A Nintendo Switch Lite Japan poll was recently conducted and it had some surprising results: more than half of the Japanese gamers polled said that they won’t be buying Nintendo’s newest handheld console. What makes this particularly interesting is that Japan (and Asia in general) are typically very fond of handheld and mobile gaming, so this number seems much larger than one might expect.
Kotaku reports that Japanese website Inside surveyed their readership in a Nintendo Switch Lite Japan poll. 5,191 Japanese gamers took the time to reply, selecting an answer from one of five options that pretty much covered all of the individual purchasing situations that someone might find themselves in.
ALSO: Don’t @ Me | The Nintendo Switch Lite is less appealing
Here is a condensed version of the possible choices in the poll:
- Won’t buy Lite, will buy Nintendo Switch
- Won’t buy Lite
- Will buy Lite, already own Nintendo Switch
- Will buy Lite, don’t own Nintendo Switch
- Won’t buy Lite, already own Nintendo Switch
And the results of the Nintendo Switch Lite Japan poll were as follows. 9% (342 respondents) said that they won’t buy a Nintendo Switch Lite, but they will buy a Nintendo Switch. Next up, 10.4% of respondents (393 in all) said that they won’t buy a Lite at all. After that, 17.9% (676 respondents) said that they already have a vanilla Switch and are going to buy a Lite anyway. 29.4% (1,111 respondents) don’t own a Switch but will buy a Lite, and 33.3% (1,258 respondents) own a vanilla Switch and aren’t going to buy a Lite.
Mash these numbers together, and the final results show that 52.7% of Japanese gamers polled (1,993 respondents) will not be buying a Nintendo Switch Lite for one reason or another while 47.3% (1,787 respondents) will indeed be buying the Lite. (Judging by the numbers, it seems that not everyone who responded to the discussion actually voted in the poll.)
Although this might seem like bad news for Nintendo, it doesn’t necessarily decide the fate of the rest of the world. What’s popular or unpopular in Japan doesn’t always line up with the Western world and the Nintendo Switch Lite may still prove to be a success in the U.S. and Europe.
