With the Switch doubling up as a home and handheld games console – and especially now that the portable-only Switch Lite is available – it’s easy to see why multiple people in the same household would want their own system. Having multiple Switches in the house provides better multiplayer experiences, and enables everyone to play games simultaneously rather than having to take turns.
Of course, affording more than one games console isn’t possible for everyone, but even with the Switch retailing at $299.99 (or $199.99 for the Lite), Nintendo has revealed that 20% of console sales last year were snapped up by those who already had a Switch in the house.
The news comes from a recent investor Q+A where company president Shuntaro Furukawa spoke about the various user groups that own Switch systems:
“In the previous fiscal year, household demand for multiple systems accounted for roughly 20% of unit sales of the Nintendo Switch family of systems. Going forward, we expect demand for multiple systems per household will increase even as hardware unit sales grow.”
In the same response, Furukawa explained that “significant sales growth is continuing in Asia,” and that Nintendo believes “there is still room for sufficient growth of new demand in Europe and the United States.” To do this, Nintendo must “thoroughly convey the appeal of existing titles and future titles.”
Have you got more than one Switch in your household? Would you consider buying multiple consoles either for yourself or your family? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
This is a bit of a loaded statistic, because it doesn’t state whether that’s an absolute increase or a relative increase. The distinction is important in this case.
@Northwind How dare you insert your filthy cogent analysis and attention to language into our comment section?! Just what is your intention here, puffball??
the percentage of those sales to households that already have a Switch would increase over time. Such a relative increase would not require actual sales to increase.
Mathematics, yet. You are counting correctly here, yes. Still I wonder what Furukawa-san’s intention was in saying (via translation): “Going forward, we expect demand for multiple systems per household will increase even as hardware unit sales grow.”
To me, there could be an implication that he expects overall unit sales to grow as a percentage of the current install base – meaning year-over-year increases in the percentage relative to the (increasingly large) install base – which would make this discussion even more interesting.
I also wonder how Nintendo feels about the sales distribution. NCL was openly hoping for multi-Switch households, and this company certainly trades on customer loyalty. Even so, spreading your brand wider (if not deeper) is the essence of the “blue ocean” strategy, so there is a question for me here.
