Nintendo finally gives us hard numbers on Switch Online subscriptions

9.8 million

Content holders have every opportunity to be squirrely about hard data. Netflix is infamous for only telling us when something is a rip-roaring success, and Microsoft eventually started withholding (Lucille Bluth would be proud) Xbox One hardware sales. While Nintendo generally isn’t part of that group, last November they didn’t provide Switch Online numbers and continued to avoid the question: until today.

As part of their financial results briefing for the fiscal year that ends in March 2019, Nintendo gave up the goods: 9.8 million accounts (that’s a 28.2% subscription attach rate on the updated 34.74 million Switches sold), excluding free trials (Twitch Prime promotion numbers were not clarified). They note that the number does include family memberships, but that’s still an impressive feat, especially when you consider that 2.8 million people played Tetris 99 (what a boost!). By comparison, Sony has amassed 36.4 million paid PlayStation Plus subscribers since the program’s June 2010 launch (a 37.6% subscription attach rate), with a much more appealing incentive/bonus system. In case you were wondering 2018 estimates put Xbox Live users at around 60 million, but Microsoft did not elaborate on how many of those were paying Gold members.

Nintendo has a ways to go before it catches up with Sony, but it’s getting there. We’re also right on the precipice of a new console generation in 2020. As I say frequently: “exciting [and expensive] times!”

Financial Results Briefing [Nintendo]