2023-08-09 16:43:02
August 09, 2023 Today at 6:41 PM
Nintendo has released excellent sales figures for its Switch for this second quarter. Its flagship console may well surpass the PlayStation 2 record.
What if the Switch console was on its way to becoming the console best-selling of all time? With just under 130 million copies sold, the famous Nintendo console is currently only third in the ranking, still quite far from the 155 million of the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS and its 154 million in sales.
Long considered unattainable, Sony’s record is now to be worn by joystick. At least that’s what the latest results published by Nintendo, last week, seem to indicate. The Japanese group has notably announced that it has sold nearly 4 million copies of its famous console in the last three months. Ambition? Reach 15 million by the end of the year.
130
million sales
In seven years, Nintendo has sold nearly 130 million Switches. The record is held by the PS2 and its 155 million sales.
The first place in the ranking would then not be “more” than 10 million sales. Reachable. “It’s always hard to say, but it wouldn’t be so surprising,” explains Jean Gréban, coordinator at the Walloon video game association Walga. “In 20 years, since the PS2 record, the market has at least doubled in size”, slips the specialist.
Launched in 2017, the Switch has had its ups and downs. The last few months are however on a good trend. The current favorable situation has several explanations. The success in dark rooms of the film “Super Mario Bros” has brought the Nintendo universe back to the fore. In recent months, the release of the new Zelda, one of the most popular licenses, also attracts players to the console.
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Fans of the Kingdom of Hyrule are obviously not the only ones opting for a Nintendo Switch. “We are not going to fall into the cliché, but Nintendo also has a catalog that is rather open to the general public, where Sony focuses more on hard gamers”, judges Jean Gréban, who observes a diversification of the public. “We must not forget that today 46% of players are women.”
“Nintendo has a catalog rather open to the general public where Sony focuses more on hard gamers.”
Jean Greban
Walga Coordinator
Nintendo can also bet on the hybrid format of its Switch. It occupies a well-thought-out strategic position, between the home console and the mobile. A compromise that also makes it possible to reach a very large audience. “Mobile is today the most widespread way of playing in the world”, recalls the Walga specialist.
king of innovation
The search for an original format for its consoles has become, over the years, the trademark of the Japanese group. “Nintendo is a company that invests heavily in innovation. 10% of its revenue is dedicated to R&D. Conversely, since its first PlayStation, Sony has done just the same thing, investing heavily in marketing Nintendo’s bet is risky, but in this case, it was largely a winner,” explains the man who was a Nintendo importer for several years in Belgium.
“The market is still growing very strongly. South America and Africa have enormous potential which manufacturers are only beginning to exploit.”
Jean Greban
Walga Coordinator
If the record is about to be broken, it will not remain indefinitely in Nintendo’s hands. “We see that manufacturers now tend to increase the life of machines. The market is also still growing strongly. South America and Africa have enormous potential which manufacturers are only beginning to exploit,” explains Jean Gréban.
For Nintendo, the next challenge will be to reinvent itself. “They have never bet on hyper realistic games. The Zelda which has just been released is already very beautiful, they can hardly do better”. The next Switch, which could well be released by the end of 2024, will therefore have to rely on other advantages. “An evolution that seems logical to me would be to bet on VR“, says the specialist.
PlayStation less fit than expected
If the Switch still sells as well, the PlayStation 5 isn’t doing badly either. This Wednesday, the group published its results for the past quarter. Sony has announced that it has sold 3.3 million machines, well above the 2.3 million sold during the same period in 2022. The evolution is positive, but not completely enough to delight the CFO of PlayStation who confirmed that sales were “a little worse than expected”.
The group nevertheless still hopes to sell 25 million over the year against 19.2 last year. A number that seems difficult to hold even if the last quarter of the year is always the most decisive for console sellers. Last year, the last three months of the year had allowed Sony to sell more than 7 million copies.
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