Come along, because this is one of those news items that shows how well the Switch and Fortnite got along: in the earnings presentation released in late October 2018, for the half-year ended September 30, Nintendo said that nearly half of Nintendo Switch consoles had Fortnite downloaded.
The numbers help show how big that is. At that point, the Switch had 22.86 million units sold worldwide, already above the GameCube, with 3.19 million in the July to September quarter alone. Nearly half of that base means something around 11 million downloads of Epic Games’ battle royale, which had arrived on the console for free in June 2018, during E3.
The rest of the investor presentation was adorable too. Octopath Traveler passed 1 million copies combining physical and digital, Super Mario Party sold about 1.5 million since its October 5 launch, and Nintendo Switch Online, the paid service that debuted in September, had good uptake, according to the company. Among the console’s champions, Super Mario Odyssey had 12.17 million copies, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 11.71 million and Zelda: Breath of the Wild 10.28 million.
For a free game, being on half of the devices was a very clear sign: the Switch audience did not want only Mario and Zelda, it wanted the games of the moment too. And being able to play Fortnite in handheld mode, on the couch or in bed, was an extra charm of the console.
What came next
The Switch kept selling for years and, according to Nintendo, reached 156.59 million units as of June 30, 2026. Fortnite remains on the console and was also one of the launch games for the Nintendo Switch 2, which debuted on June 5, 2025 and totaled 23.68 million units in the same period.
Source: Nintendo, via Eurogamer.
Lady Combo
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