Global Nintendo Switch sales have now surpassed the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 4.
Nintendo just published its most recent financial results for Q3 of its current fiscal year, and the Japanese gaming behemoth managed to sell another 8.23 million units Switch units during the quarter. Total global Nintendo Switch sales now exceed 122.55 million units since launching in 2017. With global lifetime PlayStation 4 sales at 117.2 million, Nintendo's hybrid platform has outsold Sony's platform by a fair margin since December 31, 2022 (thanks Benji Sales).
Other interesting new Nintendo sales data comes from lifetime first-party software sales. Having launched in late November 2022, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet managed to sell 20.61 million copies worldwide in just six weeks. This makes the latest mainstream Pokemon title the fourth best-selling Pokemon entry of all time. As pointed out by Resetera user and Serebii owner 'Serebii', Pokémon Sword & Shield sold 16 million copies in the same timeframe. Total Pokémon Scarlet & Violet sales are currently only bested by Pokémon Gold & Silver (3rd spot), Sword & Shield (2nd spot), and Red, Blue & Green (1st spot).
Other interesting software sales include sales figures for Splatoon 3, which has now sold over 10.13 million units, Switch Sports at 8.61 million units, Kirby and the Forgotten Land at 6.12m, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 at 1.81 million units, and Bayonetta 3 at 1.04 million copies globally.
It will be interesting to see where lifetime sales for the Nintendo Switch will end. To date, the PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling console of all time having sold over 155 million units worldwide. The Nintendo DS, which is a handheld platform and not a home console, currently sits at roughly 154 million units.
Nintendo released the Switch back in March 2017.