Nintendo has officially sold 129.53 Switch consoles worldwide

The Japanese gaming giant has reported that the console is still the third best-selling console of all time, with nearly 130 million units sold over six years.

The details:

• According to Nintendo's website, 129.53 million units of the Switch have been sold since its March 2017 launch, making it the second best-selling Nintendo console behind the DS and the third best-selling in the industry as of February 2023, only being surpassed by the DS and Sony's PlayStation 2. Despite its statement that console sales have begun to slow, the company revealed that 3.91 million of those sales occurred in Q1 2023/24.
• The successful release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is thought to have had a significant impact on console sales, with Nintendo reporting a record quarter for software sales after the game sold 18.51 million units by June 30 after a launch week of 10 million copies sold. Although it appears unlikely, the upcoming releases of Super Mario Wonder and Super Mario RPG's remake could help propel the console past the DS's 154.02 million unit sales.
• Despite Nintendo's claims that the Switch has a long life ahead of it, it was revealed earlier this week that the company has already distributed development kits to its "key partners," and that it is planning to release a successor to the console in the second half of 2024. According to reports, the system's mid-cycle launch will feature a larger day-one lineup than the Switch, and that shortages of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S may work in Nintendo's favor because current generation titles have rarely taken advantage of the new technology.

More Nintendo news:

• Nintendo has finally patched a security vulnerability in Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon for the Wii U, bringing their servers back online after five months. However, the company stated that if further issues with older titles arise, it may permanently close its online services in the future.
• The Last Hope: Dead Zone Survival, a "knock-off" of The Last of Us, has been removed from the Nintendo eShop, most likely at the request of Sony after going viral on social media for its low-quality attempt to capitalize on the success of Naughty Dog's original IP.