The Nintendo Switch is off to a hot start, it seems. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told The New York Times reporter Nick Wingfield this week that initial sales (for March 3 and 4) in the Americas exceeded the first two-day sales in the region for any system in the company’s history.
The next closest was the Wii, which ended up being a massive hit, selling more than 100 million systems worldwide to date.
Fils-Aime added that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best-selling standalone launch title for a Nintendo platform ever. He did not share a specific unit sales number, though it outperformed Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64.
Wii Sports for the Wii surely did better than Super Mario 64 or Breath of the Wild, as it was bundled with console, but this statistic is for non-bundled titles. The Switch has no bundled games.
Nintendo has made a big effort to push the Switch, as it aired a commercial for the console during this year’s Super Bowl and even recruited John Cena to promote it.
Below are the tweets from Wingfield, the NYT reporter. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest on how the Switch is performing.
1. Update on Nintendo Switch sales I’ll break into a multi-tweet. This from an intvw with Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of Amer. Pres
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017
2. Fri-Sat sales for Nintendo Switch exceeded first 2-day sales in Americas for any system in Nintendo history. Next biggest was Wii.
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017
3. This is particularly notable given that Switch launched in March, rather than holidays
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017
4. Zelda for Nintendo Switch the best selling standalone launch title (i.e. not a bundled game a la Wii Sports) in Nintendo history…
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017
5. …beating Super Mario for N64
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017
6. Long term comparisons to Wii, which sold more than 100 m LTD, are tough. But good start for Switch, with big games coming.
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017
According to Famitsu, as translated by Kotaku, the Switch sold 330,637 units in its first three days on sale in Japan. Breath of the Wild shifted 190,060 physical copies over the same period, the report said.
Source: GameSpot