Nintendo says almost 6 million households bought a second Switch last year

One isn’t enough for many households. Nintendo revealed in a Q&A with investors that, in the year to March 31st, around 20 percent of Switch units were sold to households that already have one. That works out to around 5.8 million consoles, as Gamasutra notes.

There are a few possible reasons for that. The pandemic, of course, led to more people playing video games last year, so families might have been playing the likes of together on separate consoles. Some people have bought a to use solely as an on-the-go machine while their standard Switch stays docked. And maybe, just maybe, some people bought a second Switch as an expensive way to resolve .

“Going forward, we expect demand for multiple systems per household will increase even as hardware unit sales grow,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said on the call. “By region, significant sales growth is continuing in Asia, and we believe there is still room for sufficient growth of new demand in Europe and the United States, considering the sizes of those populations.”

It’ll be interesting to see how much that percentage changes over the next year with the pandemic finally easing. Nintendo’s also widely expected to this year and many current Switch owners will probably be looking to upgrade.

Elsewhere, , in addition to being an enormous hit in its own right, prompted Switch newcomers to try out other key Nintendo franchises like Zelda and Mario, according to Furukawa. He also noted that Nintendo is still dealing with shortages and production issues with the Switch, which he said is in the middle of its lifecycle. Furukawa added that shipments to Europe were also delayed by the Suez Canal blockage.