Nintendo of America had shared that Nintendo Switch had become the fastest-selling system in the company’s history in the region, but the console’s early success doesn’t simply end there.
The NPD Group has now reported that Nintendo Switch was able to celebrate “the second biggest launch for any video game platform since 1995,” which is no mean feat.
We can also learn that record-breaking success saw Nintendo Switch surpass Game Boy Advance sales by more than 31,000 units, dethroning the handheld to be recognised as having the best first-month sales for any of the company’s platforms.
“March 2017 will go down in history books as the month Nintendo broke records. The Nintendo Switch had the biggest hardware launch for a Nintendo platform and the second biggest launch for any video game platform since 1995, the time NPD began tracking this category,” NPD analyst Sam Naji wrote in their report.
“In this debut month (month 1), the Nintendo Switch sold 31K more units than previous best-selling Nintendo month-1 platform, the Game Boy Advanced, which released back in June 2001. The two Nintendo Switch SKUs, the 32GB Gray Joy-Con, followed by the 32GB Neon Red/Blue Joy-Con, were the best-selling systems for the month.”
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild not only became the fastest-selling Nintendo launch game of all time but also the fastest-selling game in The Legend of Zelda series.
However, it was beaten to the top spot in NPD’s software chart by Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which scored the “second best launch of any Tom Clancy game.”
What is also encouraging is that NPD report that “[Nintendo] Switch’s packaged software sold 1.3 million units, a record high for a Nintendo platform launch,” with 1-2 Switch seeing a 19 percent attach rate.
[Thanks, GamesIndustry.biz]