Back in the video rental days, the Super Nintendo cartridge shelf seemed endless. In November 2018, Nintendo used that same idea of abundance to sell the Nintendo Switch: in its Black Friday campaign, the company celebrated the milestone of more than 1,000 games available on the console, launched on March 3, 2017, less than two years earlier.
The message was that, among so many titles, there was a game for every kind of player. In the Black Friday material, Nintendo said the Switch and the Nintendo 2DS, “each with libraries of more than 1,000 games”, had something for everyone. Nintendo of Europe reinforced the message on Twitter, highlighting some of the house’s biggest hits: Splatoon 2, Pokémon: Let’s Go, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
The numbers at the time showed why those games were in the window. As of September 30, 2018, Super Mario Odyssey had 12.17 million copies, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 11.71 million and Breath of the Wild 10.28 million. Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! had just come out, on November 16, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would arrive on December 7, closing out a full year-end.
Those who lived through the era remember that a good part of those thousand games came from indie studios and re-releases of classics, which found in the Switch, both handheld and home console at once, a perfect home. It was the old rental shop shelf, only now fitting in your backpack.
What came next
The library never stopped growing, and neither did the console: as of June 30, 2026, the Switch totaled 156.59 million units and more than 1.56 billion games sold, according to Nintendo. On June 5, 2025, the successor arrived, the Nintendo Switch 2, compatible with most of the first one’s games.
Source: Nintendo, via Eurogamer.
Zé Cartucho
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