Nintendo Switch sales won’t be affected by the arrival of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X

Fans who are in looking forward to a new Nintendo Switch console this year are in for a disappointment. Apparently, the company won’t be releasing new hardware this year like what Sony and Microsoft are doing.

This year will mark the launching of the next-gen of consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Sony will be launching the PlayStation 5 in the U.S. in Holiday 2020, which could be anywhere from October to December this year, according to Tech Radar.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is also set to release its next-generation gaming console either in November od December this year, according to Pocket-lint. Called the Xbox Series X, the hardware boasts of top-of-the-line specs such as 12 teraflops of GPU performance, which is double that of the Xbox One X.

However, Nintendo will be bucking the trend as the company won’t be releasing a new console this year. However, this is not unusual for the company, according to CNET. “Nintendo's hardware history has often seen strange periods of quiet, and others where everything happens at once,” the publication noted.

It has been three years since Nintendo Switch was introduced in 2017. To mark its third year anniversary, Forbes revealed some figures showing just how successful the console is.

The console became the fastest-selling console in the U.S. when it launched in 2017. In three years, 52.48 million Nintendo Switch consoles were sold. If the trend continues, it just might catch up to the performance of Sony PlayStation 4, which sold 106 million units in six years.

The publication also revealed that 71 percent of those who owned the Nintendo Switch console also own one current-gen console such as the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One. This cements the console as a popular “secondary” console, which is likely due to its library of exclusive titles and its hybrid design. This could mean that the upcoming releases of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 won’t affect its sales that much.

The commercial success of the console is good news for Nintendo as well. Three years after its launch, the company’s stock price rose 66 percent.