The Nintendo Switch Story

8 min readJan 14, 2021

This is a data analysis and visualisation based on the data set provided by MakeOverMonday : Nintendo Switch.

https://data.world/makeovermonday/2020w45-dedicated-video-game-sales-units

What does it tell you?

The data presented is the number a visual representation in the form two overlapping charts showcasing the sales of the video game units by Nintendo, particulary the Nintendo Switch. It shows the growth in sales of both the hardware which includes the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite consoles as well as the software. It portrays the growth in increments of ten thousand units over the span of 4 years 2017–2020.

What works and what can be improved?

The data has been plotted on two overlapping charts namely a stacked column bar graph for the hardware sales and a line graph for the software sales.

As the unit for measurement is same i.e. ten thousand units, the intervals in the scale are different for both charts which makes it a little confusing the compare when both the graphs are compared in relation to one another as they are fairly disparate even though they have a similar growth pattern. Also due to the large intervals, getting to know the exact value of sales at that point is difficult.

The use of color for the column bar graph works well to denote the sales in hardware for the particular places but fails in the line bar graph as the overlapping and the subtle differences in shapes on the points on the line graph tends to get lost when imposed over the already colorful bar graphs.

The denotations for the columns is not shown on the graph itself but below the chart so finding out what each color represents is not known right away.

The baseline for each rectangle in the column in unclear. Individual quantities of the stacks are not mentioned in the static chart. On further inspection it shows the x-axis is taken as the baseline for the whole column in the static chart and not for the individual rectangles which make up the chart. The individual values are only available on the dynamic chart when a cursor is hovered over it.

The division of the years works well as it is been placed fairly far apart and helps in reading it better.

Background Info/Context:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. The company was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards.After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company under the current company name, Nintendo distributed its first video game console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, such as the Game Boy, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch is a video game console, developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. It is a hybrid console that can be used as either a home console or a portable device.The Nintendo Switch’s software supports online gaming through Internet connectivity, as well as local wireless ad hoc connectivity with other consoles. Nintendo Switch games and software are available on both physical flash-based ROM cartridges and digital distribution via Nintendo eShop.

Possible personas and their problems :

Who would need this data vizualisation and how could it be useful to them?

Government item:

Name: Jeremy Clarkson. Role: Senator

US Senator Jeremy Clarkson has to attract FDI (Foreign direct Investment) as he is facing direct pressure from to government to increase jobs in his State. This visualization will help him understand the average market size and potentially the number of jobs he can bring to his state, if he has to attract any one of the above businesses by favorable policies.

2. Software Developers:

Name: Rahul Patil. Role: Developer

Rahul Patil is a developer from Pune who is a software developer in the Bay Area. He wants to make games for a new market probably for Nintendo switch. This visualisation will help him understand where the highest opportunities in the field are and if it is a reliable and profitable area to invest his time and effort.

3. Contract Manufacturer

Role: Contract manufacturer of spare parts for Nintendo switch

Name: Foxconn

Foxconn are leaders in manufacturing. They manufacture for companies like Apple. As Foxconn is looking to expand their business, they are looking forward to collaborate and give a proposal to Nintendo to contract manufacture Nintendo switch for them. Foxconn can give them a lucrative proposal based on the visualisation in order to attract them and get the business.

4. Competition Marketing

Role: Business Strategist/Internal consultant

Name: Sony

Sony’s sales for PlayStation portable are down. Sony wants to capture Nintendo’s market and this visualization gives them a good view of Nintendo’s market size in different areas. This will help Sony targeting an area and design marketing strategies in order capture the market share.

Chosen Narrative:

A software developer who could use this data visualisation to gauge if developing games for Nintendo Switch would be profitable to him and worth investing his time to develop new software and games.

Understanding the type of data :

The type of data presented is varied but, as an overview it is projected as Quantitative (discrete). The various data types also present are :

The data presented for the sales in a year is Quantitative (discrete).
It is also classified based on the sales in particular region which makes it Categorical (nominal).
Since the sales have been plotted based on no. of units sold it is also Quantitative (Continuous)

Data Trends:

The data available was easily differentiable into two broad categories namely — Hardware and Software, the data was then classified and plotted into an excel sheet to look for possible trends. Since the data for both Hardware sales and Software sales was rather independent of each other the data was plotted separately for each.

All Units mentioned in the charts below are in Ten Thousand

Chart #1 shows the regionwise sales in hardware from 2017–2020.

The Americas and Europe acquire a majority of the sales as compared to the other regions which shows it has the largest market as of 2020.

Chart #2 shows the hardware sales in the various regions from 2017–2020. Its evident that ‘the Americas’ have the highest hardware sales with a significant margin between them and the region with second largest number of sales that is Europe with Japan having a similar trend and the ‘Other’ with the least number of sales.

Also ‘the Americas’ have had a consistent increase in sales over the years better than any other region, suggesting the market is stable and growing consistently.

The ‘Other’ region has had a stable growth rate compared to the other region even if the sales were low in comparison.

Chart #3 shows the regionwise sales of software from 2017–20, similar to the hardware sales, the software sales market is also dominated by ‘the Americas’ and Europe.

Chart #3 shows that the software sales have had a steady growth upwards with very minimum stagnation in sales.

All the regions have had a stable growth rate in software sales.

Compared to the no. of hardware sales the software sales are around 4 times the hardware sales in each region.

The software sales have consistently increased for each region over the years compared to hardware sales which has irregular growth as seen when charts #2 and #4 are compared.

Also there is a stark difference between the total hardware sales and the total software sales which infers that there has been in higher growth in no. of sales in the software market than the hardware market based on chart #5

Insights and observations:

The biggest markets are Europe and the Americas with the highest sales spanning from 2017 to 2020 with consistent growth.
Software sales have been consistently higher than hardware sales almost 4 fold regionwise as well as in total of all regions.
‘Other’ has the least sales compared to the other regions but the highest growth rate.
Sales in ‘The Americas’ has dominated the market in both hardware and software sales.
Based on the growth rate, although there has been a steady increase in hardware as well as software, but the amount of growth difference between each here has been reducing each year.

Chosen Insight :

Based on the data trends, it is evident that the software market is stable and growing consistently. It is also has higher sales than the Hardware market which infers that there is a higher demand for software than hardware. with respect to the persona chosen, the software market is a feasible option to invest in. Since ‘the Americas’ is the largest consumer of software, based on the graphs and has had the most stable growth in the software market since launch, it is on the best regions to invest into the software market as compared to the other regions.

Visualising the Data:

For the chosen persona which is A software developer who could use this data visualisation to gauge if developing games for Nintendo Switch would be profitable to him and worth investing his time to develop new software and games.

It would be necessary to show the consistent increase in software sales compared to hardware sales. It would also be required to consider the chosen insight that is based on region ‘The Americas’ are the strongest in the market so investing into it is a safe and stable choice for maximum returns on investment.