Nintendo Switch becomes the fifth gaming console ever to sell more than 100 million units

The Nintendo Switch has officially crossed 100 million units sold since it was launched in 2017, the company revealed in its latest earnings call to investors on Wednesday, February 2. With this, the Switch officially becomes one of the most popular gaming consoles of all time, joining Sony’s first, second and fourth generation PlayStation consoles – as well as the Nintendo Wii.

According to Nintendo’s earnings data, a total of 103.54 million units of the Switch have been sold so far. This includes 17.87 million units of the cheaper Switch Lite, and 3.99 million units of the more expensive Switch OLED, which make for about 20 percent of all units sold. The rest are sales of the older, original version of the Switch.

In comparison, Sony has sold about 103 million units of the first generation PlayStation (PS), which was launched in 1994. The PS2 has so far been the most popular single console of all time, selling over 155 million units in its lifespan. The PS3 hit a middling mark of around 86 million, with Sony returning to 100 million-plus figures with the PS4 – which sold 116.6 million units so far.

Nintendo is no stranger to console popularity, either. The company’s Nintendo DS range of handheld gaming consoles have sold an estimated 154 million units, while the Game Boy range was the first 100 million-plus gaming console range – topping around 119 million units. The Wii was also quite popular, having sold over 101 million units. The Game Boy Advance, 3DS and NES consoles have also been popular, all selling over 60 million units.

The maker of the Switch has largely dominated the handheld console space, with Sony’s PlayStation Portable – at an estimated 82 million units sold – coming somewhat close to challenging it. Sony, however, has clearly dominated the home console space. Microsoft, Sony’s closest rival in the home gaming console space today, has so far sold 84 million units of the Xbox 360 and around 51 million units of the Xbox One consoles during their life spans.

Microsoft, however, has amped up its chase of Sony in the gaming console industry. The company’s Xbox Game Pass has offered an increasing array of popular games bundled in an affordable subscription model, while acquisitions of gaming studio behemoths such as Bethesda, and more recently Activision, are further expected to bolster its gaming offerings.

Whether this reflects in upcoming gaming console sales figures is yet to be seen. Both Sony and Microsoft have been battling a shortage of supplies on the component side, as neither could manage to cash in on the initial demand for their latest gaming consoles – the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S, respectively. Sony has stated that it has sold around 17.3 million PS5 units till date, while Microsoft is estimated to have sold around 12 million units of its latest Xbox consoles.