Didn't realize til today; with these numbers Luigi's Mansion 3 has surpassed the sales of Dark Moon/2 and is the highest selling game in the franchise, after just 5 months.

Why the HD though? Nintendo gave them Wii Sports HD, Mario Kart HD, Wii Fit HD, Super Mario Bros HD, Smash HD, 3D Zelda remake HD, a revolutionary 3D, HD Zelda sequel and less than 15% of Wii owners bought the system.

Wii HD was always a stupid idea.  That is what the comic is mocking.  Just like Switch Pro is a stupid idea.  It's the same stupid idea.  The fact that Nintendo actually made a Wii HD eventually really just proves how dumb Wii HD really was.  And yet people still keep talking about Switch Pro even though it's the same dumb idea.

Exactly and that's why it could only have been Xbots and Sony fans that bought the WiiU. Why would a Nintendo fan buy the same or worse games just because they're in HD? Answer - they didn't.

A lot of these touch on similar points so I will respond collectively

Skyward swords notable below normal zelda releases for 2 reasons; 1 its  late gen game (which comes into my point a bit later), 2 it requires motion plus.

1. People have said this in the past and moved the goal post. Anyone who was arguing Smash and Pokemon would not make a dent despite both historically being 2nd only to Mario Kart are not making the same argument as me. Its not based on hindsight, its easily observable sales history. 

2. No one expected AC to smash the way it did. In spite of New Leaf literally being the 3DS' 7th best selling title at 12m, I completely agree everyone underestimated how AC would performed. As someone heavily on Social Media, social media presence alongside Corona are 2 things which I think really heightened its impact. None the less it was always going to be a big hit. Being suprised by AC's performance is one thing, expecting repeats of it (which I feel is the argument you have to be making, if you're criticisng my logic) is another. If this was the 2nd/3rd surprise phenomenom during the Switches life then I would get the point but its not.

2. BOTW2, MarioKart9, Sequels to the massive sellers.

Pokemon X/Y 2013; 16m,
3DS hardware FY ending march 2014; 12m

Pokemon Sun/Moon 2016: Software sales; 16m
3DS hardware FY ending march 2017; 7m

I could actually provide tons of examples, from pokemon games on the DS, Zelda on other platforms (Wii/N64), Mario Galaxy/Mario Galax2, Mario party 8 > 9. For sure returning big hitters help slow down decline but they do not stop it from happening. And it makes total sense, because the first entries convinces most fans of said game/franchise to hop on board the platform. Mario Kart 9 will sell a shit ton of software, I personally would not see it doing gang busters where hardware is concerned because MK8 is doing that job already, hence the insane legs.

4. New IP/Another Animal Crossing type phenomenom.

In the last 3 years Nintendo has seen ZERO new IPs released to massive fan fare, not to say they've failed but they simply haven't done especially great numbers. And hoping that another known quantity will suddenly see an AC level boost is a bet I'm not willing to take but maybe you are?

5. Momentum of collective library: I think this is exactly what we're seeing now, Animal crossing & corona were the cherry on top. I've even said I don't think they need a big holiday title. Still I don't think this momentum will sustain 20m+ sales in 18months time. 

6. Corona:
For sure Corona is a factor (also unexpected), but one that I think reinforces the idea of the next 12months seeing a peak hardware wise.

7. Hardware revisions.

Expected, I think the most important one (Switch Lite) is out now and we're seeing that reflecting in its current sales. It's actually not as big as I expected though which gives kudos to the original Switch design.

8. Price cut.

My opinion is Nintendo will not cut the price to boast about 20m sales figures, meaning a price cut will only happen when we're already seeing big decline. It will offset this decline but not usher in a new peak. Because the Switch is already at a mass market price I don't think a price cut will align with its peak. Typically this is what we see for systems which start off expensive (or in 3DS case viewed as over priced) and thus are very price elastic. 

Lastly I feel like you guys are arguing with the Ghost of a Nintendo doom sayer LMAO. I'm not arguing doom, I'm arguing I don't expect 3 more years of 20m sales and explaining why, but I've now heard you arguments for why you expect such a thing. I disagree, of course I could be wrong. If so remind me in 2 years time  ;)

The sales will be 20m+ for the next few years. My reason for this is that households are beginning to have multiple switches per household. Having islands localized to switches in animal crossing led to people who normally share a switch to play games having to get their own. This is one of the reasons animal crossings release led to such a huge boost in switch sales. I believe in future games, Nintendo will continue to find ways that entice households to purchase multiple switches.

The balloon game isn't a DLC, it's an update as you pointed out. It will be in the game whether you want it or not, like the last Super Mario Maker update.

And MK8D is the definitive edition of MK8 but didn't get any DLC since release.

And regarding Pokémon, how a remake cannot be eligible for a DLC ?

The balloon game is officially listed as "Luigi's Balloon World DLC" by nintendo, so it technically is DLC. There were also new outfits added continuously after the games release. It automatically updates because the dlc is free. 

I have never heard of a remake of any game ever getting dlc. They added compatibility with pokemon home post-release as a quality of life update. Super mario party is not a remake. 

Mario kart on the switch includes the dlc bundle (it has the dlc). The could have ported it and made everyone purchase the DLC, but they decided to include it for free. 

Captain Toad is the only port to receive DLC. I think it needed it to boost sales as it is a lesser known IP and it's well known thanks to data miners that the levels were likely unreleased levels planned for the initial game on wiiu. Luigi's mansion also has DLC and super mario maker receives free updates as you mentioned. 

Almost all Nintendo games on the switch that are not ports or remakes are getting post-game updates. Zelda, Splatoon 2, odyssey, Luigi's mansion, super mario maker 2, and animal crossing have all received post-game updates from Nintendo. Super mario party is the unusual exception and the one that needs it most. 

- Easily observable but people still thought otherwise because the central thinking of their argument is what I pointed out earlier they'd use the argument that fans are already on board the platform.

- New Leaf is the seventh best sell 3DS game but it wasn't massive platform mover it caused a spike in Japan and then got to where it was through sales legs this is what people were expect with NH and why a significant number of people would have contested it being a massive system seller, they knew it would sell well but didn't think it move platforms that's why a lot of the "well it was always going to sell" is a hindsight adjustment.

- FY ending March 2017 was the 3DS' 6th year of the 7m you reported 6.4m came in the quarter S/M released according to Nintendo's own figures the result was that FY ending March 2017 was up over the prior FY which goes against what you said about sequel's impact it sold a further 6.4m in FY2017 it's 7th year when the NS was out already selling well before dropping to 2.3m after that meaning as a platform that was already replaced went on to sell 12.8m after S/M despite being replaced by it's successor and in its 6th and 7th years during that time as well.

So basically the Switch will fall off a cliff this year.