IHS: Nintendo Switch Q4 sales approaching 4 million
Data firm says Nintendo has fixed its supply issues
Nintendo has sold 3.8 million consoles during Q4 so far, IHS has said.
The data firm estimates that Nintendo will end the year with 11.7 million consoles sold globally. IHS had previously estimated the machine would sell 4.4 million machines this year, raising it to 9.8 million following its initial success and then again to 11.7 million in October.
The 3.8 million number is from the end of September, when Nintendo told the market it had shipped 7.63 million consoles into retailers. IHS says that sell-through rate was at 6.2 million at the time, so there was a strong 1.4 million unit surplus in the market. This is a significant surplus created to meet the expected Christmas demand, the company said.
10 million units of Nintendo Switch have been sold worldwide so far, which is viewed as a significant landmark for any console as it looks to grow its third-party support base and achieve a critical mass of consumers who can spread the machine's popularity socially. It took the Wii U over two and a half years to hit the same figure. The popularity of Switch is in-line with Wii, which sold 10 million units in just under nine months.