Nintendo Switch #1 Selling System In U.S. For December; 3DS Slays As Well
NPD data for the month of December should be coming out later today, but Nintendo has gotten ahead of the numbers and announced that the Nintendo Switch was the number one selling system for the month of December in the U.S. In fact, they sold 1.5 million during the month, pushing the install base up to 4.8 million, which we already knew from a prior press release.
The Nintendo 3DS family of systems, which includes the 2DS line, saw a 27% increase in sales over the prior year for the month of December. Over 750,000 units were sold and now over 21 million have been sold in the U.S.
Nintendo has also mentioned that if you combine the sales of the Super NES Classic Edition with the Switch and 3DS then total sales for the month topped 2.6 million, accounting for more than half of all hardware sold for the month. If we do a little math that means that approximately 350,000 Super NES Classics were sold in December. Not bad!
Nintendo Switch sold more units in December than any other video game system, according to the NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. Holiday shoppers purchased 1.5 million Nintendo Switch systems during the five-week reporting period of December, which is a critical month for the video game industry. Since its launch 10 months ago, Nintendo Switch has sold more than 4.8 million units, making it the fastest-selling home console in U.S. history.
The Nintendo 3DS family of systems also demonstrated continued strength, posting its best sales month since December 2014. Collectively, the different versions of Nintendo 3DS hardware sold more than 750,000 units in the U.S. in December, a 27 percent increase over the same period a year ago. The sales also pushed the Nintendo 3DS family of systems to a new milestone of more than 21 million sold in the U.S.
Combined hardware sales of Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition system topped 2.6 million units, which accounted for more than half of all hardware sold during the month.
Four Nintendo Switch games finished high on the December sales charts for individual titles: Super Mario Odyssey at No. 3, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at No. 4, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at No. 9 and Splatoon 2 at No. 16. Additionally, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon for Nintendo 3DS finished No. 13 and No. 14, respectively.
For more information about Nintendo, visit https://www.nintendo.com.
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
