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Forums - Sales Discussion - Switch outsells all other consoles combined in 2020 (US)

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Dulfite said:
Mnementh said:

Switch is close to beat the Xbox One in it's home market, as it already did with PS4 in it's home market.

I don't get how, as a whole, a continent could ignore a system so much that is immensely popular in NA and Asia. I know certain countries it does decent in like France, but how is the system this unappealing to Eastern Europe specifically? Are they THAT graphics obsessed over there or something else?

Switch performance in France isn't just decent, it's outpacing the PS4 in the same time frame.



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curl-6 said:

Has a single system selling over 2 million in a single month in NPD happened before?

Multiple times in the past but only two in the past decade, both achieved by Switch in the December month.



PAOerfulone said:

There's a lot of potential for the Switch in the US.

As of now, I think 40 million is the floor of where it can reach, it could get as high as 50 million. Only one system in history has cracked 50 million in the US alone, and that was the DS. The PS2 and 360 managed to pass 45 million. While the Wii passed 40 million.

So that's a grand total of 4 systems in the '40 Million US' club, 3 in the '45 million US' club, and just 1 in the '50 million' club. They may be getting some company.

46-53M LTD USA only

49-60M LTD Americas



Endymion said:
Dulfite said:

I don't get how, as a whole, a continent could ignore a system so much that is immensely popular in NA and Asia. I know certain countries it does decent in like France, but how is the system this unappealing to Eastern Europe specifically? Are they THAT graphics obsessed over there or something else?

Switch performance in France isn't just decent, it's outpacing the PS4 in the same time frame.

and Uk becomes Animal Crossing island. 



eva01beserk said:
shikamaru317 said:

PS5 resolution is 3200 x 1800, or 5.76m pixels. Xbox Series X is 3840 x 2160, or 8.29m pixels. In other words, Xbox Series X is pushing about 43% more pixels than PS5. On top of that, Xbox Series X has the high setting shadows from the PC version while PS5 has the medium setting shadows from the PC version. PS5 does have a framerate advantage, but only on a single area of a single level pretty much, the rest of the time they are both 60 fps. Seems like a victory for Series X overall to me. 

I suppose they could implement an optional resolution mode on PS5 that is full 4K, so we could get a like for like comparison with Series X, but based on the fact that it seemingly took a 43% pixel count reduction and a shadow quality reduction for them to hit locked 60 fps on PS5, I suspect that if PS5 did have a native 4K resolution mode, the framerate on it would drop much lower than the 50 fps that Series X drops to at the lowest on the outdoor flower section on the single level. 

But again. The ps5 has a locked framerate so it means the ps5 could push avive that and like the xbox drop in certain areas. It seems very suspicious to me that the game is locked at a lower resolution while the framerate seems to indicate it can go higher.

IcaroRibeiro said:

Dulfite said:

Let's compare WiiU/Switch/XBOXO/PS4 in NA, Japan, and Europe for market share. Because the Switch is only halfway through its life (whereas the PS4 and Xbox One are basically done), I'm combining the Wii U with Switch for the purpose of fairness since Switch hasn't been out as long. Honestly, when the Switch HAS finished, the numbers will be far higher than the amount Wii U added anyway.

According to the charts, the above have sold 104.9 million units in NA this generation. Switch + Wii U sold 35.13 million so far, or 33% market share. PS4 got 36%, and Xbox One got 30%. More or less a tie here, although Switch will be probably at or near 40% when it's all said and done. Switch clearly not ignored here.

In Japan the above sold 30.47 million units so far. Switch + Wii U got 69% of the market share. Switch dominating here.

In Europe the above sold 84.07 million units so far. Switch + Wii U got 28% of the market share. PS4 got 57% of the market share.

Now, back to your first comment. I didn't say the entire continent ignores it, I said as a whole (or on average, collectively). I even included France in there and alluded to other countries where it does sell well.

