The Road to 160m+ for Nintendo Switch

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javi741 said:

There's isn't evidence that most people who own a Switch primarily view it as a handheld device. If that were the case we should see Switch Lite sales much higher than they actually are because if most people would view the Switch as primarily a handheld I'm sure many would rather prefer to get the cheaper option, but they don't. A huge majority of Switch sales come from the 300$/350$ Switch's because many people want and view the Switch as a console experience as well. Even research has shown that around 20% of people play the Switch nearly exclusively in docked mode, 50% play evenly on both modes, while only 30% play nearly exclusively in handheld mode. Most people don't primarily view the Switch as a handheld, they view it as a hybrid like the Switch is marketed to be. If anything people view it more as a console If a vast majority of people are willing to spend 300/350$ (near PS5/ Xbox Series S prices) just for the option to play on the TV.

Also, a console lasting longer in the market without a successor is a byproduct of high sales numbers that encourage the console to stick around longer, the Switch shouldn't be discredited for having a time advantage since it was successful enough for it to earn more extra years on the market, and Switch is the system this late in the game to be able to sell this well, showing it's mass appeal more than any other console.

Also, competition is stronger now than it was back then. Smartphone gaming is huge and evidently took a large chunk of sales from the handheld market with the 3DS selling only half of what the DS sold. The home console market competition has stayed about the same past few years with the combined sales of PS/Xbox each gen always hovering around 170M. While yes Nintendo created their own market for the Switch making sales very high, competition is still stronger than ever right now, I'll still give Nintendo credit for finding a way to stand out enough to potentially outsell their home console counterparts combined when many people didn't even expect to exceed 100M sold in the first place, the Switch even exceeded Nintendo's own high expectation of 100M.

I already discussed that. My point wasn't about what portion of the people uses Switch for what, but that everyone who want handheld console buys Switch, and Switch is the only true option. And no Switch does not have competition since the gaming on phone is nothing like on consoles with buttons and games that are optimized and specially designed for a console. So no Switch does not have competition, there is no other handheld console that most of the Switch games comes out on too. The smartphone gaming was like a gimmick that blew around 2010 and many said it would kill all of the consoles and everyone would play on their phones but here we are years later with most of the people playing on their Switches. The serious gamer who wants to play outside picks up Switch. And also this research was done years ago about the percentage. Also the system units sold, are those, because first the original model was already at 40M when the Lite released, second of course there will be many people buying the original and the OLED model, because many people can afford it since the difference is only 50$ and it's the original and OLED are better machines overall than the Lite models. The Lite models is simply for those who want something budget and can't afford more. There is iphone that is selling for so much more than a phone for 200$ but many people buys iphones because it's better and they can afford them. For the difference it offers, the original or the OLED is much better deal than the Lite. But this is out of the topic now. It's not so important.

Yes you are right about the lasting lifetime, but this does not change the fact either. DS was also selling very well, better than Switch even in it's peak years, but Nintendo cut it short. So it's not necessary to stick long because you were selling good. However the success of the system does not change the fact that the longer than normal lifetime is only helping. It's not discredited, it's simply stating one of the reasons.

The original point I made was that if you look it from handheld market perspective it's not so mind blowing since the handheld market has been more healthier before with sales of almost 240M.