Why are Nintendo Switch sales peaking much later than other Nintendo consoles?

[Salnax]

Food for thought.

In 2022, the Switch will be passing five years old, yet we already know of a few games that can likely pass 5 million sales likely being released that year: Pokemon Legends, Splatoon 3, and presumably Breath of the Wild 2. Each of these could feasibly pass 10 million sales.

How many Nintendo platforms can you think of that got multiple big games in their sixth year on the market? Not even games that sold 5+ million copies, just pretty big games for their time and context? Because personally, I'm only thinking of the NES (Dragon Quest 4, Dr Mario, and Final Fantasy 3 all in 1990) and the Game Boy (in 1999 the west had Pokemon Yellow and Super Mario Bros DX in quick succession). Even other systems that had big titles later in their lives only had these big titles as the only big game released that year (typically a new Pokemon entry).

Much as I have sometimes been unsatisfied with Nintendo's Switch lineup, I can't deny that they've done a great job of pacing themselves out.