Regarding Eastern Europe, I have seen people post on this site how badly Nintendo has sold historically in Eastern European countries and how much PlayStation sells there. From my understanding, it is Eastern Europe that causes Europe to overall always show Sony domination and I don't really understand why that is. I don't know if it is because of graphics, because of wanting only hardcore intense games over there, or because Nintendo PR screwed up decades ago over there, I have no clue and that's all I was curious about in my OP.

Guess it's the same reason why Nintendo is mostly irrelevant in Latin America, they never made any effort to increase their brand here. Nintendo sells a lot based on nostalgia, if you weren't raised with Nintendo IPs games that evokes nostalgia becomes empty and meaningless 

The only Nintendo home console to ever sell more than 8 million copies in Europe was the Wii. In many markets Nintendo is a company to buy handhelds. This is so true that in Europe Nintendo handhelds always performed better than Sony's with the PSP barely outselling GBA and 3DS and being destroyed by DS and GB/GBC. I won't even talk about Vita

Brand loyalty is a thing people often ignores when it comes to buying hardware. Xbox and Playstation library are 90% the same, Xbox is often less expensive and even has GP, yet PS3 outsold 360 by almost 10 million and PS4 decimate XBone, why? Many reasons, but brand loyalty plays a big role here

Point is, Sony invested to sell Playstation in every market they could while Nintendo only focused in Japan, Western Europe and North America that's why Sony is always going to have an edge over Nintendo in both Europe and ROW. Not saying Nintendo can't win there, it's just harder and that's rather deserved

An important thing to note though is that of the Big 3 in the video game hardware manufacturing space, Nintendo is the only one that did not have an existing worldwide distribution model/infrastructure from other divisions within their own company to work with.  I think that when looking at the success of the Sony Playstation, a lot of people tend to forget or take for granted that when that system released, Sony wasn't some unheard of company trying to enter the fray.  In the US, where I live, it was more like, "Oh, wow, that well known company that I already own products from in my home is also releasing a video game console now."

Everywhere Nintendo has gone, they have had to build from scratch or find a reliable partner.  The latter is something they had both good fortune with and bad.  Teaming up with Worlds of Wonder in the 80's to distribute the NES in the US was a case of terrific good fortune.  Worlds of Wonder had been founded by ex-Atari employees who know all about the video game retail space in America.  Not all of these partnerships were fruitful though.  In some of the major parts of Europe, Nintendo relied on Mattel to handle the distribution of the NES.  By all accounts I have read, Mattel was completely inept at this, stocking the NES primarily in boutique shops where it would go unnoticed by the average consumer.  So, there are numerous cases where that Nintendo nostalgia doesn't exist, because they didn't find the right partner to secure them a foothold to grow in that particular country.  Take Nintendo's recent success in China for example.  Nintendo has been working at a position in China since the early 2000's.  Even before consoles could be directly released there, they had teamed with iQue to create and release a cartridge based plug and play version of the N64.

Last edited by Mandalore76 - on 22 January 2021

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Nintendo does terribly in New Zealand practically doesn't exist there, but Australia just next door is doing fine in regards to Nintendo, it's strange



Mandalore76 said:
eva01beserk said:

But again. The ps5 has a locked framerate so it means the ps5 could push avive that and like the xbox drop in certain areas. It seems very suspicious to me that the game is locked at a lower resolution while the framerate seems to indicate it can go higher.

IcaroRibeiro said:

Guess it's the same reason why Nintendo is mostly irrelevant in Latin America, they never made any effort to increase their brand here. Nintendo sells a lot based on nostalgia, if you weren't raised with Nintendo IPs games that evokes nostalgia becomes empty and meaningless 

The only Nintendo home console to ever sell more than 8 million copies in Europe was the Wii. In many markets Nintendo is a company to buy handhelds. This is so true that in Europe Nintendo handhelds always performed better than Sony's with the PSP barely outselling GBA and 3DS and being destroyed by DS and GB/GBC. I won't even talk about Vita

