To say there was a lot of pressure on Nintendo to succeed with the Nintendo Switch is an understatement. When the Wii U bombed in spectacular fashion, many were wondering if Nintendo could bounce back at all. Especially with the loss of Satoru Iwata. But, with the Switch, they proved (once again) that not only could they bounce back, they could dominate like the days of old…or even just during the Wii era. And it’s not just the US that has Switch fever, Japan is showing its appreciation too.
The country has already been documented as having bought 3 million Switch’s, which is basically 1/3 of the current userbase. But now, via Media Crates (and translated by NintendoSoup), we know that the sales in Japan of the Nintendo Switch has surpassed those of the PlayStation 2. For the record, the PlayStation 2 did VERY well in Japan, so if it’s passing that? That’s something to appreciate.
So, why is it doing so well in Japan? Well, it’s a lot of things more than likely. The system is portable, literally. Japan has been the boom of the mobile gaming market for some time now. Which, is ironically why console sales in Japan had been lower the last few generations. But with the Nintendo Switch, that’s no longer an issue.
What’s more, the Switch has had easily the best year-one lineup of games in the history of gaming, which usually doesn’t happen. Usually, there’s the killer app at launch to make you buy it day one, then, bigger releases will slowly trickle out. For the Switch though, the only months that didn’t have major 1st party releases (from March until December) was May and November. Every other month had a major game release, and the sales of those titles are nothing to sneeze at. It already has million sellers on at least 6 different titles.
2018 will be a key year for the Nintendo Switch, it needs to keep the momentum up. Hopefully, it’ll do so.