The Nintendo Switch is already far more popular than the Wii U

It’s no secret at this point that the Nintendo Switch has been a major success for Nintendo, but just how successful? One way to look at it is that the Nintendo Switch is far more successful than the Wii U, even after being out for just over a year.

This is perhaps no surprise, since the Wii U was Nintendo’s worst performing console ever — if you don’t count the Virtua Boy — and sold just 13.5 million units over its five years of life. It sold just shy of 100 million games during that time, with ten games breaking through the one million-unit barrier.

That’s not terrible per-say, but in the context of its competitor consoles, the Xbox One and PS4, and especially it’s predecessor, the Wii, that was a poor showing. Fortunately for Nintendo, the Switch seems to have turned things around. In just over a year since the portable home console launched, it’s sold close to 18 million systems. That’s nearly three million more than even Nintendo predicted, as per Kotaku.

Total game sales so far for the system have topped 69 million, with the top 10 games making up a sizeable portion of that. Super Mario Odyssey is the top selling Switch game, with more than 10.4 million units sold. It’s followed closely by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has sold 9.22 million copies, despite being a mere upgrade and re-release of the Wii U version of the game.

While both of those could be considered popular because of Switch bundles, the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has also shifted some 8.48 million copies, while Splatoon 2 has sold more than six million copies and Arms 1.85 million.

Do you guys have a Nintendo Switch for gaming away from your PC?