The Nintendo Switch is already one of the best-selling consoles in video game history and it’s not even five years old. As Nintendo’s hybrid console celebrates its fifth year on the market, its sales have been hampered by the ongoing parts shortage brought partly about by the COVID-19 pandemic. To make matters worse, it appears that the Switch’s sales won’t skyrocket all that much next year as it continues to suffer from the lack of stocks.
Will the Switch hit 120 million units in 2022?
Earlier this year, we found out that the Nintendo Switch is well on its way to becoming the fifth-best selling console in video game history. At the time, the Switch was short of 10 million units shy of surpassing the Nintendo Wii (101.63 million units) and the original PlayStation (102.49 million units) in lifetime sales.
Because the numbers were released before the holiday season officially hit, we can assume that the Switch’s lifetime sales have gone up considerably from over 92 million units.
Unfortunately, it appears that the Switch will have to wait for a while to come close to matching the PS4 in lifetime sales.
According to Nintendo Japan President Shuntaro Furukawa (courtesy of WCCFTech), Nintendo expects to sell fewer units in 2022 than initially expected. However, it’s not for the lack of demand. Rather, it’s because of the semi-conductor supply issue that’s currently affecting multiple industries all around the globe.
2022 was supposed to be a big year for Nintendo. After the release of the Nintendo Switch OLED a few months ago, the hybrid console’s library would have benefitted from the release of multiple big-name exclusives. Chief among them would be Pokemon Legends: Arceus as well as Breath of the Wild 2. As the two aforementioned titles are huge console sellers, Nintendo could stand to sell many millions more Switch units in an ideal scenario.
If it’s any consolation, the shortage probably won’t start happening for most markets until we are well into 2022. For now, there should be enough units of the Switch to go around where you are from.
