Nintendo Switch is the Fastest Selling Canadian Console Ever with 400,000 Shipped

It seems that Canadians were hungry for a new Nintendo offering.

The Nintendo Switch, released on March 3, 2017, has become the fastest selling video game console of all-time in Canada. It sold 400,000 units over a 10-month period, narrowly beating out the previous record holder—Nintendo’s prior console, the Wii, which shipped 392,000 consoles in 10 months.

The Switch is another strong effort from Nintendo, who recently have been known to eschew pure graphics and processing power in favour of a unique playing experience. For the Switch, that meant combining a tablet with a home gaming set up to create a device capable of playing games on the go and in the living room.

To reach such high sales numbers, it didn’t hurt that some of the year’s best games were Nintendo Switch exclusives. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won Game of the Year at the Video Game Awards, but many critics thought that another Switch exclusive—Super Mario Odyssey—deserved to win instead. Either way, having two of the most critically-received games as exclusives definitely helped the Switch put up record numbers.

The Switch was also 2017’s third-most Googled piece of consumer technology, trailing only the iPhone X and the iPhone 8.

Canada isn’t the only market the Switch did well in. It set the record for being the fastest-selling console in the U.S. as well, moving more than 4.8 million units in the 10 months since release. That figure represents an 800,000 surplus over the Nintendo Wii, the previous record holder.

Those strong sales figures will most likely continue if Nintendo keeps releasing amazing games. They recently announced a number of cardboard peripheral accessories designed for kids (and the kids inside adults) to augment their playing experience. It seems that the unorthodox approach to the video game sector is paying dividends.

In terms of the highest selling video game consoles ever, well, the Switch has a bit of ground to make up. Sony’s PlayStation 2 has sold more than 155 million consoles around the world