A Look Back At The Switch Era.

Before the Nintendo Switch released and after the failure of the Wii U Nintendo was probably in the toughest financial situation in the history of the company.

Fast forward a decade - and all of a sudden Nintendo is probably in the best position they have ever been in.
The Nintendo Switch is on path to become their best selling console ever, their stock price rose by several hundred percent in just a decade, they released many of their best reviewed games ever during the Nintendo Switch era and most important of all, they seem to have finally found a formula that does not only grant them success once, but that appears to be repeatable.
Within ten years, Nintendo went from one of their absolute lowest lows, to the probably most comfortable position that they have ever been in.
How did they do this?

In this video we are going to investigate this very question.
We will travel back in time.
We will return to the year 2017, the Switch launch year, and then we will retrace the entire lifecycle of the Nintendo Switch year by year.
We will take a look at each year of the console, what games got released, what happened alongside, how the console was developing and we will stop to chatter about other interesting aspects of the Switch along the way, all with a bigger goal in mind.
To find an answer to our question.
The question of why the Nintendo Switch became Nintendo’s most successful console ever.

---------- / Patreon /

----------- / Timestamps /
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:43 - 2017
00:09:02 - 2018
00:12:02 - 2019
00:15:22 - 2020
00:17:48 - 2021
00:20:16 - 2022
00:23:45 - 2023
00:27:17 - 2024

---------- / Sources & Links /
Wikipedia: List of best selling Switch / DS / 3DS / N64 / GC / PS4 / GBA / GB games, Joy-Con

----------- / Credits for the Music /

-------Nintendo
Majora’s Mask OST: “Title Theme”, “Clock Town First Day”
Mario Kart 8 OST: “Main Menu”
Ocarina of Time OST: “Gerudo Valley”
Animal Crossing OST: “Theme Song”
The Legend of Zelda OST: “Title Theme”
Super Mario Maker 2 OST: “Airship”

------Kevin MacLeod "Adventure Meme"

[DHVF]

At the end of the day, people don’t play consoles, they play games. And nobody realizes that more than Nintendo.

[Nickk-vt]

The Wii U walked so that the Switch could run. I mean that whole-heartedly too. The Wii U was full of great ideas, the problem was that, presentation-wise, it failed to capture an audience. So, when the Switch came out and became a success, it was no surprise that it borrowed so many ideas from the Wii U. Splatoon, Mario Maker, Breath of the Wild, Smash, and Mario Kart are just some examples of elements of the Wii U being carried over. On one hand, it's great to see these games and ideas being appreciated in the current day, but on the other hand I feel like people sorta forget what started it all as well as Nintendo sorta failing to further innovate on the ideas of the Wii U. For crying out loud, we haven't seen a new DK or Mario Kart since the Wii U. I also think that Nintendo also strayed too far from the Wii U as well with the Switch, missing some of its best ideas. Miiverse, digital DS games, and creative and well-designed UI elements are just some features that are missing that make the Switch come off as a bit of a downgrade in some ways. The Switch could have enhanced these ideas too. I am looking forward to the future where I believe Nintendo can truly innovate and be the best it can be with Switch 2, marrying the best elements from their history as well as evolving from them.

[MaxAutoAttack]

I shall relish the fact that this is probably the only time Ceave will ever mention Xenoblade in a video

[andyan]

One thing that was wild about release, is that there were a few switch availability problems, but so many people were pumped for BOTW, that they're was a period where more copies of BOTW were sold than the console.
So people were buying the game before they had their hands on the console

[bidule]

7:55 Fun fact: Mario Kart 8 on Wii U sold 8, 46 millions copies for 13, 56 consoles, which make an attachement rate of 62% (Wii Sports is 81, 57% but it was sold with the Wii)

[Yumegipsu]

8 years from now:
"The Switch 2 is Nintendo’s biggest success ever with over 150 million consoles sold."

[kogmawmain]

1:24 the idea of Nintendo being a third party software publisher that doesn't produce any consoles sounds just so wrong.

[DJMankiewicz]

I'm paraphrasing from memory, but there's a story the Penny Arcade guys told about the PS3/360/Wii generation, where someone at a panel asked them to definitively choose between PS3 and 360. Someone in the crowd yells about the Wii as a joke, and everyone laughs. The Penny Arcade hosts shut down the crowd, saying, no no - we play the Wii the most. We play it every day, Mario Kart and Smash. "It's an appliance, " they say. "Everyone needs one."

I think about that lot

[Orion_Prince_Of_Starlight]

Idk that "click" sound is kinda satisfying ngl.

[daracaex]

It’s kind of amazing that the Switch also kinda kicked off a new sub-industry of high-performance handhelds. I see the Steam Deck as an effort to bring computer gaming into the space the Switch created, and more companies are entering that space too now. It will be interesting to see how Switch 2 performs alongside those.

[datdamndog]

i really apreciate that this video is an actual analysis of the switches life and not just a recap of all the major things that have happened. not just that but also a really good one. it feels like a lot of "analysis" videos are really just recap videos for things.

[miami]

That Mario Kart “mystery” was about as much of a mystery as the fake Zelda not being real in TOTK lol

[SPEEDYDIM]

150 million units later and i still can’t take the wrist trap off my joycon…

[jokerofspades-xtbs]

I will stand on the hill that the Labo vehicle kit is one of the best uses of a custom controller in Nintendo history.

[stuff]

For a console less powerful than even the PS4 and Xbox One, it's truly amazing how the Switch has continued to excel at games with amazing scale able to rival that of the other consoles, even as another generation of even more powerful consoles has come along! It's incredibly admirable. :D

[GSSecondBranch]

Somewhere in Nintendo HQ all those years ago;
"Wii are in such trouble!!! What can we do!??"
"Oh! I have In idea!"
"What do U have in mind?"
"Let's Switch things around!"

[Iendoubles]

Of course MK8 Deluxe’s attach rate isn’t that surprising considering Mario Kart 8’s even more absurd rate on the Wii U. It’s around 60%

[spikesagal]

There were a few key reasons why the Switch is as huge as it is:
1. Around 2014, Apple soured their relationship with Nvidia, who suddenly found themselves with a lot of spare capacity, and produced the Shield — a technically impressive gaming handheld that would've fallen into oblivion, were it not for Nintendo's notice of it. The rest is history.
2. The Switch was Nintendo's first gaming system truly open to 3rd party devs. At the same time, Sony and Microsoft were making it increasingly more difficult fire new devs to develop and release games, and coming up with "brilliant" features like requiring online sign in for any game to function at all. Indie devs flocked to the Switch, helping to fill out what otherwise would've been pretty sparse early years for the console.
3. As 3rd party ports of older games rushed to the Switch, Nintendo followed suit and ported a lot of their best releases. Thought not all ports were top quality, many were exceptional: Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime, Pikmin 3, DK Tropical Freeze, Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, etc. This allowed Nintendo to release full price games with much less time investment.

[bland]

The problem with combining the sales of handheld and home console is that If you want to play all the games you have to buy both systems so therefore you own both a Game Boy and a GameCube or a DS and a Wii or Game Gear and a mega drive but with the Switch being both you only have to buy the one console so you can kind of double the sales to get your answer for how many Switches are sold.

Not every person that bought a GameCube buy the Game Boy and not every person that bought a Game Boy by the GameCube so it is not a perfect number but it's all we can do.

[kwapow]

To add to the point about Ninteno games selling well, I think another factor is that they're the most consistent, trusted source for high-quality kid friendly games, which means that they get a lot of sales from families without really having much competition.