Nintendo Switch Sold Over 3,800,000 Units in Japan in its First Year; Triples the PS4’s Debut Year

Nintendo Switch Sold Over 3,800,000 Units in Japan in its First Year; Triples the PS4’s Debut Year

Giuseppe Nelva March 7, 2018 8:16 AM EST

The first year on the Japanese shelves for the Nintendo Switch has come to an end, and it has been a really successful one, with 3,802,910 units sold.

Today Media Create released its weekly charts updated to March 4th, and adding the results to historical data, we finally know how many Switch units Nintendo sold in Japan in its first year on the local shelves.

Counting the 45,083 units sold last week, the total count is now at 3,802,910 which is definitely remarkable, especially since for most of the year the console has been hard to find in the country.

Considering the pace, it shouldn’t be too long before the console hits four million units sold, but it’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo will manage to hold its momentum through the second year.

In comparison, the PS4 sold 1,143,542 units in its first year in Japan (which is less than one-third of the Switch’s debut year count), and 2,083,974 in the year that just ended, which was the fourth for Sony’s console in the country. That being said, comparing the trends between the two consoles is pretty difficult, as the PS4 had a rather unsuccessful local launch due to a poor lineup of Japanese games. On the other hand, the switch hit the ground running.

Speaking of PS4, the latest Media Create Charts also attribute a milestone to Sony’s console, which is now over 6.5 million units sold in the country. More precisely, we are at 6,511,985.

The most interesting element will probably be whether the Switch will keep increasing its sales over the years, as the PS4 did, or its trend will be more similar to Nintendo’s latest most successful console, the Wii, that started extremely strong in Japan, but then gradually declined year after year.

Only the future will tell, but the first year is in the bag, and Nintendo definitely has reasons to celebrate.