In brief: Nintendo breaks its own records all the time, and lately, the company's ever-popular Switch console has been one of the main reasons why. The hybrid console outsold the Wii U's lifetime sales in its first year on the market, and now, it's managed to overtake one of the oldest and most beloved retro consoles out there: the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
During 2019's holiday season, the Nintendo Switch managed to surpass the 52 million sales mark by about 500,000 units. For the sake of comparison, the SNES moved an impressive 49.79 million units during its lengthy lifespan.
This news might be a bit bittersweet for some of our readers. If you've had an interest in tech and gaming for more than a couple of decades, there's a good chance you have fond childhood memories of the SNES.
Whether you used yours to play beat-'em-ups like Final Fight and Street Fighter, or excellent platformers like Super Mario World, your experiences with the console probably stick in your brain to this very day.
Regardless, times change, and it was probably only a matter of time before Nintendo's latest and greatest console started dethroning some of its oldest (and best-selling) predecessors.
As others have pointed out, the Nintendo Switch's next "rival" is the original Nintendo Entertainment System, which boasts 61.91 million lifetime sales. Whether or not the Switch's growth will continue and allow it to beat that figure remains to be seen.
However, we wouldn't root against it. The console's game library is bigger and more appealing than ever thanks to a plethora of excellent third-party ports and first-party exclusives. It's also considerably more accessible than it was on launch, due to the recently-released "Switch Lite" (which makes some hardware compromises in exchange for a lower price tag).
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