- The Nintendo Switch has ended its seventh year on the market.
- While the console is still selling well, it suffered from a 14% drop in sales in the UK.
- It seems folks are now more interested in finding out what the next console has to offer.
The UK gaming industry’s annual sales data has been revealed. While consoles like the PS5 continued to make headlines last year, the Xbox Series S|X lost their footing, leading to a significant drop in sales.
Similarly, Nintendo’s aging hybrid console was unable to stay ahead of the competition. According to the report, Nintendo Switch sales were down by 16.7% in 2023 compared to 2022.
Why it matters: The decline illustrates that the console has grown old now, and the gaming industry craves a new piece of hardware from the Japanese gaming giant.
As per the statistics from Gamesindustry, the Nintendo Switch was the second best-selling console in 2023, falling behind the PlayStation 5. However, despite a compelling first-party slate, this hardware could not match its performance in 2022.
While Nintendo was on a high in its sixth year of release, the seventh-year decline could not be avoided. As expected, the aging console is on its way out, making room for its successor, expected to arrive in 2024 with an iterative design.
Still, Nintendo continued to perform well on the software side. Three first-party games made it to the list of best-selling releases in the UK, with two of them being releases from 2023.
Unlike other console manufacturers, the gaming giant continues to benefit from its older first-party catalog. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe came in last place among the gaming giant’s own titles but still finished as the 13th best-selling game of 2023 in the UK.
It should be noted that the report does not include sales numbers for physical first-party games. Therefore, while these positions are already impressive, combining the physical data would have put Nintendo’s games much higher up on the list.
As the era of the Nintendo Switch draws toward a conclusion, this hybrid console has impressed time and again. Selling over 132 million units, this console has outpaced everything from the modern era.
With the sales slowing down, the Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to be unveiled soon. A release date for H2 2024 seems to have been locked in, with sources pointing to a reveal in the near future.
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[News Reporter]
Bawal is an MBBS student by day and a gaming journalist by night. He has been gaming since childhood, growing fond of the creativity and innovation of the industry. His career as a gaming journalist started one year ago, and his journey has allowed him to write reviews, previews, and features for various sites. Bawal has also been cited in reputed websites such as Screenrant, PCGamesN, WCCFTech, GamesRadar, and more.
