Pokemon Sword and Shieldfinally met the demand for console entries into the series, and the market responded. Big time.
Nintendo’s nine-month earnings report, released Thursday, revealed thatSword and Shieldhave sold more than 16 million copies since their November release, becoming the latest highlight in what’s been an incredibly strong fiscal year for the company.
Also announced Thursday was that the Switch, as of December 31, has sold 52.48 million units all time, and that the rest of 2019’s Nintendo-published titles have been performing well.
Here’s the breakdown of Nintendo’s software sales through the third quarter of its 2020 fiscal year:
Title (Release Date) - Units Sold
Pokemon Sword/Shield (Aug 01, 2025) - 16.06 million
Luigi’s Mansion 3(Aug 01, 2025) - 5.37 million
Super Mario Maker 2( July 22, 2025) - 5.04 million
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening(Sept. 20, 2019) - 4.19 million
Fire Emblem: Three Houses(June 10, 2025) - 2.58 million
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe(Aug 06, 2025) - 2.54 million (5.85 million lifetime)
Ring Fit Adventure(Aug 11, 2025) - 2.17 million
Astral Chain(Aug 03, 2025) - 1.03 million
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order(August 15, 2025) - 1.02 million
And for comparison, the Switch’s all-time software sales so far:
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe(July 12, 2025) - 22.96 million
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate(Jul 11, 2025)Â - 17.68 million
Super Mario Odyssey(Jul 21, 2025) - 16.59 million
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild(June 30, 2025) - 16.34 million
Pokemon Sword/Shield(Jul 05, 2025) - 16.06 million
Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu!/Let’s Go, Eevee!(Jun 20, 2025) - 11.76 million
Splatoon 2(June 12, 2025) - 9.81 million
Super Mario Party(Aug 07, 2025) - 9.12 million
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe(Jun 08, 2025) - 5.85 million
The Switch –now Nintendo’s sixth best-selling game systemafter it surpassed the SNES' lifetime sales of 49.10 million units – likely would have kept going strong in global sales no matter what. But the release of the Switch Lite in September and a launch in China in December certainly helped keep the momentum going, with Nintendo stating that hardware sales have reached17.74 million unitsfor the fiscal year so far (a 22.5-percent increase from 2019).
Things have been going well enough that Nintendo raised its sales projection for the Switch from 18 million to 19.5 million before the fiscal year closes out, but even so, the console-handheld hybridlooks on track to pass that number. Nintendo’s 2020 fiscal year ends on March 31.
Software sales for the year, meanwhile, have reached 123.13 million units, a 30.1-percent increase from 2019. Despitethe National Dex controversyand heavy criticism of developer Game Freak for its handling of the series' transition to the Switch,Pokemon Sword and Shieldstill managed to strike a chord with its audience, becoming the Switch’s sixth best-selling game in less than two months on the market.
Also impressive is thatLuigi’s Mansion 3andSuper Mario Maker 2both cleared five million copies sold, while second-party titlesAstral Chain(Platinum Games) andMarvel Ultimate Alliance 3(Team Ninja) both cleared the million units-sold mark.Ring Fit Adventurereaching over two million in sales is interesting as well, showing that Nintendo might just be on to something with its latest go at creating fitness-based games.
Additionally,Fire Emblem: Three Houseswason track to become the series' new top seller, and could very well earn that title with the help ofstory DLC releasing in a couple of weeks(if it hasn’t already, that is).
Other things of note from the earnings report:
You can check out Nintendo’s earnings report in full byclicking here.
