Nintendo Labo Sold Only 30% of Initial Shipment in Japan; Didn’t Push Switch Sales

Giuseppe Nelva April 27, 2018 4:17 PM EST

While Nintendo Labo managed to take the top of the Media Create Chart, the firm revealed that its sales were only 30% of the first shipment in Japan.

Following the top-twenty revealed on Wednesday, Media Create followed up today with its weekly analysis, and it included some interesting information about Nintendo Labo.

The new set of educational accessories had a pretty good launch, ranking first and third with 90,410 units sold for the Variety Kit and 28,629 units for the Robot Kit, yet there is one piece of data that completes the picture and that Media Create revealed today: Labo’s kits sold only 30% of the initial shipment for both kits, which is definitely low for a first party release.

It appears that Nintendo either expected to sell a lot more, or they simply over-shipped in order to cover the following weeks without needing further shipments.

On top of this, despite the release of Labo, Switch sales decreased week-on-week, and Media Create argues that there was no noticeable traction effect on console sales.

That being said, the firm mentions that due to the educational value of Labo, it’s relevant to watch its sales trend during the Golden Week (which is a series of consecutive holidays that begins on April 29th and ends on May 5th) and the summer holidays.

It’ll be interesting to see if Labo will have a long tail when the kids get out of school, but for now, this is what we have.

Nintendo Labo is available now for Nintendo Switch. If you haven’t purchased it yet, can pick up either the Variety Kit or Robot Kit from Amazon.

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