Coming out of 2017, it’s clear that Nintendo’s gamble with the release of the Switch back in March has paid off well with the system having already crossed 10 million units worldwide earlier this month, and now Nintendo seems to be upping the ante in a big way for the next fiscal year.
Speaking in a interview with the Kyoto Shimbun newspaper, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima provided an outlook on the Nintendo Switch’s prospects for the next financial year (which will run from April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019) and set a goal of reaching 20 million Switch units worldwide, which would double the currently-reported install base of the system at this time.
While it seems like a lofty goal, the number doesn’t seem that far of a stretch to hit as the Switch’s trajectory towards 10 million in sales falls roughly in line with that of the PS4, as the system also reached its milestone of 10 million in sales just around nine months after it first debuted.
Notably, the big question towards pushing towards 20 million for the Switch will depend on software, as the Switch’s first 10 million sales not only had the system’s launch momentum behind it, but also the help of some major releases like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. What Nintendo has in store to continue to build the system’s install base remains to be seen, but with a mainline Pokemon game on the horizon, something of that caliber will surely help to move Switch units.