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Discussion Nintendo Switch becomes first Nintendo system to hit 1 billion games sold, third system ever overall (after PS2 and PS4)

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In all the general discussion (and the excitement about a certain upcoming release) this milestone went almost totally unnoticed. The Nintendo Switch became the first Nintendo system ever to cross the 1 billion units of software sold mark, and the third system ever overall.

The current top five:
  1. PlayStation 4: 1.56 billion
  2. PlayStation 2: 1.52 billion
  3. Nintendo Switch: 1.04 billion
  4. PlayStation: 962 million
  5. Nintendo DS: 949 million
 
d4b125b1-773b-4214-8664-f4c499237500_text.gif

I wonder what the final tally will be once the finally stop production. Hopefully this encourages 3rd parties more to invest in the system-whether this means those who were more reluctant, investing in bigger titles, or even just releasing more of their catalogue.
 
I’m old enough that I remember when Nintendo announced they had sold their billionth game period. Now they’re selling a billion in six years on a single platform.

An attach rate of 8 pieces of software for every Switch sold is pretty good, too.
 
Phantom Thief said:
Yup.

  1. GameCube: 9.5 (wtf)
  2. Wii: 9.03
  3. Switch: 8.22
  4. NES: 8.06
  5. SNES: 7.74
  6. Wii U: 7.42
  7. N64: 6.81
  8. Nintendo DS: 6.16
  9. Nintendo 3DS: 5.14
  10. GameBoy Advance: 4.59
So it's already ahead of pretty much everything else lol
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It will be hard to replicate the GC in attach rate. It was basically the Nintendo hardcore device with lots of software that catered directly to them. Lots of things since then have changed.
 
Tentacle-tropes said:
It will be hard to replicate the GC in attach rate. It was basically the Nintendo hardcore device with lots of software that catered directly to them. Lots of things since then have changed.
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I think yeah, the Nintendo hardware install base will be too diluted now that all customers are funnelled on to one device specifically.
 
I assume they'd rather have a Switch attach rate with 125 consoles sold then a GCN attach rate with 25 million sold. The Wii is another discussion but even still probably better as is
 
Phantom Thief said:
Yup.

  1. GameCube: 9.5 (wtf)
  2. Wii: 9.03
  3. Switch: 8.22
  4. NES: 8.06
  5. SNES: 7.74
  6. Wii U: 7.42
  7. N64: 6.81
  8. Nintendo DS: 6.16
  9. Nintendo 3DS: 5.14
  10. GameBoy Advance: 4.59
So it's already ahead of pretty much everything else lol
Click to expand...
…and yet you still here people argue that people only bought the Wii for 1-2 casual games and then let it gather dust. Lol
 
Jbone916 said:
…and yet you still here people argue that people only bought the Wii for 1-2 casual games and then let it gather dust. Lol
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I do think the audience for it leaned more causual based on how certain series did, but by "causual"I mean like iffy on Zelda and Metroid, not only plays games featuring miis

That and the big dropoff in attention
 
Phantom Thief said:
I think yeah, the Nintendo hardware install base will be too diluted now that all customers are funnelled on to one device specifically.
Click to expand...
The gaming landscape has also changed dramatically compared to back then as well.
  • Less titles overall & more of a focus on live service games for bigger companies.
  • Lots of dilution on the smaller end due to indies
  • The mid end losing lots of talent during the beginning of HD dev
The thing I wanna see is if they can keep ~8 attach ratio going into [redacted] & if [redacted] can singularly match the Switch.
 
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Phantom Thief said:
The Nintendo Switch became the first Nintendo system ever to cross the 1 billion units of software sold mark, and the third system ever overall
Click to expand...
And as I’ve mentioned previously, Nintendo managed to do this without the help of various third party juggernauts, and with a lot of their first party million sellers selling at full price.

Gay Bowser said:
An attach rate of 8 pieces of software for every Switch sold is pretty good, too
Click to expand...
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this attach rate doesn’t even include digital-only software.
 
Phantom Thief said:
Yup.

  1. GameCube: 9.5 (wtf)
  2. Wii: 9.03
  3. Switch: 8.22
  4. NES: 8.06
  5. SNES: 7.74
  6. Wii U: 7.42
  7. N64: 6.81
  8. Nintendo DS: 6.16
  9. Nintendo 3DS: 5.14
  10. GameBoy Advance: 4.59
So it's already ahead of pretty much everything else lol
Click to expand...
The GameCube’s high attach rate isn’t hard to understand when you realize that it failed because it reached only the Nintendo core fans, and almost nobody else.
 
Do you think the Nintendo switch will have sold more games than any other console by the end of its life cycle? I don’t know if that’s a realistic prospect or not.
 
Phantom Thief said:
The current top five:
  1. PlayStation 4: 1.56 billion
Click to expand...
Is this PS4 as of two years ago before they started announcing PS4+PS5 together, or what?
Linkstrikesback said:
I certainly remember people saying that the ps4 number does include digital only software, but I can't immediately find a source for that.

I think it's the difference between Nintendo never reporting digital numbers while other companies, Sony included, do.
Click to expand...
Yeah, from Sony's Business Data & Sales page: "*Including download-only titles, PS VR titles as well as software bundled with PS4 and software for PS VR (excluding certain regions) by FY2018 Q4. Including download-only titles, PS VR titles as well as software bundled with PS4 and software for PS VR from FY2018 full year."
 
JoshuaJSlone said:
Is this PS4 as of two years ago before they started announcing PS4+PS5 together, or what?

