Forgive me if there is already a post on this, and if there is I'll forego this post for another if it exists. However, I just recently noticed that the Nintendo Switch is possibly only a mere few weeks away from passing the life time sales of their very own Nintendo 64. It's sort of miraculous to me, for as evergreen and long lasting as the N64 is, it only sold 32.93 million units. That's by no means something to scoff at, but barely into the Switch's third year it is at 32.5 most recently on the VGChartz homepage.

I wonder what we all make of this, and whether it's a testament to how popular the Switch is, and possibly to reflect and compare the two systems, and also how they're different. This post isn't trying to make any sort of judgement, just a cool milestone I see coming up in the future. 

UPDATE: With the week ending April 6th, the Switch has passed the N64 with sales of 33.1 Million units!

Here is where I found the N64 data, although I presume everyone here knows this already: (https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/)

it's pretty mindblowing that the N64 only sold 32.9M consoles......

I would love if they added VIRTUAL CONSOLE TO SWITCH. With N64 and gamecube games.

Well, now we wait until it reaches SNES numbers. I wonder how big is the AC/Pokemon/New models' boost is going to be...

I expect them to make an N64 mini and Gamecube mini in the future. Maybe after that such games might be added to Nintendo Switch online, but I wouldn't expect any Virtual console anymore.

N64 sold very badly outside of US, and was dead the moment FF VII came out on the Playstation (which until then did pretty badly for itself btw)

Switch is a console so I think it should be asked if it can outsell the Wii. When looking at the PS4 it's kinda a forgone conclusion that it will not catch the PS2 due simply to the ridiculous 155+ sales. Therefore the only realistic conversation we can have is only relative to the PSOne. Yes it will pass it. But back to the Switch can it challange the Wii U for its number one console title?


You guys know that I dont think Switch will get anywhere near the Wii.

The N64 did not sell well because most people were only born with two hands.

I’ve never held a N64 controller, is it really that bad?

I was one of those people that held the controller wrong lol.  Oddly enough, I got used to it and holding it right felt weird, so I actually got REALLY good at using it that way.

No, you would hold the middle and right handles for games that used the analog stick or the left and right handles for games that used the D-pad.

I cant think of a single game that required both the D-pad and analog stick so the 3 handle design worked fine.

While I understand how sales curves work, it is also my belief that Nintendo will end, of it's own free will, the Switch.  I believe the rumors that say that there is a new version on the horizon.  That is why I insinuated that if we really treat it as a Pro then it will change the nature of the conversation.  

I hold that the Switch, in its current incarnation, will top out at 65 to 70 million before that happens.  An informed response would simply to suggest that the new model will in fact be a pro numbers and then I could have reevaluated.   

It sounds like we need to have a more grounded conversation where we try to understand each others projections or predictions.