Brand loyalty is a thing people often ignores when it comes to buying hardware. Xbox and Playstation library are 90% the same, Xbox is often less expensive and even has GP, yet PS3 outsold 360 by almost 10 million and PS4 decimate XBone, why? Many reasons, but brand loyalty plays a big role here

Point is, Sony invested to sell Playstation in every market they could while Nintendo only focused in Japan, Western Europe and North America that's why Sony is always going to have an edge over Nintendo in both Europe and ROW. Not saying Nintendo can't win there, it's just harder and that's rather deserved

An important thing to note though is that of the Big 3 in the video game hardware manufacturing space, Nintendo is the only one that did not have an existing worldwide distribution model/infrastructure from other divisions within their own company to work with.  I think that when looking at the success of the Sony Playstation, a lot of people tend to forget or take for granted that when that system released, Sony wasn't some unheard of company trying to enter the fray.  In the US, where I live, it was more like, "Oh, wow, that well known company that I already own products from in my home is also releasing a video game console now."

Everywhere Nintendo has gone, they have had to build from scratch or find a reliable partner.  The latter is something they had both good fortune with and bad.  Teaming up with Worlds of Wonder in the 80's to distribute the NES in the US was a case of terrific good fortune.  Worlds of Wonder had been founded by ex-Atari employees who know all about the video game retail space in America.  Not all of these partnerships were fruitful though.  In some of the major parts of Europe, Nintendo relied on Mattel to handle the distribution of the NES.  By all accounts I have read, Mattel was completely inept at this, stocking the NES primarily in boutique shops where it would go unnoticed by the average consumer.  So, there are numerous cases where that Nintendo nostalgia doesn't exist, because they didn't find the right partner to secure them a foothold to grow in that particular country.  Take Nintendo's recent success in China for example.  Nintendo has been working at a position in China since the early 2000's.  Even before consoles could be directly released there, they had teamed with iQue to create and release a cartridge based plug and play version of the N64.

Thank you for that! That was interesting to read! So it's less about the consumers of those countries randomly disliking popular devices and more about bad business partners messing up sales potential?



Dulfite said:
Mandalore76 said:

IcaroRibeiro said:

Guess it's the same reason why Nintendo is mostly irrelevant in Latin America, they never made any effort to increase their brand here. Nintendo sells a lot based on nostalgia, if you weren't raised with Nintendo IPs games that evokes nostalgia becomes empty and meaningless 

The only Nintendo home console to ever sell more than 8 million copies in Europe was the Wii. In many markets Nintendo is a company to buy handhelds. This is so true that in Europe Nintendo handhelds always performed better than Sony's with the PSP barely outselling GBA and 3DS and being destroyed by DS and GB/GBC. I won't even talk about Vita

Brand loyalty is a thing people often ignores when it comes to buying hardware. Xbox and Playstation library are 90% the same, Xbox is often less expensive and even has GP, yet PS3 outsold 360 by almost 10 million and PS4 decimate XBone, why? Many reasons, but brand loyalty plays a big role here

Point is, Sony invested to sell Playstation in every market they could while Nintendo only focused in Japan, Western Europe and North America that's why Sony is always going to have an edge over Nintendo in both Europe and ROW. Not saying Nintendo can't win there, it's just harder and that's rather deserved

An important thing to note though is that of the Big 3 in the video game hardware manufacturing space, Nintendo is the only one that did not have an existing worldwide distribution model/infrastructure from other divisions within their own company to work with.  I think that when looking at the success of the Sony Playstation, a lot of people tend to forget or take for granted that when that system released, Sony wasn't some unheard of company trying to enter the fray.  In the US, where I live, it was more like, "Oh, wow, that well known company that I already own products from in my home is also releasing a video game console now."

