Nintendo’s Doug Bowser on Switch sales, supply issues, and N64 emulation troubles
Last month, the PS5 ended the Nintendo Switch’s nearly three-year-long reign as the best-selling console in the US. That proved to be short-lived, however. In October, thanks in large part to the release of the new OLED model of the Switch, Nintendo is back on top.
According to Nintendo, the Switch sold 711,000 units overall in the US during October, and 314,000 of those were the OLED version. The NPD Group says that these numbers made the Switch the US’s best-selling console that month “in both units and dollars.” (The analyst firm also says that the PS5 remains the top seller in 2021 in terms of dollars, while the Switch is on top when it comes to units sold.)
“We see this as a strong start for the Nintendo Switch OLED model and a very strong indicator of the performance we can expect as we go into the holiday season,” Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser tells The Kupon4U.
“If you see it, buy it”
Bowser notes that those October sales numbers are 3 percent lower compared to the same time last year. Earlier this month, Nintendo cut its overall sales forecast — it now expects to sell 24 million units globally between April 2021 and March 2022, 1.5 million less than previously forecasted — due to the global chip shortage. And Bowser says that he doesn’t predict those supply issues changing any time soon:
Outside of hardware, Nintendo noted that Metroid Dread — which launched alongside the OLED Switch on October 8th — sold 854,000 units in the US, making it “the best start for any Metroid game ever,” according to Bowser. Meanwhile, Animal Crossing: New Horizons received “a significant spike in people buying the game” after its final major update, according to Nintendo, though the company hasn’t released specific numbers on this. New Horizons is currently the second best-selling Switch game with nearly 35 million units sold globally.
Bowser also touched on a few other recent and ongoing Nintendo storylines, including:
Fan complaints of poor emulation for Nintendo 64 games on Switch Online
The years-long battle against Joy-Con drift
