Nintendo Switch Becomes Fastest-selling Console Of All Time In U.s.

System surpasses Wii to sell 4.8 units in 1st 10 months

Nintendo announced on Thursday that the Nintendo Switch has become the fastest-selling home video game system ever in the United States. The system has sold more than 4.8 million units in the United States in the 10 months since it launched on March 3. Nintendo's Wii system was the previous record holder, selling more than 4 million units in its first 10 months.

The company revealed that more than 60% of Nintendo Switch owners in the United States have Super Mario Odyssey, and more than 55% own The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo noted that the games are two of the highest-rated games in history. The company also revealed that more than 50% of Nintendo Switch owners have Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and more than 20% have Splatoon 2. In addition, Nintendo said that more than 300 titles by third-party developers have launched for the Switch, and it has "received strong support from indie developers."

Nintendo announced last month that the Nintendo Switch has sold more than 10 million units worldwide as of December 10. The system launched worldwide on March 3, sold 4.7 million worldwide as of June 25, and sold more than 7.63 million units as of September 30. Nintendo had also sold 27.48 million units of Nintendo Switch software as of September 30.

The system sold an estimated 330,637 units in Japan within three days of its launch. It surpassed 500,000 units in Japan in four weeks — outpacing Sony's PlayStation 4 over the same time period — and surpassed 1 million units in Japan by June 25. The console had sold 1.95 million units in Japan as of September 30.

Nintendo's Italian website briefly listed the release of Nintendo's Switch Online service for fall 2018, but the listing reverted to a general date of 2018 on December 25. Nintendo had announced last June that the service will launch this year.