The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch is outselling the console itself by around 20,000 copies. The Nintendo Switch is certainly one of the most interesting consoles on offer in the market right now. Unveiled back in October of 2016, the platform was primarily designed to be a home console, with the option for players to remove the system from its docking station and continue playing their game whenever and wherever they would like. Utilizing the tablet-like surface of the system, players can attach two Joy-Con controllers to either side of the device when playing handheld, or place them to a Grip accessory if playing on a TV screen.

It’s certainly revolutionized gaming; there’s nothing really on offer in the market right now quite like it. Upon launch however, there were only a handful of titles available for the Switch, which some thought may hamper its chances of success. Fortunately for the Switch, one of those games available was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which proved to be instantly popular and gained critical acclaim from the majority of critics. So how did the Switch fare when it comes to sales?

Kotaku is reporting that in Japan, 600,000 Switch consoles were sold, while in the Americas, 1.2 million units shifted. Around 940,000 more consoles were sold in other regions across the world. The numbers come together to make up 2.74 million units of Nintendo’s latest console sold across the globe between the March 3 launch and March 31 at the end of the financial quarter. Things take a strange turn however when you look to the sales for Breath of the Wild. Across the globe, the title has sold a total of 3.84 million copies including those sold for the Nintendo Wii U. Strangely however, the Nintendo Switch versions of the game make up 2.76 million of those sales, meaning the game has sold around 20,000 more copies for the Switch than consoles have been sold.

While it seems very odd from the outside looking in, there are a number of reasons this could have occurred. There are those who may have been bought the game as a present for example, only for the person gifting the title to find out the recipient has already bought a copy. Then there’s the Collector’s Edition of the game, which some people may have purchased after buying a regular copy of Breath of the Wild.

When compared to Sony’s PlayStation 4 and that console’s first quarter, the Switch could become one of the most popular current-gen platforms if it continues its popularity. A financial report from Sony showed that in its first quarter, six million PS4 consoles were sold worldwide between April and June 2015. While the Switch would need more than three million sales to reach that number, it’s certainly possible the console could beat that figure entirely – especially with the recent restock of the platform following its selling out everywhere.

Fans should always be cautious when getting excited about a new console’s success, however. There’s every chance sales could grind to a halt as quickly as they rose to dizzying heights. One thing’s for sure however, everybody’s going to be watching to see exactly where the Switch ends up.



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