Nintendo’s third-quarter earnings are out, and they reveal that the company sold 4.8 million Switch consoles between July and September, a year-on-year increase of just over 50 percent. 41.67 million units have been shipped in total as of September 30th, meaning the Switch will almost certainly overtake the SNES this holiday season to become Nintendo’s second most popular home console ever.
This quarter saw the release of the Switch Lite, a new handheld-only version of the console that can’t dock to a TV but costs $100 less. The Lite sold 1.85 million units, while the regular Switch — which also got a new version with better battery life — sold 2.85 million.
Nintendo has continued to put out solid content for the Switch, and this quarter had some strong performing titles even if none were really major blockbusters. Fire Emblem: Three Houses has sold 2.29 million units so far, while The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is up to 3.13 million units. Workout title Ring Fit Adventure and this week’s Luigi’s Mansion 3 are the biggest titles released in October, while the Switch’s big hitter for the holiday season will be Pokémon Sword and Shield.
A special Pokémon edition of the Switch Lite will be released tomorrow in Japan and November 8th elsewhere. The game itself follows on November 15th.
