Nintendo Switch Outsells Nintendo 64

The Nintendo Switch has outsold the lifetime sales of the Nintendo 64, according to our estimates.

The Nintendo Switch sold 217,096 units for the week ending April 6, 2019 to bring its lifetime sales to 33.15 million units. This compares to the Nintendo 64 with sales of 32.93 million units.

[Thundercat77]

The Nintendo 64 was the reason I switched to PS1. Back in the day I was a Nintendo fan and it was my primary only console. but the lack of games were too big. I decided to try the PS1 and til this day, never returned back to Nintendo as a primary console.

[Neonridr]

Playstation definitely had the better third party support no doubt. Cartridges were too expensive compared to CDs and the extra space on the CDs mean devs could push the limits with their games. FFVII was obviously the biggest beneficiary there.

[Michiel1989]

Main reason my parents bought me and my brother a ps1 instead of a n64 was because n64 games were almost 50% more expensive than ps1 games.

[XisThatKid]

Not really a surprise. Smash Tablet is going to continue to sell.

[prankster101]

Nintendo 64 signaled the decline in my honest opinion. I was an ardent SNES / Nintendo supporter until then. And then Nintendo lost me completely with Iwata taking over, and the company releasing the Gamecube. I've been a MS and a Sony guy ever since.

As far as this generation is concerned, I am sticking to my PS4. I haven't bought an XB1 (because its first party exclusives aren't as interesting), and the Switch is just a tad too expensive for what it offers.

I'm going to buy a PS5 Day One... That console is probably going to take care of all of my needs.

[blady_man]

I still love the gamecube!! It didnt have the 3rd party support but had amazing first party games!!

[DEKUX12]

Ps4 is to expensive for what it offers to me since its filled with constant spam bots.

[darthv72]

N64 turned me off from Nintendo but the Gamecube brought me back. That was such a good system and under appreciated (much like the wiiu). Funny how they had two really superior systems just tank after following their previous 'inferior' releases.

[septemberindecember]

The GameCube is one of my favorite systems. That and PS1 are probably tied for first for me.

[The Wood]

Same here. . Really had good times with the cube. The first console I queued up for at a midnight launch up west end with my uni mates.

[Father__Merrin]

Same here. I was sick of the lack of games and very high game prices once I swapped to ps1 it was vastly better.

Regarding switch I won't buy a Nintendo console ever again. Bought the wii on launch once the gimmick was over it was sat there until I started to soft mod it to play emulators.

Bought wiiu on launch which was the worst console Iver ever had. So I guess il be staying away from Nintendo from now on few good exclusives on it but not enough to persuade me

[paintedgamer1984]

I would say the Sega Saturn and Wiiu both were pretty horrible consoles.

[prankster101]

Yeah... Iwata-era Nintendo was awful. Wii and Wii U were such a turn off. Definitely the worst of the 3 consoles during their respective generations.

[Pennywise138]

Yeah Nintendo made some bad decisions in the mid 90s that still haunt them to this day. I’d say it started with them censoring the first Mortal Kombat game which gave them the kiddy image they still have today. Then they partnered with Sony for cd add on for the Super Nintendo that they pulled out of at the last minute in a dickish way that led Sony to go it alone and become their biggest competitor and a huge juggernaut in the games industry as a whole. I think the biggest mistake they made was stubbornly making the Nintendo 64 cartridge based instead of CD causing them to lose the final fantasy franchise and many many 3rd party companies.

[WickedLester]

Your disagrees are hilarious. Everything you said is 100% accurate. The decision to stay with cartridge instead of adopting CD Rom is the single worst decision Nintendo ever made. It completely disrupted their momentum and changed their trajectory in the gaming industry forever. People can try and romanticize the N64 era now, but i remember the high game prices and the ridiculously long waits between quality releases. I remember how gutted I felt when it was announced that Nintendo had lost Final Fantasy. I also remember the N64 not having any JRPG's of any kind. After the Wii U and Virtual Boy, the N64 is Nintendo's 3rd worst game system.

