Nintendo Switch has today hit a major milestone, as detailed in the company's latest earnings release. Worldwide, Nintendo's hybrid console -- in the span of less than three years -- has surpassed more than 50 million hardware units sold. As a result, the Switch's more exact 52.48 million, has beaten even the Super Nintendo in total life-time sales of around 49.1 million, following its earlier usurping of the N64's position, having surpassed that console's sales of roughly 33 million. This now means the Switch is Nintendo's third best-selling home console -- behind the original Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES for short) which stands at just under 62 million, and none other than the Wii's 101.63 million.

Not only has the Switch matched more than half the Wii's lifetime sales, but it's also more than half that of its nearest competitor, the PS4, with Sony's console having reached a reported total of 102.8 million back in October. As always, with Microsoft ending reports of hardware sales, it's hard to say if (and when) the Switch has surpassed total Xbox One sales too. On the purely handheld front, the 3DS continued its sharp decline of hardware sold, selling only an additional 620,000 units in the same period -- bringing the 3DS' total lifetime sales to 75.71 million. Even with Microsoft and Sony both about to enter the ninth-generation of consoles -- given you can technically class the Switch as a ninth-gen system -- it'll be interesting to see how well Nintendo can keep their strong momentum going, once the PS5 and Xbox Series X alike enter the market with undoubtedly more powerful hardware and [hopefully] games to match.