The Nintendo Switch moved 80,000 units throughout its launch weekend in the UK, reports GI.biz.
That figure was good enough to double the number of Wii U consoles Nintendo sold during that console’s launch weekend. It fell short, however, of the 113,000 3DS units Nintendo sold during that handheld’s premiere weekend.
The Nintendo Switch also failed to outperform – or even come close to matching – the UK launch weekends of its main competitors. Sony sold 250,000 PlayStation 4 consoles and Microsoft sold 150,000 Xbox One units during their respective launch weekends.
Still, GI.biz reports that most major retailers were very pleased with the console’s performance, with one even going so far as to assert that “Nintendo is back.”
Although North American sales figures are not yet available, retailer GameStop having over the weekend called the Switch launch the “strongest and most successful gaming console launches…in the last several years.”
A dozen games launched alongside Nintendo’s hybrid home/portable console, with UK sales charts making it abundantly clear that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the system’s first killer app. Breath of the Wild was outsold only by Horizon: Zero Dawn, which released earlier in the week on PlayStation 4, a console with a more-than-50-million-unit head start on the Switch’s install base.
Also cracking the top 10 sellers list were Switch launch games 1-2 Switch and Super Bomberman R. 1-2 Switch came in at fourth with Super Bomberman R landing at seventh.
That Breath of the Wild was Switch’s most popular software during its launch weekend came as little surprise to anyone who has followed the game. Reviewers almost universally fawned over the game, moving into fourth on Metacritic’s list of best-reviewed games of all time.
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