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Nintendo raises Switch forecast to nearly 17 million units by April

Nintendo raises Switch forecast to nearly 17 million units by April

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Nintendo has raised its sales forecast for its latest console, the Switch, following another quarter of strong performance. The company now expects to ship 14 million units in its financial year ending March 2018, up from its previous prediction of 10 million. 

Combined with the 2.74 million units moved in the four weeks since the Switch’s early March release, that would make for 16.74 million units in total. For comparison, Nintendo only ever shipped 13.56 million Wii U consoles over its entire lifespan — the Switch is set to sell more in one year than the Wii U managed in nearly five. 

Nintendo shipped 2.93 million Switch units in the July-September quarter, bringing the total number to 7.63 million. The Switch remains severely supply-constrained, and reaching that 14 million figure would require sales to grow a little faster than their current pace.

It’s unclear how much ability Nintendo has to increase production, but it’s likely that a lot of people are going to have trouble finding a Switch this holiday season — particularly with the rapturous reception for games like Super Mario Odyssey.

Overall Nintendo made 23.8 billion yen ($209 million) of operating profit off 220 trillion yen ($1.93 billion) in revenue this quarter. The company president, Tatsumi Kimishima, is likely to address questions from investors on Switch supply and demand following this earnings release.