The Nintendo Change has now formally had the longest lifespan of any Nintendo house console pre-successor.
Since its worldwide launch on March 3, 2017, 2,687 days have handed with out the arrival of a successor console, that means Change’s lifespan has formally crushed 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 might go greater than 2,920 days with out the launch of newer {hardware}.
Since Nintendo’s first breakout {hardware}, the Famicom (often called Nintendo Leisure System outdoors 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 greatest 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 continues to be far behind the unique Recreation Boy, which loved a large 4,352 days earlier than the launch of its full successor, the Recreation 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 house console’s first launch date globally, and never included the tip date in our calculations.
Days between Nintendo house console launches
- Colour TV-Recreation (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”, that means the Change’s successor can be revealed by the tip of March 2025 on the newest.
“That is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We are going to make an announcement concerning the successor to Nintendo Change inside this fiscal 12 months,” an announcement learn. “It should 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 can 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 tip of its lifespan, however Change {hardware} gross sales are clearly in decline, particularly within the main markets outdoors of Japan (the place gross sales truly elevated this 12 months).
