The Switch is beating expectations.
Research firm SuperData revealed today that its analysis shows that Nintendo has sold 2.4 million Switches during its first month of release. The home console/portable hybrid launched worldwide on March 3.
SuperData now projects that the Switch will sell 7.2 million consoles in 2017. That is up from its original forecast of 5 million units, showing that this is a better start than the research group was expecting.
Industry-tracking firm The NPD Group noted yesterday that the Switch sold 906,000 consoles in March in the U.S., beating the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Nintendo also managed to sell 925,000 copies of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, meaning that the praised open-world game actually had an attach rate higher than 100 percent.
This is a strong start for the Switch, which is good news for Nintendo following the disappointing Wii U. That dead console has lifetime sales of 13.56 million since launching in 2012. If the Switch can manage 7.2 million in 2017, it’ll be halfway to matching its predecessor in just one year.
But Nintendo will need strong software to keep console sales going. It’s clear that the success of Breath of the Wild gave the Switch’s launch a boost. For the rest of the year, Nintendo is hoping that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Arms, Splatoon 2, and Super Mario Odyssey can also move systems.