Nintendo Switch continues to surpass sales expectations

Any regular visitor to the Gaming Deals will be well aware of our penchant for covering the staggering sales pace of  the Nintendo Switch, the Japanese gaming giant's latest flagship console. We don't expect you to trawl through everything we've written thus far on the topic, so here's a quick recap:

• In February, the month before the Switch launched, we speculated that the Switch was likely to succeed - or at least surpass the Wii U - based on how much interest there was in the console
• A month after launching, we delved into our sales figures as well as Google Trends data to discuss how it was selling compared to the PS4 and Xbox One
• In August, we commemorated five months of the Switch by comparing how well it was faring against other consoles
• Finally, just a couple of weeks ago we delivered our verdict on which console we thought would win the sales battle in the UK market in the final three months of 2017

The Switch's opening few months have been a monumental success. It has sold consistently despite worldwide stock shortages and launching in March, one of the slowest times of the year for console sales, rather than the traditional holiday period launch.

Earlier this week, Nintendo announced that the Switch has already hit 7.3 million units sold. This represents more than half of what the precursor to the Switch, the Wii U, sold over its entire lifetime, and clearly signals the return of Nintendo as a major player in the home console market. The launch of two of the best rated games of the year - and of all time - in the form of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey have both played a critical role in the Switch's early success.

With an original target of 10 million sales in the console's first full year (through to March 2018), Nintendo are also revising the target for the Switch up to around 14 million. With five full months left to meet that marker, which includes Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the run up to Christmas, the Switch should achieve this with ease.