in games from the library of the popular 1980s console. Shifting around 3.5 million units, it was never intended to be a mass-produced item, but more of a collectible, making it somewhat ineligible for this list, but still worth noting.

In the years that followed, Sony and Sega got in on the action with the PlayStation Classic and the Sega Genesis Mini, the former of which was considered something of a failure. Neither could compare to the SNES Classic Edition, which was produced in greater numbers after demand for its predecessor was so high, and it sold over 5 million units.

Oculus GO

An Estimated Two Million VR Headsets Sold

Developer: Facebook Technologies, Qualcomm, Xiaomi
Release Date: 2018-05-01

Meta’s first attempt at a VR headset had a relatively short lifespan, but the Oculus Go did contain a few high-quality third-party games in its library. Marketed as an accessible entry point to virtual reality, it had a few issues on launch, such as a short battery life and only three degrees of freedom in movement, causing some users to experience motion sickness.

Many of the major bigwigs involved in its development have described the Oculus Go as a failure, as it struggled with audience retention and lacked a unique killer app. Discontinued in 2020, it laid a foundation for the company’s future headsets and sold an estimated two million units during its three-year run on the market.

N-Gage

Nokia Handheld With Three Million Sales

Developer: Nokia
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Perhaps predicting the future popularity of mobile gaming, Finnish telecommunications company Nokia launched the N-Gage, a mobile phone with handheld gaming capabilities. It featured some innovative ideas, such as online functionality for some games, plus email support and an MP3 player.

8 Most Underrated Game Consoles

Not every console gets the flowers it deserves. These underappreciated and underrated video game consoles deserve more attention.

Posts 1

By Eman Fatima

The game library consists of 58 full releases, plus some short demos to show off the device’s potential. Exclusive titles like Pathway to Glory received positive reviews, and there were some ambitious entries like a standalone Civilization game. Shipping only three million units, it was regarded as a commercial failure, but many people nowadays view it as ahead of its time, with both devices and physical copies of games fetching high prices from collectors.

WonderSwan

3.5 Million Lifetime Sales

Developer: Bandai
Release Date: 1999-03-04

In an attempt to challenge the dominance of Nintendo and SNK with the Game Boy Color and Neo Geo Pocket Color, respectively, Bandai released the WonderSwan. A more powerful device with a longer battery life, it was marketed as a cheaper alternative to its more dominant contemporaries and performed reasonably well.

The WonderSwan has a remarkable game library, having been initially supported by some major third-party development companies like Namco and SquareSoft. There were also two upgraded models in the WonderSwan Color and SwanCrystal, which added to an overall total of 3.5 million sales, despite only ever being released in Japan.

Neo Geo Pocket

Around Two Million Units Sold

Developer: SNK
Release Date: 1998-10-28

Before its bankruptcy in 2001, SNK released one final handheld console with the Neo Geo Pocket, initially a Japan-exclusive device, until the Neo Geo Pocket Color reached shelves worldwide. Another console that was overshadowed by Nintendo’s mighty Game Boy Color, it featured some acclaimed entries from popular SNK series like Samurai Showdown and The King of Fighters.

A lack of third-party support and limited visibility in North America, despite some expensive advertising campaigns, meant that the Neo Geo Pocket Color always remained in the shadow of Nintendo’s powerhouse handheld. The struggling company did turn a profit, and the console has enjoyed retrospective praise for its strong library and excellent control features.

Sega Pico

Educational Console With Over Three Million Sales

Developer: Sega Toys
Release Date: 1993-06

Powered by the same hardware as the Genesis, the Sega Pico is a console focusing on educational games, also often termed “edutainment.” Targeting children aged between three and seven years old, it performed remarkably well, educating over three million youngsters who owned the console.

Resembling a laptop, it has a stylus that can be used like a mouse or to draw on the pad, and it has hundreds of games in its library, many of which feature licensed characters like Sonic the Hedgehog and various Disney characters. Its successor, over ten years later, the Advanced Pico Beena, also shifted over four million units.

3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Sold Over Two Million Consoles

Developer: The 3DO Company
Release Date: 1993-10-04

Competing with the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was created to be a multimedia product, but quickly pivoted solely to video games. Manufactured by third-party companies like Panasonic and Sanyo, among others, it possessed cutting-edge technology, but was rather expensive at launch.

Tactics Ogre, Vandal Hearts, Final Fantasy Tactics

8 Best 32-bit Tactical RPGs, Ranked

These tactical RPGs left their mark on the 32-bit era of gaming. Here's how the best of them rank up overall today.

Posts 1

By Anthony Everett

A further launch issue was that there was only one game available to play, due to many developers struggling to adapt their games to the hardware, forcing delayed releases. Selling over two million units, many of its games were received well by critics, and it is the home of some of those infamous FMV games like Night Trap and The Daedalus Encounter.

CD-i

Over One Million Units Sold

Developer: Philips & Sony
Release Date: 1990

Co-developed by Philips and Sony, the CD-i is another piece of hardware that was intended to be an affordable multimedia platform, combining the functionality of a PC with a game console. It is largely remembered for the latter, but selling only around one million units caused it to fall into obscurity pretty quickly, despite staying on the market for many years.

Never really succeeding as a PC or a gaming device, it was criticized for poor graphics and controls. Its game library also contains the notoriously bad Hotel Mario and the infamous Zelda-related games with FMV cutscenes that are often cited among the worst video games ever made.

Several Atari Consoles

Around One Million Sales Each, Some Lower

Developers: Atari Corporation, Epyx, General Computer Corporation
Release Dates: Between 1982 and 1993

Despite several attempts, Atari could never quite reach the heights of the 2600 again. The Atari 5200 suffered from a lack of backwards compatibility with its high-selling predecessor, but the 7800 fared no better, despite being the first console to ever offer this function, both only shifting around one million units compared to the impressive 30 million Atari 2600 units sold.

8 Best Consoles of the 1980s

The 1980s were the decade that began the start of home gaming as we know it today. These consoles were instrumental in creating that culture.

Posts

By Antony Morris

The Atari Lynx was another victim of competition with the Game Boy, selling a respectable two million handheld devices. Initially competing with the SNES and Genesis, then the Saturn and PS1, the Atari Jaguar never stood a chance and was such a failure that Atari left the hardware market altogether, focusing only on software as a third-party developer in the decades since.

Sega SG-1000

Over Two Million Units Sold

Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1983-07-15

The first move of the decades-long chess game that was Nintendo versus Sega, the Sega SG-1000 was released on the same day as the Famicom in Japan, better known on western shores as the NES. As one of the top developers of arcade games at the time, and as arcade revenues began to stagnate, Sega opted to join the console market, directly challenging Nintendo.

Struggling to adapt to home console development, the device was easily eclipsed by Nintendo’s system, which boasts some of the best games ever made. While there were some issues with the controller and a lackluster library, as well as disappointing sales, the SG-1000 was still an important first step in the console market for Sega.