A new report has shown that the Nintendo Switch is the new reigning king of the company’s consoles after breaking a 34-year-old record. VGC has been tracking the number of days since the Nintendo Switch launched and as of yesterday, it broke the previous record set by Nintendo’s Famicom console which launched on July 15, 1983. That console, aka known as the first Nintendo Entertainment System, followed the initial gaming console craze of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its production run lasted 2,686 days until the Super Famicom was released on November 21, 1990. In 1985 the Famicon would get a redesign and officially be rebranded as the NES.
From Famicom to NES (per Nintendo):
“What started life as the Famicom (Family Computer) in Japan went on to become the machine that saved the videogame industry. After a major games slump in the west, The Nintendo Entertainment System defied pundits and sold in millions. Gamers scrambled to see and play classics like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Excitebike, all of which were leaps and bounds ahead of other home systems’ games.”
From Wii U to the Switch
Nintendo went on to produce many other consoles after the NES with varying levels of success until it released the Wii U on November 18, 2012. The Wii U became one of the company’s biggest sales flops and its production run would only last 1,566 days. The Nintendo Switch would arrive four years later on March 3, 2017. This was something of a rush given that previous console production runs usually lasted 5-7 years on average.
Console gamers seeking the best graphics and powerful hardware can say what they want compared to Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S or Sony’s PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles, but the Switch has endured since its launch. Its hybrid-style hardware design which allows it to function as a mobile gaming device and serve as a traditional in-home entertainment system, has found a niche mostly ignored by other console manufacturers. It recently has had minor upgrades with OLED models but is mostly the same as when it launched 7 years ago, now at 2,687 days. Meanwhile, rumors about its successor have been circulating for some time but Nintendo has said it will officially make an announcement before its fiscal year end on March 2025.