[Benjaminkno]

And then Wii had all kinds of games and it was at this point you realized that you’re an N4G troll

[DarXyde]

N64 was awesome.

I'm one of the few who liked it more than PSOne, though I still really liked PSOne. PS2 is another story altogether. That console really deserved its success.

Different strokes.

[UltraNova]

Same here but I have to be honest, ps1 had by far the better games library of the two with only SM64, B&K and Zelda:OT being the only better games on the N64.

[DarXyde]

UltraNova,

I rather enjoyed Starfox 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Majora's Mask, Banjo-Tooie, Goldeneye 64, Perfect Dark, Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, F-Zero X, Pokemon Stadium, Mario Party, and Paper Mario. That's just what comes to mind at the moment. It has plenty of great games and you might be selling it very short.

Granted PSOne is nothing to scoff at and it had an extremely impressive library, but N64 games kept me coming back more, I'll say.

[UltraNova]

Agreed, forgot all about those greats (Goldeneye etc).

To be clear, the N64 is my all time favorite console, its just that I was fortunate enough to buy a ps1 mid gen and got to experience its huge library as well.

[Orionsangel]

I never got N64 because I'm too progressive. I'm always thinking of the latest greatest new thing. My mind was on CD-Rom games. So when N64 announced it would use carts I saw it as a step backwards and lost interest. PS1 with CD games was what I was looking for at the time. It represented the future of gaming for me. I eventually played N64 but many years later.

So my game experience at the time was a different path. While you had people playing Mario 64. I was playing Tomb Raider. That was my first experience with a 3D platformer type game. While others were playing Ocarina of Time. I was playing FF7.

[TheEnigma313]

Same thing that happened to me. N64 started strong then fizzled out. The game were $10 cheaper on PS and there was way more #rd party support. Square, capcom, konami were all flourishing. I didn't like the whole expansion pack thing either. N64 had some gems, but not enough to keep me.

[The Wood]

I helped this but for me, the switch will always be a secondary console. More adult games on the ps and xbox. Owning a ps4 and switch is probably the best 2 piece combination for this gen

[FallenAngel1984]

SNES is the next target

[septemberindecember]

Actually, I think Xbox One is. Then SNES.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

https://ibb.co/238KLpd

[FallenAngel1984]

At 40 million the Genesis is the next target before Switch outsells Xbox One

I was just talking in terms of Nintendo’s own consoles

[septemberindecember]

Actually, Genesis is at 29.54M according to VGChartz. So Switch already surpassed it.

[FallenAngel1984]

Joe Miller, who was Senior Vice President of Product Development at Sega, stated that Genesis sold 40 million units

https://segaretro.org/Inter...

There’s also other sources that stat Genesis sold over 40 million as well.

[septemberindecember]

@FallenAngel

But we are in a VGChartz article. They aren’t going to report data they don’t have, so Xbox One will be the next milestone they report.

[ZeekQuattro]

Before you know it will be passing the SNES and NES soon enough.

[PlayableGamez-]

I will be picking up a Switch this summer.

[King_Noctis]

A great time to be picking up the Switch. By then Astral Chain, Fire Emblem, Mario Maker 2, Rune Factory 4, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 will be released and Animal Crossing, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Town, and Daemon X Machima might be as well.

[Gemmol]

What games you getting with online play, depending what you get maybe we play online

[strayanalog]

Didn't Nintendo reach this milestone last year?

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/...

[Gemmol]

VGChartz is estimate website

[Fraggle1987]

I really want to get into more portable gaming to just lie in bed and relax but the software on switch bar oddyssey and BOTW is terrible. not only that but the pricesof all games including third party is horrendous compared to ps4.

[Gemmol]

Games that came out same day and date with switch are same prices on ps4

Games that came out on ps4 years ago and now come out on switch cost more they have to get paid for porting either you wait for it to reach same price or just pay it

[Fraggle1987]

Yeah but all games including ports get discounted very fast on ps4 but no chance on switch. That's the real big problem.