Yeah, from Sony's Business Data & Sales page: "*Including download-only titles, PS VR titles as well as software bundled with PS4 and software for PS VR (excluding certain regions) by FY2018 Q4. Including download-only titles, PS VR titles as well as software bundled with PS4 and software for PS VR from FY2018 full year."
Click to expand...
It was in 2019
 
boodream said:
Do you think the Nintendo switch will have sold more games than any other console by the end of its life cycle? I don’t know if that’s a realistic prospect or not.
Click to expand...
Maybe? I've previously said I think Switch software will end closer to 2 billion than 1 billion, which based on the ranking in the first post may be nearly the same thing. At least, Sony's choice to stop bragging about PS4 software sales on their own may keep us from knowing for sure if PS4 remains in the lead.

In my search for Patterns, I've previously looked at other recent Nintendo systems and how software trailed off after it hit a peak. Like, DS software peaked when it was at 533m, but it eventually reached 949m so it gained 78% more on the way down. For 3DS, it was +138%. For Wii, +161%. For Wii U, just +16%. Not very consistent. But Switch hit its software peak just last year, when it was hitting 918m total. So it needs +63% to join the 1.5 billion club, less than all of those except for the assassinated Wii U.

Separately: Since backwards compatibility should suck less than it did for DS on 3DS or Wii on Wii U, I think Switch software will drop off more slowly than those systems' software did.
 
So 1 billion units of software on Switch doesn't include digital only?
That makes a huge difference.
 
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If Switch doesn’t include digital only stuff, then in time it’ll easily top that list, with all software included. I’d love to know the real number.
 
efyu_lemonardo said:
How many games were released physically for Switch?
Click to expand...
Along with the shipment data the lifetime value for "New titles" is 1526 Japan, 1868 Americas, 1819 Europe. Looking at Deku Deals right now I see they list 1968 games as physical, which makes enough sense given a few extra weeks and region exclusives.

EDIT: Also Deku Deals currently says 9888 are available digitally, so nearly 8000 digital only.
 
JoshuaJSlone said:
Along with the shipment data the lifetime value for "New titles" is 1526 Japan, 1868 Americas, 1819 Europe. Looking at Deku Deals right now I see they list 1968 games as physical, which makes enough sense given a few extra weeks and region exclusives.

EDIT: Also Deku Deals currently says 9888 are available digitally, so nearly 8000 digital only.
Click to expand...
Thanks!
 
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Jbone916 said:
…and yet you still here people argue that people only bought the Wii for 1-2 casual games and then let it gather dust. Lol
Click to expand...
to be honest, what sold well on the wii that wasnt casual games? even 2d mario outsold 3d mario on the wii lol, next to nothing. Basically only twilight princess
 
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Rooster said:
I know but it just had so many fucking games

Though it didn't have a digital marketplace.
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As a person who lives in a third world country, I can say that there were thousands of PS2's sold here and basically no one had a non pirated game, while on the PS4 that's not the case at all, so that doesn't surprise me.
 
Johna X said:
I assume they'd rather have a Switch attach rate with 125 consoles sold then a GCN attach rate with 25 million sold. The Wii is another discussion but even still probably better as is
Click to expand...
I mean considering Switch sold both more hardware AND software than either the GameCube or the Wii, obviously lol

Attach rate is just a ratio. It's meaningless on its own. The absolute numbers are where the money's at
 
Sounds about right, I've owned 50 or so full-price Switch games over its lifetime, for the 3DS that was ~30 and for the Wii maybe 10. Maybe not as extreme as me, but looks like the broader market has bought in on Switch more too (COVID undoubtedly helped)
 
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I've seen so many people say that they only own Odyssey and BOTW or only the Pokémon games that it's nice to see that lots of people own quite a bit of games for their Switches.
 
ILovethegameAC said:
I've seen so many people say that they only own Odyssey and BOTW or only the Pokémon games that it's nice to see that lots of people own quite a bit of games for their Switches.
Click to expand...
Would be interesting to see how the math works out, I assume it's more a case of roughly half the people having <5 games and roughly half having >10.
 
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Can you imagine how much software would've been sold if the DS wasn't that ridiculously easy to play ROMs on it?
 
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JoshuaJSlone said:
Maybe? I've previously said I think Switch software will end closer to 2 billion than 1 billion, which based on the ranking in the first post may be nearly the same thing. At least, Sony's choice to stop bragging about PS4 software sales on their own may keep us from knowing for sure if PS4 remains in the lead.

In my search for Patterns, I've previously looked at other recent Nintendo systems and how software trailed off after it hit a peak. Like, DS software peaked when it was at 533m, but it eventually reached 949m so it gained 78% more on the way down. For 3DS, it was +138%. For Wii, +161%. For Wii U, just +16%. Not very consistent. But Switch hit its software peak just last year, when it was hitting 918m total. So it needs +63% to join the 1.5 billion club, less than all of those except for the assassinated Wii U.

Separately: Since backwards compatibility should suck less than it did for DS on 3DS or Wii on Wii U, I think Switch software will drop off more slowly than those systems' software did.
Click to expand...
DS probably dropped off more quickly because of piracy. The R4 stuff was a huge issue, especially in Europe, and I remember reading that some publishers even cancelled in-development games for DS because of it.

Switch shouldn't have that problem on that scale, even if it is in the odd position of currently being emulated, and the market is bigger anyway.

Also interesting to know Sony included digital only titles in their PS4 totals, because Switch would presumably be substantially higher if Nintendo did the same. At least half of my software library is download only.
 
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