Microsoft and Sony launched next-generation consoles this week, and Nintendo doesn’t seem to mind.
The company announced today that it sold 735,000 Switch consoles in the United States in October, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. That is up 136% year-over-year. And it’s the second-best October for any gaming hardware behind only the 807,000 Wiis that Nintendo sold in October 2008.
The Switch numbers are absolutely bonkers. We’re talking Wii peak numbers here, with little risk of falling off a cliff like Wii did. It’s a monster of a platform.
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 13, 2020
The NPD Group will release its public data for the month of October on Friday morning.
Nintendo’s timing might suggest that it doesn’t want people to forget about it amid the excitement for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. And that’s possible, but the company also seems confident in the face of new competition in the hardware space.
Here’s a statement from Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser:
Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite continue to provide one-of-a-kind gaming experiences on the TV or on the go, allowing holiday shoppers the choice of a video game system that matches their lifestyle. Seeing encouraging sales growth like this in the fourth October of Nintendo Switch proves to us that the system has many more years and great games yet to come.
And while that quote has a “don’t forget about us” quality to it, Nintendo doesn’t seem like it’s panicking.
No price cut — just massive revenue
In its press release, Nintendo notes that Switch has outsold Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for the last 23 months. This has led to the company selling 22.5 million Switch consoles in the U.S. since launch. And Nintendo is behaving like that’s not going to change.
The company used this release to also talk about its plans for the holiday. And this was most notable for what it doesn’t include: a price cut.
Even with the Switch now going up against the $300 Xbox Series S and the $400 PS5 Digital Edition, Nintendo is keeping the $300 price for the Switch. And its big Black Friday holiday bundle will once again include Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is the same bundle Nintendo had for Switch in 2018 and 2019. This time it’s also throwing in three months of Nintendo Online — a whopping $8 value.
That bundle debuts November 22.
The unspoken message from Nintendo here is clear: The Switch is going to keep selling even now that the new consoles are here. It doesn’t need a price cut or an attractive new bundle. Switch is in the prime of its life in terms of sales, and no upstart next-gen system is going to spoil that.
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