Over the past five years, Sony has made the front page of the UK hardware sales rankings. The PS4 is the undisputed champion of the territory with millions of consoles safely installed in millions of salons. However, it seems that Nintendo’s recent robust performance will make a slight difference.

Retail sales data obtained by GamesIndustry.biz indicate that Switch equipment sales have increased by more than 30% over the past week thanks to the arrival of the Pokémon Sword and Shield – which has just risen to the top of the British charts and benefited from the year’s largest launch exclusively on the system.

Hardware sales increased by more than 75% the week before Sword and Shield was released and nearly 90,000 Switch systems have already been sold in the UK in November. You can assume that the recently published Switch Lite model is the reason for the jump, but that it is actually the original variant that represents most of these sales.

All this has helped Switch become the best-selling console in the UK this year, ahead of PlayStation 4. Retailers told GamesIndustry.biz that a host of promotions are helping Switch steal shelves and that more offers will be available during the Black Friday period.