How Switch took Nintendo’s crown

At the end of March 2017, Switch stood at just 2.7 million shipments. By March 2026, the family—including Lite and OLED—had reached 155.9 million. The DS lifetime total was 154.0 million. Nintendo had a new No. 1.

The finish was close. But on the way there, Switch had already passed two consoles with enormous legacies of their own.

Three familiar names to catch

The first milestone was Wii: 101.6 million. Switch’s March 2022 total was already 107.7 million. A year later, it reached 125.6 million, above the Game Boy family’s 118.7 million.

That left DS. By March 2025, Switch was at 152.1 million, still short. The next March snapshot finally put its red line above the blue one.

The horizontal lines stay still on purpose. They show where the older systems finished, rather than pretending their entire sales histories happened alongside Switch.

The record came after the fastest years

Switch’s biggest year in this series was the fiscal year ending March 2021: 28.83 million hardware shipments in twelve months. The fiscal year ending March 2026 added 3.80 million.

The curve tells both stories. The steep middle built the bulk of the total; the slower final stretch carried it over Nintendo’s highest bar. A record can fall after the rush has subsided.

These are Nintendo’s worldwide hardware shipments, not a count of players or sales directly to consumers. Switch 2 is a separate platform and is excluded. Nor does this chart award a record across all console makers: it follows Nintendo’s own family tree.

Wii, Game Boy and DS remain landmarks. Their totals have stopped moving; Switch’s line has not. Which of these consoles stayed with you the longest?