NPD charts: Switch celebrates first 12 months by being best-selling year one console ever

The Nintendo Switch has gotten an early birthday present, celebrating its first 12 months on the US market by achieving more year-one sales than any other console in the US market, according to NPD data.

The exact number hasn’t been revealed, but Nintendo reported 4.8m US sales at the end of 2017, so it’s likely to be upwards of five million units. Similarly sales of Nintendo software has slotted into the market, which has seen a decline in software across other platforms, and helped the market hit $397m in February, the same total achieved in February 2017, twelve months ago.

Total spending on hardware, software and accessories saw a 23 per cent spike in February over 2017’s figures, to $995 million. This is driven by hardware and accessories after games revenue was flattened out, although not all the praise for this can be heaped on the Switch: the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X also launched last year to relative success.

It’s all good news for Nintendo, then, despite the PlayStation 4 remaining the best-selling console for February, and indeed the year to date. It’s also good news for the US games industry, which is so far ahead of where it was at this time last year by 39 per cent, with current revenue standing at $2.1b.

Monster Hunter World was the best selling title of February, but also of the year so far. The rest of the Top Ten is listed below, although digital sales for Nintendo aren’t counted, while PC digital sales for The Sims 4, Battlefront II and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds aren’t included either.

That list, then(data courtesy of the NDP Group):