How it’s built
- Took Nintendo’s lifetime Switch console totals at each March year-end from its investor spreadsheet, plus two quarter-end totals relayed by the press.
- Bracketed each launch by the year-end before it and the first year-end or quarter-end after it: for example Sword/Shield (November 2019) sits between 34.7 and 55.8 million.
What we assumed
- A whole-year bracket is good enough where no quarter-end figure is held.The research has no December 2019 or December 2021 figure, so the Sword/Shield and 2021–22 launch brackets span a full year. The true base at launch lies inside.
- Switch and Switch 2 can be added together for Legends: Z-A.Z-A sold on both consoles. Both totals are shown so readers can choose.
Sanity check
These are consoles sold to retailers, not active owners; the year-end points are from Nintendo, the two December points from press relays of Nintendo figures.
Where it comes from
Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes.
Show the working
- xlsx cells are ten-thousands: 3474→34.74M, 5577→55.77M, 8460→84.60M, 10766→107.66M, 12563→125.63M, 15592→155.92M, 1986→19.86M
- 155.37+17.37=172.74
- 155.92+19.86=175.78
- 156.59+23.68=180.27