The Nintendo Change has now formally had the longest lifespan of any Nintendo dwelling console pre-successor.
Since its worldwide launch on March 3, 2017, 2,687 days have handed with out the arrival of a successor console, which means Change’s lifespan has formally overwhelmed Nintendo’s earlier longest-lasting console, the Famicom (2,686 days).
Assuming the successor to Nintendo Change doesn’t launch earlier than March 1, 2025, Change may go greater than 2,920 days with out the launch of newer {hardware}.
Since Nintendo’s first breakout {hardware}, the Famicom (generally known as Nintendo Leisure System exterior of Japan), the hole between {hardware} launches turned progressively shorter, till its earlier best-selling console, Wii arrived in 2006 and lasted nearly precisely 6 years earlier than Wii U launched.
Wii U, which turned out to be one of many firm’s largest gross sales flops, then loved the fewest days pre-successor (1,566) as Nintendo rushed forward with its plans for Nintendo Change.
After all, Nintendo Change is a hybrid console which may also be performed portably, and by way of Nintendo’s longest-lasting handhelds, Change remains to be far behind the unique Sport Boy, which loved a large 4,352 days earlier than the launch of its full successor, the Sport Boy Advance.
Change does, nonetheless, beat the Nintendo DS – the corporate’s best-selling {hardware} ever – which lasted 2,288 days till the Nintendo 3DS.
For our methodology, we’ve used every dwelling console’s first launch date globally, and never included the top date in our calculations.
Days between Nintendo dwelling console launches
- Coloration TV-Sport (June 1, 1977) – Famicom (July 15, 1983): 2235 days
- Famicom (July 15, 1983) – Tremendous Famicom (Nov 21, 1990): 2686 days
- Tremendous Famicom (Nov 21, 1990) – Nintendo 64 (June 23, 1996): 2041 days
- Nintendo 64 (June 23, 1996) – Nintendo GameCube (Sep 14, 2001): 1909 days
- Nintendo GameCube (Sep 14, 2001) – Wii (Nov 19, 2006): 1892 days
- Wii (Nov 19, 2006) – Wii U (Nov 18, 2012): 2191 days
- Wii U (Nov 18, 2012) – Nintendo Change (March 3, 2017): 1566 days
- Nintendo Change (March 3, 2017) – Current day (July 11, 2024): 2687 days
Nintendo confirmed in Might that it would announce its subsequent console “this fiscal 12 months”, which means the Change’s successor shall be revealed by the top of March 2025 on the newest.
“That is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We are going to make an announcement in regards to the successor to Nintendo Change inside this fiscal 12 months,” a press release learn. “It would have been over 9 years since we introduced the existence of Nintendo Change again in March 2015.”
In its monetary outcomes revealed the identical month, Nintendo confirmed it had bought 141.32 million Change consoles. If it hits its gross sales forecast for the present enterprise 12 months (13.5m), Change shall be near beating Nintendo DS (154m) and PlayStation 2 (~160m) because the best-selling console in historical past.
That is unusually sturdy efficiency for a console that’s absolutely near the top of its lifespan, however Change {hardware} gross sales are clearly in decline, particularly within the main markets exterior of Japan (the place gross sales truly elevated this 12 months).
