First released to the public back in 2017, the Nintendo Switch led to a meteoric resurgence for Nintendo, with its innovative design and ability to play sprawling games while on the go turning it into one of the company's most beloved consoles to date. It's also shipped some of the most revered games in Nintendo's entire library, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

It makes sense that the console's rampant popularity would translate well to sales, and thanks to a new financial report, fans now know exactly how well the Switch is doing. According to the report, a whopping 79.87 million Nintendo Switch units have been shipped across the world, seeing the console overtake the Nintendo 3DS' sales in just under four years.

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To put that in perspective, the Nintendo 3DS launched back in 2011 and was discontinued last September with 75.94 million sales, so the Switch is no doubt primed to set new records in the years to come. It does have some pretty steep competition to overcome, however, with it currently ranking as the fifth most successful Nintendo console of all time. It's beaten out by four pretty historic names, with the Game Boy Advance just managing to retain fourth with 81.5 million units sold, the Nintendo Wii sitting comfortably in third with 101.6 million, and the Game Boy taking second with 118.7 million. The Nintendo DS is still atop the pack, though, with an astounding 154 million units shipped.

It'll be intriguing to see where the Nintendo Switch winds up in the years to come, especially with the console continuing to ship seminal new games that act as wide draws to the console's audience. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a particularly important exclusive for the platform, with it becoming a worldwide phenomenon last year during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The game is still selling extraordinarily well, even topping the UK physical sales chart last week almost a year after it first debuted.

As for what blockbuster experiences the console will wind up dropping this year, it still seems a little too early to predict. In terms of what fans do know, they will be getting a sequel to the cult-classic hack-and-slash franchise No More Heroes during 2021 and Monster Hunter Rise will be coming exclusively to the Switch in March. Meanwhile, Super Mario 3D World and Bowser's Fury and Bravely Default 2 launch this month, while a follow-up to Pokemon Snap is set to launch on April 30.

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Source: Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz