Japanese Nintendo Switch sales hit a record high for June

After the release of the latest Legend of Zelda title and numerous announcements, it has been reported that unit sales of the Switch have hit the highest numbers seen for the month of June in its six-year-long lifecycle.

The details:

• According to the Japanese publication Nikkei (via @Stealth40k), the Nintendo Switch sold 380,000 units in June, representing a 68% year-on-year increase from June 2022. The Japanese gaming giant reported a slowdown in console sales earlier this year, just missing its target of 18 million units sold last year, with year-end console sales falling by 22%. It also anticipates that sales will continue to fall throughout the year as the console approaches the end of its lifecycle.
• The reason for the sudden increase in sales can be attributed to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in May, with its massive commercial and critical success continuing to drive console sales. Nintendo also recently held another Nintendo Direct showcase, highlighting a number of upcoming releases such as Pikmin 4, a remake of Super Mario RPG, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which is thought to have helped bring the device back into the spotlight.
• Since its release in 2017, the Switch has gone on to become one of the most successful consoles in history, and it has been dubbed a "savior" for Nintendo following the company's struggles in the first half of the 2010s, which began with the failure of the Wii U. It has sold 125.62 million units worldwide, trailing only the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS, and is expected to surpass the DS within the next few years. Due to the system's lack of technical power, the company intends to release some type of successor within the next few years, with specifications likely comparable to those of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

More Nintendo news:

• The designer of F-Zero believes that the franchise has been dormant for nearly two decades due to the popularity of Mario Kart. While Metroid has recently seen a revival in the form of Metroid Dread and Prime Remastered, he stated that the decision to outsource the projects was made after "careful selection" of the developers in charge and that the returns of releasing a new F-Zero may not be worth the overall cost of development.
• Masahiro Sakurai, a legendary Nintendo designer, has revealed that he is interested in making a sequel to 2012's Kid Icarus: Uprising, but that creating another game will be difficult. He went on to say that it's a "shame" that the game is only available for the 3DS and that he'd love to play on a "bigger screen with smoother graphics.”