A journalist from the New York Times is reporting that the Nintendo Switch has sold more units in 48 hours than the Wii. Given that it’s a journalist from the New York Times – the same outlet who peddled multiple fake news stories about #GamerGate being a harassment campaign – it’s highly advised to take this news with a grain of salt.
IGN is reporting that the same author who penned the fake news pieces about #GamerGate, Nick Wingfield, has supposedly heard from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime that the Nintendo Switch has sold out faster over 48 hours in North America than the Wii did back in 2006.
2. Fri-Sat sales for Nintendo Switch exceeded first 2-day sales in Americas for any system in Nintendo history. Next biggest was Wii.
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) March 6, 2017
As mentioned, there is no confirmation of this news and the New York Times has been known to partake in fake news without fact checking, so there’s no way to know for sure how true this is.
IGN, however, also points to figures from GamesIndustry.biz, where they’re reporting that 80,000 Nintendo Switch units have been sold over the weekend in the U.K., which they report is double what the Wii U moved during the same time period in 2013. However, the Wii U is not a very good gauge given that the console eventually tanked.
However, GamesIndustry.biz did report that the number is shy of the 113,000 units the Nintendo 3DS moved during its opening weekend, and only a third of what the PS4 did during the same time period in the U.K. It’s also just a little over half of what the Xbox One moved in the U.K., which was 150,000. I do wonder if the reports about the left Joy-Con de-synching has caused some people to wait for a more reliable version or a cheaper version to launch before diving in?
They also report that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild debuted at no. 2 behind Horizon: Zero Dawn for the week ending on March 4th. That’s not bad for just two days worth of sales recording. I suspect that if sales keep up, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will overtake Horizon: Zero Dawn by the end of this week.
As for the Nintendo Switch… Nintendo hasn’t revealed full numbers yet, so we’ll have to wait to see what they look like when a more reputable source posts the figures for the sales in the Americas.
