Nintendo's newest console is its fastest-selling of all-time, besting even the Nintendo Wii.

The console has sold nearly 5 million units in the United States alone since launching in March.

Nintendo had to revise its estimates upward for first year sales targets, from 10 to 14 million.



Nintendo's got an explosively popular console on its hands with the Nintendo Switch.

It's so popular, in fact, that it's become the Japanese game company's fastest-selling game console ever in the United States — the largest market for Nintendo products. It's even surpassed the wildly popular Nintendo Wii console, which previously held the record.

More than just setting a new record for Nintendo, the speed at which the Switch is selling makes it the fastest-selling console ever in the United States. That's due in large part to a pair of heavy-hitter games from Nintendo released in the same year as the Switch: "Super Mario Odyssey" and "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."

That time in "Super Mario Odyssey" when Mario accidentally finds Nintendo's treasure chest. Nintendo

They're not just popular games — they're ubiquitous games if you're a Switch owner. Over 50% of all Switch owners own both games, and nearly two-thirds have already bought "Super Mario Odyssey." Another 50% own "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" — that's three games that sold nearly 3 million copies apiece in the console's first 10 months of sales.

To be clear, these are absurdly high numbers, and they're especially impressive considering that the Switch only went on sale in March 2017. These are the kind of huge sales numbers that are pushing the Switch to best its predecessor's lifetime sales in its first year; Nintendo even had to revise its previous forecast for first year sales upward by 4 million units. (The only console to sell faster was Sony's PlayStation 4, which reached nearly 20 million units sold worldwide in its first year.)

And it sounds like momentum may only beget more momentum in this case, with a strong 2018 planned for the Switch.

Nintendo has major games starring Kirby and Yoshi planned for the coming year, as well as a variety of major third-party games, and the console's online service is scheduled to go live in 2018. It's entirely possible — likely, even! — that there's far more we don't know about just yet, so we'll have to wait and see how the year plays out.

For now, though, Nintendo's doing better than it has in years — and that's directly due to the massive success of the Nintendo Switch console.