Nintendo Switch outsells GameCube lifetime sales in under two years

Vaughn Highfield December 12, 2017

The Nintendo Switch has just outsold the GameCube as it surpasses the 22 million mark with 22.86 million units sold worldwide. The GameCube only managed to sell 21.74 million consoles during its entire lifetime.

Nintendo Switch outsells GameCube lifetime sales in under two years

This is another major milestone for Nintendo as the Switch has outsold both the Wii U (13.56 million units) and the GameCube in just under two years of being on sale. There’s even a chance the Switch could outsell the mighty N64, which only shifted 32.93 million units.

The Wii still stands quite far ahead of the pack with an impressive 101.63 million units sold in its lifetime but Nintendo’s classic SNES may be in reach. With lifetime sales of 49.1 million, the Switch does still have quite some way to go to catch up with the SNES, but it’s certainly a possibility if Nintendo can keep up the pressure.

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On the games front, Super Mario Odyssey remains the best-selling Nintendo Switch game, having shifted 12.17 million units since launch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sits behind it with 11.71 million units and, it’s presumed, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is still trailing in third place. Those who may have read the news from January may remember this being the same three games leading the charge back then too.

Nintendo says that, of this year’s first-party releases, Mario Tennis Aces and Donky Kong Country: Tropical Freeze are the most popular new Switch games. It’s likely that this’ll be topped by the likes of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when it lands later this year.

This is how things stood in January, via our friends at Statista, so you can see Nintendo’s made a lot of headroom.

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Thankfully, Nintendo seems to have a plan in place to keep a strong library of games coming for the console. 2019 is shaping up to be a great year with a new Bayonetta coming to the console, a new Yoshi game, a new Fire Emblem title, a new Pokémon RPG and Metroid Prime 4 at some point in the future.