Nintendo Switch just reportedly beat the Xbox One in less than three years

It seems like anytime a new financial report comes out from Nintendo, the Switch hits another milestone. With the most recent report from December 2019, we now know that the Switch is beyond the 50 million threshold for global sales. This speedy accumulation of sales is putting it ahead of the PS2, PS4, and 3DS in the same timeframe. But, the Switch also pulled off something else with these sales—it’s reportedly beat the Xbox One.

Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad has reported via Twitter that according to the data his firm has, the Switch has surpassed estimated Xbox One hardware shipments. That means that even though the Xbox One family has reportedly also hit the 50 million mark, the Switch has gone beyond it in roughly half the time. The Xbox One will be seven years old in November, whereas the Switch will turn only three years old in March.

Also worth pointing out that according to our estimates the Nintendo Switch passed the Xbox One in hardware shipments during the holiday quarter last year.

The Xbox One is not too far behind, but it has only taken Switch 34 months to achieve what the Xbox One did in 74 months.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 30, 2020

Ahmad added some further context to this situation, by showing that just the Switch Lite alone managed to outpace the sales of the original Xbox One in less time. (The Switch Lite recently hit the 5 million mark on its own). Keep in mind that the Switch Lite is an additional model, whereas the Xbox One was a brand-new console at the time. Though, it could be argued that the Xbox One was $500 at the time, whereas the Switch Lite is $199. Nevertheless, it’s a notable figure.

It took Microsoft a total of 129 days to ship 5.10 million units of the original Xbox One after it launched in Nov 2013.

It has taken Nintendo 102 days to ship 5.19 million units of the Switch Lite which launched Sep 2019.

The Switch Lite alone is doing better than OG XB1.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 30, 2020

Keep in mind that Microsoft stopped reporting official Xbox One numbers several years ago. So, we don’t know 100% for sure exactly how many units there are out in the wild. Regardless, data firms like the one Ahmad works for do have access to various figures which is why he describes the data as being “estimated”. Regardless, as the Xbox One is on its way out with the impending release of the new Xbox Series X, it was inevitable that the Switch would catch up and pass it down one day.