
Switch Sales Near 18 Million, with Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe the Most Popular Titles
Nintendo's still someway off the Wii's 101 million units sold and Mario Kart Wii's 37 million units sold, but it's on its way.
If Nintendo was a character in Saturday Night Fever, it'd be strutting right now. The company's report for its 2017 fiscal earnings, published earlier today, puts the Nintendo Switch at nearly 18 million units sold as of March 31, 2018.
That's a very heathy first year for Nintendo's handheld / console hybrid. By comparison, the poor Wii U's lifetime sales (also highlighted in the report) totaled 13.56 million units. The GameCube didn't fare too much better at 21.74 million units sold.
Here's the million-yen question, though: Will the Switch's momentum keep up long enough to touch the Wii's lofty numbers (101.63 million units sold) or the Nintendo DS's epic sales (154.02 million)? Maybe. Maybe not. We can speculate until the cows come home to Moo Moo Farm, but in the end, only time has the answer.

For now, we can confirm the success of the Switch's hardware has translated into success for its software, too. Nintendo's fiscal report includes a listing of the best-selling games on the system, and Super Mario Odyssey comes in at number one with 10.41 million copies sold. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is second with 9.22 million sold, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is third with 8.48 million units sold.
Here's a ranking of the rest of the Switch's best-sellers:
- Splatoon 2 (6.02 million)
- 1-2 Switch (2.29 million)
- ARMS (1.85 million)
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (1.31 million)
- Kirby Star Allies (1.26 million—"Hiii!")
These numbers include downloaded games, games and bundled with systems as well as traditional retail sales. Again, we've yet to see if Nintendo will ever release a game for the Switch or any other system that'll top the Wii's monstrous best-seller, Wii Sports (82.85 million!!), but it's going to be fun to watch it try. Granted, Wii Sports was a pack-in game; it might be more realistic for the company to reach for the Wii's next best-selling game, Mario Kart Wii (37.10 million).
Related articles
PlayStation 5 Update Lets You Know If You're About to Play the PS4 Version of Game
Check yourself before you last-gen yourself.
7
Stardew Valley Just Got Beaches, Fish Tanks, Swimming Ducks, and a Whole Lot More
Nearly five years on, Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone just pushed what he says is Stardew's "biggest update yet."
8
Alien: Isolation Is Free on Epic and Just As Good as It Was in 2014
Get the motion tracker and don't go in the vents.
Shigeru Miyamoto Expresses Confidence in the Younger Generation of Nintendo
The legendary creator says the spirit will stay alive.
16
You may also like
USgamer Staff Past and Present Say Goodbye
End of an era.
33
Press Start to Continue
A look back on what we tried to accomplish at USgamer, and the work still to be done.
73
Mat's Farewell | The Truth Has Not Vanished Into Darkness
This isn't the real ending, is it? Can't be.
18
Eric's Farewell | Off to Find a New Challenger
It's time for us to move on, but we'll carry USG with us wherever we go.
17
Newsletter
Subscribe to our weekly newsletters
Get the best of USG in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters.