The Nintendo Switch may have been fairly hard to get hold of recently but that doesn't seem to have slowed down sales any. In the last three months, over 3.29 million Switches have shifted, bringing the overall total to 55.7 million units sold.
It's an impressive figure, and means that the Switch has now outsold both the Nintendo 64 (32.93 million) and Gamecube (21.74 million) combined, with the lifetime sales of both adding up to just under 55 million (thanks, Engadget).
Nintendo's latest handheld console has also recently surpassed the SNES in terms of overall sales and isn't far behind the NES either. In fact, it's likely to hit that particular milestone within the next year.
The report shows that 21.03 million Switches were sold in the last year (from April 2019 to March 2020). There's no doubt that sales of the handheld console have been helped by the widespread effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, though that would clearly only impact the last three months - and that's with the shortages. But the excellent timing of the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons has obviously made a difference to sales too but you can't take away from the fact that the Switch is just doing well overall.
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And as for the impact of the current global situation, Nintendo also discusses that at length in the report and includes the following statement: "It appears that delays in production and shipping are gradually recovering. However, we may be affected if there continue to be issues involving the procurement of necessary components. In addition, if the impact of COVID-19 is prolonged or worsens further, it may disrupt the product supply."
As it stands at the moment, the Switch seems to be back in stock in most online stores. This is great news if you were planning to pick one up but didn't want to pay some of the astronomical prices that they were being sold for. One guy even resorted to building a Switch himself out of spare parts but luckily, it looks like you won't need to go quite that far to get your hands on one.
Featured Image Credit: NintendoTopics: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo