We knew the Nintendo Switch was off to a good start, based on U.S. sales numbers from March NPD numbers, but now it appear that the young upstart console has broken Nintendo's expectations with more than 2.4 million units sold worldwide.

The figure, courtesy of research firm SuperData, tops Nintendo's projection of about 2 million units for the month. Because of the fast start, SuperData said that it is revising its projected sales figures for 2017 to 7.2 million units sold, up from 5 million.

While SuperData's 2.4 million number is an estimate, the firm notes that it collaborated with market researcher Gfk and the Japanese gaming publication Famitsu to help validate the estimate.

Nintendo should be incredibly happy with the early returns, and while impressive, it still lags slightly behind Nintendo's top console, the Wii. When it launched in late 2006, Nintendo reported that it had shipped 3.19 million units for the quarter ending December 31. Granted there is a difference between shipped and sold, but hopefully Nintendo will add some clarity to the issue when it holds its quarterly financial meeting later this month.

NPD reported yesterday that the Switch had sold more than 906,000 units in North America for March. The main sales driver was the highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which reportedly sold 920,000 units just for the Switch, which gave the game and amazing attach rate of more than 100%.