Sony might be in the mood to brag about the PlayStation 4 and the fact that it could sell 100 million units worldwide before 2019 even gets on its way, but its rival Nintendo would have something to say about that. In an astonishing announcement made recently, Nintendo revealed that it hit a milestone in video game related sales by selling over 700 million units across all of their consoles and handhelds.
Data spanning almost 35 years
According to a report shared by the Nintendo IR website, the milestone was an effort that spanned almost 35 years of the gaming company's foray into the video game industry dating all the way back to 1983 with the NES.
Tha data collected consists of sales numbers for every dedicated gaming system--console and handheld--ever conceived by the big N with the only exception being the disastrous Virtual Boy.
Every console and handheld counts
Unsurprisingly, among the home entertainment platforms, the Nintendo Wii console remains the biggest earner with over 100 million hardware units and over 900 million software units sold. On the other side of the spectrum--and even less surprising to anyone-- is its disappointing successor the Wii U with 13. 5 million hardware units and over 100 million software units sold.
In terms of dedicated mobile gaming, the Nintendo DS handheld remains the undisputed champ with nearly 155 million hardware units and 949 million software units sold.
Although the 3DS handheld comes in at last place with nearly 73 million hardware units and 368 million software units sold, it is still currently making the rounds on the global market.
Finally, the Nintendo Switch, the company's first hybrid console that was launched back in early 2017 currently sits under 20 million hardware units, and 87 million software units sold worldwide.
Nintendo originally projected Switch sales to reach 35 million by the end of 2018, but that seems unlikely. Here is the full breakdown of Nintendo hardware and software sales spanning 35 years:
Nintendo console sales data
Switch
- Hardware sales: 19.67 million units
- Software sales: 86.93 million units
Wii U
- HS: 13.56
- SS: 102.28
Wii
- HS: 101.63
- SS: 919.94
Nintendo GameCube
- HS: 21.74
- SS: 208.57
Nintendo 64
- HS: 32.93
- SS: 224.97
SNES
- HS: 49.10
- SS: 379.06
NES
- HS: 61.91
- SS: 500.01
Nintendo handheld sales data
3DS
- HS: 72.89
- SS: 367.84
DS
- HS: 154.02
- SS: 948.62
Game Boy Advance
- HS: 81.51
- SS: 377.42
Game Boy
- HS: 118.69
- SS: 501.11