The Nintendo Switch has now outsold the 3DS

The Switch’s enormous momentum shows no sign of slowing down, with the latest sales figures showing that the Switch family has now outsold the 3DS (via Eurogamer).

Nintendo’s console-handheld hybrid now sits at 79.87 million lifetime sales, putting it over the 10-year old Nintendo 3DS, with 75.94 million units sold.

Across the Switch family, that 79.87 million breaks down to 66.34 million units for the Switch, and 13.53 million units for the Switch Lite.

From October to December 2020, Switch sales were up seven per cent year on year, with the Switch Lite making up 27 per cent of those sales.

Despite being overshadowed by its big brother, the Switch Lite is just a few thousand sales away from beating the Wii U’s lifetime sales of 13.56 million units sold.

Here is how the Switch compares to other Nintendo consoles.

After 46 months:
NDS: ~83m
Wii: ~75m
Switch: 79.9m
3DS: ~50m
Wii U: ~13.m

Switch won't catch DS, but it'll track alongside Wii for most of this year, overtaking it by the end of the year. pic.twitter.com/adR5afwDmN

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 1, 2021

According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, the Switch’s performance is similar to that of the Nintendo Wii, which was an enormous mainstream success for the company. Ahmad predicts that while the Switch won’t catch up to the runaway success of the Nintendo DS, it will nonetheless surpass the Wii by the end of 2021.

If indeed the Switch does surpass the Wii, it will be Nintendo’s third best-selling hardware of all time, coming in after the Game Boy (118.7 million units sold) and the Nintendo DS (154 million units sold).

24 million Switch units were sold in the first 9 months of the current fiscal year, making it the console’s most successful period to date.

According to Bloomberg, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has stated that the company has sufficient components supply, despite industrywide shortages. Additionally, Furukawa revealed that Nintendo does not plan to announce a new Switch model anytime soon, despite rumours about a potential “Switch Pro” model.