Everywhere Nintendo has gone, they have had to build from scratch or find a reliable partner.  The latter is something they had both good fortune with and bad.  Teaming up with Worlds of Wonder in the 80's to distribute the NES in the US was a case of terrific good fortune.  Worlds of Wonder had been founded by ex-Atari employees who know all about the video game retail space in America.  Not all of these partnerships were fruitful though.  In some of the major parts of Europe, Nintendo relied on Mattel to handle the distribution of the NES.  By all accounts I have read, Mattel was completely inept at this, stocking the NES primarily in boutique shops where it would go unnoticed by the average consumer.  So, there are numerous cases where that Nintendo nostalgia doesn't exist, because they didn't find the right partner to secure them a foothold to grow in that particular country.  Take Nintendo's recent success in China for example.  Nintendo has been working at a position in China since the early 2000's.  Even before consoles could be directly released there, they had teamed with iQue to create and release a cartridge based plug and play version of the N64.

Thank you for that! That was interesting to read! So it's less about the consumers of those countries randomly disliking popular devices and more about bad business partners messing up sales potential?

It's not a blanket explanation, but as far as brand loyalty goes in some places, I do believe that it played a role in specific examples.



Dulfite said:
Mandalore76 said:

IcaroRibeiro said:

Guess it's the same reason why Nintendo is mostly irrelevant in Latin America, they never made any effort to increase their brand here. Nintendo sells a lot based on nostalgia, if you weren't raised with Nintendo IPs games that evokes nostalgia becomes empty and meaningless 

The only Nintendo home console to ever sell more than 8 million copies in Europe was the Wii. In many markets Nintendo is a company to buy handhelds. This is so true that in Europe Nintendo handhelds always performed better than Sony's with the PSP barely outselling GBA and 3DS and being destroyed by DS and GB/GBC. I won't even talk about Vita

Brand loyalty is a thing people often ignores when it comes to buying hardware. Xbox and Playstation library are 90% the same, Xbox is often less expensive and even has GP, yet PS3 outsold 360 by almost 10 million and PS4 decimate XBone, why? Many reasons, but brand loyalty plays a big role here

Point is, Sony invested to sell Playstation in every market they could while Nintendo only focused in Japan, Western Europe and North America that's why Sony is always going to have an edge over Nintendo in both Europe and ROW. Not saying Nintendo can't win there, it's just harder and that's rather deserved

An important thing to note though is that of the Big 3 in the video game hardware manufacturing space, Nintendo is the only one that did not have an existing worldwide distribution model/infrastructure from other divisions within their own company to work with.  I think that when looking at the success of the Sony Playstation, a lot of people tend to forget or take for granted that when that system released, Sony wasn't some unheard of company trying to enter the fray.  In the US, where I live, it was more like, "Oh, wow, that well known company that I already own products from in my home is also releasing a video game console now."

Everywhere Nintendo has gone, they have had to build from scratch or find a reliable partner.  The latter is something they had both good fortune with and bad.  Teaming up with Worlds of Wonder in the 80's to distribute the NES in the US was a case of terrific good fortune.  Worlds of Wonder had been founded by ex-Atari employees who know all about the video game retail space in America.  Not all of these partnerships were fruitful though.  In some of the major parts of Europe, Nintendo relied on Mattel to handle the distribution of the NES.  By all accounts I have read, Mattel was completely inept at this, stocking the NES primarily in boutique shops where it would go unnoticed by the average consumer.  So, there are numerous cases where that Nintendo nostalgia doesn't exist, because they didn't find the right partner to secure them a foothold to grow in that particular country.  Take Nintendo's recent success in China for example.  Nintendo has been working at a position in China since the early 2000's.  Even before consoles could be directly released there, they had teamed with iQue to create and release a cartridge based plug and play version of the N64.

Thank you for that! That was interesting to read! So it's less about the consumers of those countries randomly disliking popular devices and more about bad business partners messing up sales potential?

Sony has distribution in the majority of the country. The PlayStation brand mounts up in this worldwide distribution. Nintendo have to build up this distribution at the start, because of this Sony is more penetration today in more countries.



Rab said:

Nintendo does terribly in New Zealand practically doesn't exist there, but Australia just next door is doing fine in regards to Nintendo, it's strange

Switch doing fine with the aussies