Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Analyst Predicts Nintendo Switch Is The Fifth-Best Selling Tech Product Of 2017
The Nintendo Switch is the fifth-best selling tech product of the year, and is estimated to sell over 15 million units in 2017.
The estimate comes from Daniel Ives of GBH Insights, a market research firm. The portable/console hybrid had a number of things going for it this year: Both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey released to critical and commercial success, a slew of indie games found success on the console, and major companies having begun porting their current-gen games to the less powerful portable.
All of these factors could have contributed to making the console the best-selling dedicated gaming device of the year, but it was no match for more mainstream and diverse devices. The four tech products that are estimated to beat it are:
- iPhone (223 million units sold)
- Samsung Galaxy 8 and Note 8 (33 million units sold)
- Amazon Echo Dot (24 million units sold)
- Apple Watch (20 million units sold)
[Source: USA Today]
Our Take
It's impressive the Switch was able to make the list at all, and a testament to the console's popularity. But it also goes to show just how dwarfed it is by phones and tablets, which is why the company's recent move to publish games on them makes so much sense, even if the products haven't been all that good.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
