Switch hits half the Wii U’s lifetime sales in six months + Odyssey sells 2m copies in three days

Nintendo is back on form if the latest figures are anything to go by. For starters, the Switch has now impressively hit half the lifetime sales of the Wii U.

Nintendo Switch Reverses A Downward Trend

Let’s put that into perspective for a second: over 5 long years the Wii U only managed 13.56m units – the Switch has sold 7.63m units in less than a year.

As a result, Nintendo now expects to shift 14m consoles before the end of the financial year. Which, of course, beats the Wii U’s efforts in a single year. The company’s previous estimate for Switch sales was 10m.

It gets better for Nintendo though: Super Mario Odyssey sold 2m copies in just three days. That figure includes digital sales from the eShop.

It means that more than a third of Switch’s seven million owners have already picked up a copy of Odyssey, so the attach rate is high indeed. We thought Odyssey was pretty good ourselves.

Finally, yes there’s more, Nintendo sold 2m SNES mini consoles in a month. It moved 2m units worldwide, and 370k units were sold in half a week in Japan. The Japanese like Nintendo.

More SNES mini stock is on the way to try and stop the scalpers. Nintendo has also pledged that NES mini stock will return to the shops in the summer next year.

It’s extremely positive news for the company who not long ago was experiencing declining sales and profits with the unfortunate failure of the Wii U.

Nintendo mustn’t get complacent though (they haven’t yet), as there’s a long life ahead of the Switch that needs to be maintained with quality games. With both Mario and Zelda titles already out, Splatoon 2 on the shelves and Xenoblade 2 due this Christmas, it’s going to be a tough year to beat.

Let’s hope the new Fire Emblem, Metroid Prime 4 and hopefully, a Smash title, isn’t too far behind.

What’s that unannounced game that Retro Studios is working on?