March sales for Nintendo Switch more than doubled last year's numbers

[Cal Jeffrey]

Bottom line: It has been clear for some time now that the gaming market has seen a boom over the last few of months. Stay-at-home orders have forced people to find things to do with their time indoors, and video games seem to be a go-to option. First-quarter numbers are showing just how significant an impact it has had on the industry.

The NPD Group reports that all three console makers have seen remarkable growth in Q1 2020. Total hardware sales for March alone ballooned to $461 million, while first-quarter spending on systems grew to $773 million, a 2-percent gain over last year.

March also saw total spending for hardware, software, accessories, and game cards reach nearly $1.6 billion, a 35-percent gain YOY, and the largest recorded March spend in 12 years.

"This is the highest reported spend for a March month since the $1.8 billion achieved in March 2008," said NPD's Mat Piscatella.

The Nintendo Switch was the big winner for the first quarter more than doubling year-over-year sales of the console. A large part of that came in the month of March.

"Nintendo Switch set a new all-time record for hardware unit sales in a March month," said Piscatella. "The previous high [was] set by Nintendo Switch in its March 2017 launch month."

PlayStation 4 and Xbox One also experienced gains of better than 25 percent YOY. This spike goes against a trend that has seen PS4 and XB1 sales decline over the last year as we head into the next generation of consoles.

Despite the incredible gains in the last month of Q1, total year-to-date spending for the quarter sits at $3 billion, a 4-percent decline compared to Q1 2019. Even still, the numbers do not account for the supply shortages we have seen, particularly with the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo announced it intends to boost production of the handheld by as much as 10 percent, which is an extra 2 million units over last year. However, from the looks of it, the company cannot guarantee suppliers are capable of the additional output. It is quite likely we will continue to see the consoles flying off shelves as fast as they are stocked for a while yet.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84926-march-sales-nintendo-switch-more-than-doubled-last.html

 

[toooooot]

I never owned one. Whats so good about it?

 

[Scshadow]

The Switch sales are bloated. Nintendo products have absurd resale value where for some reason there is almost absolutely no depreciation of value for used hardware. Switch shortages are mainly because scalpers saw an increase of demand coming and so they're buying out stock and reselling at a price hike. They're doing the whole bot buying BS. Be smart, look for one in store. There are neat things about the device, especially the feature where parents can constantly threaten their kids to take the device away if they don't behave in quarantine. I was surprised when I bought one though, I had not realized such simple things were missing like Bluetooth support for wireless headphones. The unit itself is not that impressive.

 

[OutlawCecil]

Because the hacks are out now lol. That's partially why sales are way up (the console itself). I'll stick to my Wii u for now though.

 

[kingn8link]

I never owned one. Whats so good about it?

the games, and the portability

 

[Eldritch]

I never owned one. Whats so good about it?

Nintendo does various things right. They know that just slapping 4k UHD etc won't make a game good.
Their games are actually fun to play, have intuitive controls, allow even splitscreen so you can play together, allow for greater creativity and exploration.
New gen additionally allows portability which actually works. PCMR here but if I were to buy a game console one day, I will get Nintendo for sure.

 

[Fearghast]

I never owned one. Whats so good about it?

Nintendo games, "gimmicks", creative games, portability.
I myself am no console gamer, but I always owned a gaming PC and Nintendo console (Famicom, DSi, 3DS, 3DS N, Wii, Wii U and Switch).

 

[LinxESP]

Because the hacks are out now lol. That's partially why sales are way up (the console itself). I'll stick to my Wii u for now though.

Yuzu intensifies, even if is a bit unstable yet
You may want to try Cemu, works pretty well

 

[brucek]

I'm hearing a lot about Animal Crossing, I don't know much of the demand it is responsible for.

 

[Fearghast]

I'm hearing a lot about Animal Crossing, I don't know much of the demand it is responsible for.

I would not believe one game, especialy in this genre, could generate such a drive for sales.
Our beloved Covid seems like a plain, simple reason to buy flexible console, that you can use on the go. Not to mention cheerful style of most Nintendo games.

 

[DZillaXx]

I would not believe one game, especialy in this genre, could generate such a drive for sales.
Our beloved Covid seems like a plain, simple reason to buy flexible console, that you can use on the go. Not to mention cheerful style of most Nintendo games.

Animal Crossing is sold out at every store I've been to... Seems like the only solid way to get it ATM is the estore.

Nintendo has some of the best selling franchises in the world. They are on the top 10 best selling list every month.

I love my switch, me and the wife play the thing all the time. You don't need a ton of power for games to look good. Everything on the switch for the most part looks nice and clean.

Animal Crossing for sure is one of the driving forces, it is a massively popular game. And it is mostly adults playing it.

 

[DZillaXx]

I never owned one. Whats so good about it?

Everything

 

[toooooot]

Everything

Even plastic it made of which gives cancer in state of CA?