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Switch Outsells Entire Lifetime Of Wii U In Japan

by Imran Khan on Jan 08, 2018 at 12:50 PM

Over in Japan, gaming magazine Famitsu has reported that the Switch has officially blown past Nintendo's previous console, the Wii U, in Japanese sales after less than a year on the market.

According to Famitsu's sales tracking, the Switch has hit 3.4 million, which leapfrogs the Wii U's 3.3 million. It does not seem like a huge difference until you remember that the Wii U achieved that number over the span of four years, from December 8, 2012 to its discontinuation in January of 2017.

On one hand, the Wii U was sort of a sales failure, but the introduction of Splatoon did wonders for the system, especially in Japan. In 2016, Splatoon was the best selling first-party new IP across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U, which also explains why Nintendo was so eager to get Splatoon 2 out for the Switch. If it continues selling at this current pace, the Switch should outsell the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 in Japan this year.

[Source: Famitsu]

 

Our Take
Nintendo has been quiet about 2018 prospects, which is puzzling as we are more than a week into the year already. If they plan to keep momentum up, and there's no reason to assume they don't want to, they need to detail what software will do that.