Nice graphs. The only problem is that the Switch is competing with the DS and the Wii which were contemporaries. So a much better metric to compare apples to apples is DS+Wii SW vs Switch SW.

The switch is trailing far behind, which shows that it still has tons of potential.

Nice data as always. March should be also great, and as Monster Hunter Rise launches late in March even April should go well.

I'm wondering whether or not the Switch will be able to have the greatest fiscal year of all time which would beat the DS's 2008-09 fiscal year of 31.18M sold.

The Switch so far in 3Qs sold 24.1M units from April 2020 to December 2020. For the Switch to beat the DS's milestone, the Switch needs to sell at least more than 7.08M units in Q4 between January and March of this year. Seems like its going to be difficult for the Switch to have a 7.08M quarter but it is certainly within reach of the Switch. In Q2 last year between July and September 6.86M Switch's were shipped and that was with limited stock in July and it didn't have major game releases outside of 3D All stars and PM, but they aren't huge system sellers. This quarter MH Rise could exponentially grow switch sales.

I think it is hard to compare them in any way, the industry is really different now. I understand that comparing this way will not determine what console is better. That is why I see everything here as just a way to spark conversations and questions. Just looking at sales will never help us determine anything. What I find interesting is being able to talk each month about specific moments of all consoles. 

I would find it interesting to see how software compares between all consoles. It might be a bit hard with digital downloads now.

Absolutely, I don't know much about Monster Hunter, but it seems like it has a potential to really push sales. Hopefully it can be somewhat similar to Animal Crossing. This month and the next are extremely difficult to beat for the Switch vs 2020. 

Hi @javi741 I am a bit confused with your statistic of 31.18M, For me, DS sold 28.68M during that timeframe according to VGChartz, I am wondering where you are getting  this number from. Thank you in advanced.

I don't think Monster Hunter would have had as big as an impact on hardware sales as Animal Crossing even without the lockdown boost (Japan maybe, but not worldwide) however it is definitely a system seller so should boost the numbers.

March-April-May are still pretty much guaranteed to be down YOY though if the weeks align... last year they were 4-4-5 weeks, I dont know how VGC determines which months are 5-weeks long so I think only chance of 2021 beating 2020 is if April is 5-weeks this time.

Come June we will be able to see better how well Switch is doing compared to last year, I suspect it will be down by ~ 500k-1million (but a better holiday period could mean similar sales for the full year)

This year is 5-4-4. This is why there might be a slight chance for the Switch to outsell March 2020, but April should be a massive fall. As for May, it needs to sell as much as it did last month (1.7M), so that is also possible. 

I agree with your estimate of it being down by about 1M after May. June - August could also go in favor of 2021. It is going to be a close race in my opinion.

This year is 5-4-4. This is why there might be a slight chance for the Switch to outsell March 2020, but April should be a massive fall. As for May, it needs to sell as much as it did last month (1.7M), so that is also possible. 

I agree with your estimate of it being down by about 1M after May. June - August could also go in favor of 2021. It is going to be a close race in my opinion.

Does that mean you have figured out what determines 4 vs 5 week? Seems pretty random to me (last year the week ending May 2nd was included in May... but I am sure I have seen some weeks ending on the 4th being included in the previous month)

If March is 5-week then beating 2020 4-week I guess is possible, but it will still be a challenge.

May 2020 was 2.2 million over 5 weeks, this year I think its definitely only 4 weeks so I dont see how it could match that.

You are correct, I take it back, I have no idea how VGChartz will calculate months. Having said that, the way I am calculating months is always the same, if the saturday lands on the first three days of the month, then it goes to the previous month.

This way, on this thread we will be comparing 5-4-4. I know this is not optimal, but it was my best way of having a uniform system. 

Thanks for pointing the May difference to me.

From your previous posts you seem to have either copied or scraped a lot of the VGC weekly data into your own spreadsheets... do you think there could be a pattern to how VGC treats months? (btw if you copied it from the hardware by date charts then I admire your dedication... must have taken ages)

Definitely would be better if it was more consistant.

Anyhow so for your comparisons last year was 4-5-4, and this year is 5-4-4 correct? If so then yes May was similar in weekly sales to what Switch is doing now, so if there is a stock or game release boost this year in May there is a good chance it will be up that month. April is obviously not possible as with 5 weeks it was almost 2.7 million last year. And March I agree there is a slim chance, but even with 5 weeks I think it will be down compared to last year.