It’s not been surprising to see the Nintendo Switch atop the hardware charts lately. It’s a new system that’s competing against consoles that are relatively old and suffer from fragmented fan bases thanks to the PS4 Pro, Xbox Scorpio and the many versions of the 3DS/2DS that exist.
What did cause me some surprise and prompted me to write a news post was this report from Gamestop via PVPLive. The fact that Switch sales are doing 10% better than Wii sales were at the same period after their launches.
Sure, we’ve all seen posts about ‘Better launch weekends’ before, but I paid them no mind as launch weekend figures can be skewed by all sorts of marketing and manufacturing issues. We all know that ‘most’ consoles ‘sell out’ on their launch but what we often don’t know is if this is down to a huge demand or an extreme lack of supply.
With the initial rush out-of-the-way, the Switch has earned some impressive sales figures and the fact it’s selling faster than the Wii is pretty staggering – especially when you consider the fact that most people who don’t play games haven’t even heard of the Switch.
I’ve experienced this first-hand when talking about what I’m up to these days. My friends know I play video games and out of sheer politeness, they’ll enquire about my hobbies. I mention that I’m looking forward to eventually getting my hands on a Switch when I can and they look at me blankly.
Polygon even reported that the Switch is actually struggling to obtain brand recognition with ‘non-gamers’, with polls showing that only 7% of respondents who identify as ‘non-gamers’ have even heard of the console.
We all know the Wii had huge success in large part thanks to the chord it struck with ‘non-gamers’, so it’s amazing to see the Switch doing so well on the back of its popularity with ‘actual’ video game fans.
The fact the console launched with not just a Zelda game but what many people are calling the best Zelda game ever is no doubt a factor in its success with core gamers.
Motion control via the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers is also shown off. We see the player use a sword and shield and then a bow and arrow, all seemingly activated by moving your hands about. Great – if it all works as fluidly as shown! (Although I can’t imagine doing this in bed).
