The Nintendo Switch has been the US’s bestselling console for 23 straight months

It’s been a superb two years for the Nintendo Change. In keeping with Nintendo, the gaming pill has been the bestselling console within the US for 23 straight months. And in accordance with knowledge from the NPD Group, it simply had its finest October ever, transferring 735,926 items of each the Change and Change Lite within the US. The corporate says that represents a 136 p.c improve in comparison with final 12 months. To this point, the Change has bought 22.5 million items within the US, and final week Nintendo revealed that greater than 68 million items have been bought globally. “We’re enthusiastic about our momentum,” says Nick Chavez, Nintendo of America’s SVP of gross sales and advertising.

Chavez places the corporate’s large October down to 2 most important elements. One is a greater provide of inventory; this 12 months particularly, it’s typically been arduous to discover a Change on retailer cabinets. This has solely been exacerbated by elevated demand attributable to a mix of the pandemic and the breakout success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. “Actually the covid pandemic has created extra alternatives to remain at residence, extra play time at residence,” he tells The Verge. “We’ve seen unprecedented demand for Nintendo Change all through the course of the 12 months.”

The second cause is the Animal Crossing-themed Change that was launched early this 12 months. “That got here again into {the marketplace} round October 4th, and many individuals have been excited to get their fingers on that as rapidly as doable,” says Chavez. “And we’re going to proceed to have that in ample provide all through this vacation and into 2021.”

As with final 12 months, Nintendo says that a big a part of its progress comes from continued adoption by ladies and households. “This 12 months loads of our progress has been pushed by an inflow of girls taking part in Nintendo Change, extra children and youngsters taking part in Nintendo Change, in addition to dad and mom,” says Chavez. By way of what {hardware} individuals are shopping for, he provides that “we’re nonetheless seeing a powerful desire for the flagship system at $299.”

The timing of the announcement is especially attention-grabbing as this week additionally noticed the launch of each the PlayStation 5 and two new Xbox consoles from Microsoft. Going into the ever-important vacation season, there’ll naturally be elevated competitors, which might convey Nintendo’s 23-month streak to a cease. Nintendo has a number of large releases to buoy its vacation — together with Mario Kart Dwell: Residence Circuit and the upcoming Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity — however the firm additionally believes it’s not essentially in direct competitors with Sony and Microsoft.

“It’s all the time thrilling when new consoles enter the online game market. It’s nice to see the PS5 and the Xbox Sequence S and X coming into {the marketplace},” says Chavez. “However we do assume that the Nintendo Change occupies a essentially completely different place, and actually has a singular proposition for buyers and gamers.”