It’s crazy just how young the Nintendo Switch is when you consider how many units Nintendo has sold and how it’s supposed to be from the same generation as the PS4 and the Xbox One.
A bit of a latecomer to the eighth-generation console party, the Switch came out in March 2017, nearly 4 years after Sony and Microsoft released the PS4 and Xbox One, respectively. During that span, the Switch has gone on to become the best-selling console on the market. At the moment, the Nintendo Switch has sold more than 107 million units in 5 years despite the ongoing shortage.
Suffice to say, the Switch is on track to overtaking every console but the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2 in lifetime sales.
Having said that, the Switch’s success appears to be causing concerns for Nintendo.
As reported by VGC, Nintendo president, Shuntaro Furukawa, revealed that the post-Switch transition is a “major concern” for the console manufacturer. But, it’s not exactly as if the Nintendo CEO is worried that Nintendo’s next console won’t sell as well. Instead, Furukawa explains that the company wants to make sure that the transition from the Switch to its successor is “as smooth as possible.”
When you’ve got a potential player base north of 100 million, it’s easy to see why this is keeping Nintendo up at night.
For most of last year, there were rumors that Nintendo would release a Nintendo Switch Pro. Although Nintendo did eventually release an upgraded version of the Switch, the Switch OLED isn’t so much a massive leap as it is a way for Nintendo to restructure the current offerings. Still, fans remain hopeful that Nintendo is working on a mid-cycle upgrade for the Switch to help it keep up with the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X if only for the next few years.
