Nintendo sold almost a million Switches in a single month

And a whole lot of Zeldas, too.
 By 
Tina Amini
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The Switch is the fastest selling Nintendo system ever.

At least according to Nintendo and NPD Group sales numbers, which show the hybrid handheld-home console sold over 906,000 units in its first month.

The Wii U sold roughly 400,000 in its first week and close to 890,000 units in its first six weeks, even though its 2012 launch landed in the more holiday-friendly month of November.

Both consoles have been criticized for their launch lineups -- either for the lackluster number of games offered on the Switch or the lack of a first-party system seller on the Wii U -- but the Switch certainly benefitted from one monster game.

The brand-new Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold a total of 1.3 million units -- more than 925,000 of which were specific to the Switch console, leaving 460,000 Wii U versions.

"That means that Nintendo sold more of this game for Nintendo Switch than it sold Nintendo Switch systems, for an attach rate of more than 100 percent," Nintendo said in a press release. "This may be attributed to people who purchased both a limited edition of the game to collect and a second version to play."

This, unsurprisingly, makes it the fastest selling Zelda game in Nintendo's history, too.

Nintendo added that shipments of Switch units have not been able to keep up with consumer demand, but that they are "working to make sure everyone who wants a system is able to buy one, and more systems are continually being shipped."

This sounds vaguely and unnervingly familiar (sorry NES Classic fans), though we've got at least a solid five months left to Switch's lifespan if today's events are any indication.

We should be getting clearer, worldwide sales figures directly from Nintendo later this month alongside the company's fiscal-year earnings release.

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Tina Amini

Tina is the Games Editor for Mashable. She is a born and raised New Yorker. She received a degree in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, where she also began her writing career. Tina has been editing and writing about video games for 8 years, working across various outlets including Complex Magazine and the former Gawker's Kotaku. She's an excellent first-person shooter player but favors stories above all. She also has the world's softest cat.

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