Hard as it may be to believe, the Nintendo Switch has been the best-selling console in the United States for 33 consecutive months, but that streak finally came to an end in September. According to NPD’s Mat Piscatella, the PlayStation 5 was the best-selling system in the region for the first time since its launch last November. An incredible display for Nintendo ended last month, and it marks the first time a PlayStation system was at the top since November 2018, when the PS4 was the best-selling in the region. PS5 is the best-selling video game system overall for 2021 in dollars, while the Switch has been the best-selling in units sold.
US NPD HW – September 2021 snaps the remarkable 33 consecutive month streak that Nintendo Switch was the market’s leading platform in hardware unit sales. November 2018 was the last month a platform other than Nintendo Switch led the market in unit sales (PlayStation 4).
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) October 18, 2021
Readers should note that NPD only tracks numbers in the US, so these numbers do not take into account global sales figures. The best-selling game of the month in the region was once again Madden NFL 22. The exclusive Nintendo Switch game WarioWare: Get It Together! debuted in September, appearing as the second best-selling Switch game of the month and the 15th best-selling game overall. Piscatella notes that this is the biggest debut the franchise has ever seen. Tales of Arise also had a record debut for its franchise, appearing as the fourth best-selling game of September.
It’s hard to overstate what an impressive achievement the race has been for Nintendo! During the previous generation of consoles, Wii U desperately struggled to find an audience. Switch has been a massive success story for the company, and software sales have reflected that as well, with titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons performing incredibly well. It will be interesting to see how October’s hardware sales compare to this month’s – it’s quite possible that PlayStation will continue its momentum, but the launch of the Nintendo Switch OLED could also help Nintendo regain its place at the top. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see!
Are you surprised that the Playstation outsold the Nintendo Switch last month? Have you managed to find one yet? Let us know in the comments.
