The Nintendo Switch snatches the NES’ record as the company’s longest-lasting console, with 2,688 days without a successor

The Nintendo Switch is the longest-serving Nintendo console, with the company having never left this much time in between releasing one console and the next. 

The Nintendo Switch is now the company’s longest-lasting console era ever, meaning it’s spent the most amount of time on store shelves without the company releasing a follow-up. Just yesterday, VGC reported that 2,687 days had gone since the Nintendo Switch’s global launch on March 3, 2017. Obviously, that number’s now at 2,688 days, but either way, it snatches the crown from the NES (Famicom in Japan) which spent 2,686 days as Nintendo’s lone console. 

Nintendo hasn’t spent this much time supporting, fawning over, and profiting from one console since its very first, as every console generation after the NES became progressively shorter until the mammoth Wii era lasted a full six years, which makes some sense considering the Switch is the company’s best-selling console with 141 million units shifted. On the other side of the spectrum, the Wii U can finally say it’s won something as the console holds first place for Nintendo’s shortest console cycle of all time with 1,566 uninterrupted days on the market.

The home consoles can argue all they like, but none of them will ever hold a candle to the original Game Boy, which saw a whopping 4,352 days before the release of the Game Boy Advance. Since the Switch is a hybrid console, it would need to hold on until February 1, 2029 without a successor to beat the Game Boy’s record.

That’s as unlikely to happen as me becoming the next US President since the company is reportedly targeting an early 2025 release date for the Nintendo Switch 2 or whatever else the successor ends up being called.

For now, check out the very best Nintendo Switch games to play before the console gets catapulted into space with the sequel’s arrival.