[Gemmol]

You are comparing Nintendo first party which have the best value out of all games being made Zelda still selling for 60 and its been over 2 years,,,,,:horizon drop to 40 because sales fell off a cliff in same month and kept dropping until Sony bundle it with ps4 to make the sales number higher than what it truly is

Sony games are front heavy, same thing with horizon they did with Spider-Man do you remember the bundle they sold at the end of the year that sold out quickly with ps4 all those sales make the Spider-Man game sales rise higher than it should be

Not think about Nintendo and how they do bundles look at Pokémon. Bundle for an example they sold a limited amount and force people to get regular switch and buy game separate still same price

Look at Nintendo 3rd party games the ones that came out 2 years ago are very cheap to get now

It’s like someone on here wrote the other day only games you should buy day 1 is Nintendo games they keep their value, every other game wait a month and the good thing about buying a Nintendo game is that when you sell it you still make more money from it then you would make from a Sony or Xbox first party or third party game

[paintedgamer1984]

Ps2 almost outsold nes, snes, n64, and gamecube combined... think about that

~155 mil vs ~166 mil

[Traecy]

Not surprising.

[TheColbertinator]

Switch has no limits

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

Yeah because 33 million is such a hard figure to beat /s

[septemberindecember]

33 million in two years is a fantastic feat, actually.

[King_Noctis]

Then why did other consoles like the PS Vita can’t reach that milestone?

[BadElf]

WHERE ARE THE GAMES

[Razmiran]

Not even the ps4 had this many exclusives on its first 2 years

[King_Noctis]

Umm...in the store and the eShop?

[Segata]

I have a shelf with 50 of them. Now hard to look.

[BadElf]

Did you own a Wii U?

[Segata]

I own a lot of consoles from the 80s on up to modern consoles. Which sure Wii U among them as well as PS4 and Switch.
I was playing Vita earlier today as well as my Saturn. I pulled out the PocketStation to put in a new battery and recently got some new 360 games. Sorry, your little question in an attempt to label me backfired.

[BadElf]

What? Why are you getting so defensive? I own a lot of systems too...Im not going to list them.
What was I trying to label you as?
Was simply asking because a lot of the great games on Switch were released already on the Wii U. 90% of the time, people tell me their list of "great games" , when half of them were on the Wii U already.

So, I just ask now. Whats up, want to throw bows?

[blackblades]

N64, had a lot of those thick controllers and the stick always got messed because of Mario party. Also someone stole my 007 I'm still mad about that.

[Soy]

Well, there ARE more people now, so I'd hope they beat 20+ year old consoles.

[Fritzwochel]

Tbh N64 was overpriced. Both console and games. Especially games. The graphics were foggy and there were few really good games for the system.

[bumbleforce]

Not surprised. Most of there consoles sell shifty outside of the Wii. Handhelds always do well because they dont have competition

[BiGT85]

I owned both a N64 and PSOne.
My favorite games on the N64 are GoldenEye 007, perfect dark, wwf no mercy, wwf WrestleMania 2000, killer instinct gold, Mario 64, Zelda ocarina of Time.

[BiGT85]

The best consoles of all time in order is Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 1, Nintendo Nes, super Nintendo.

[filchron]

This is just Heinous. Everybody raise your hand if you remember when Nintendo was a hardcore gaming company first before any gimmicks. Not cheap chinese kiddy tablet maker former shadows of themselves.. smh Well, I guess more people live in the world now than in 1996

[chiefJohn117]

Am I the only one that liked the 64?

[JLynn943]

It's still one of my favorites. It had some really great games and was a big part of my childhood.

[BadElf]

Truly asking that?

[chiefJohn117]

Yes cause apparently many didn't based off these comments

[maximumspidey]

is that even a challenge?

[Segata]

Outsold it a long while ago. Nintendo will show official numbers in a couple of days. Likely closer to 40 million now.

[eagle21]

Yeah, Switch is around 40 million. :)

[Nu]

Xbox One is Next I've been watching VgChartz and it's slowly outselling and catching up to X1

[howiewowwee]

there are more people on this planet now then when the n64 was in it's prime so this is a stupid stat.

[bluebenjamin]

More people play video games now so of course