Nintendo Switch reaches 500,000 sales in Japan

Nintendo's Switch console has now sold more than 500,000 units in Japan, according to data supplied by Media Create.

As noted by DualShockers, Media Create's weekly sales data indicates that the Switch reached 519,504 sales in four weeks. Last week's sales (ending March 26) approached 80,000 units, a marked improvement on the 50,000 sold in the prior week.

The Switch has passed 500,000 sales in Japan faster than PlayStation 4, which needed seven weeks to hit the milestone. It should be noted, though, that Sony's market-leading console didn't achieve the same level of success in Japan it did in other parts of the world.

Nintendo still hasn't released official sales figures for the Switch, though there is abundant evidence that its performance to date is more than satisfactory. In the week following its launch, the company said that it had broken internal sales records in Europe and the Americas, and there were credible reports that production of the Switch was set to double from 8 to 16 million units in the next fiscal year.

Earlier this month, SuperData put global sales at 1.5 million units, with 89% of owners also buying a copy of the rapturously reviewed Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

In his most recent editorial, our own Rob Fahey credited the Switch with a "great launch," but acknowledged that the available performance data so far offers few lessons for those wondering about its longer term future.

"We've got nine months of shipments to watch and evaluate - to see what audiences Nintendo is appealing to, whether demand remains high, and whether the launch of titles like Mario Kart and Splatoon 2 can really drive the console forward," he said. "Though there'll no doubt be crazy speculation around each set of numbers, it's the overall picture that's important, and it's only months of data that'll really give us a sense of where this console is going."