Nintendo released its financials today and with it came news that the Nintendo Switch family of systems has sold over 107.65 million units as of March 2022. The Kyoto-based company also provided updated sales figures for Nintendo Switch software. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains the best-selling video game on the Nintendo Switch and has shifted 45.33 million units since launch in 2017. The closest game to compete with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch is the cute and charming hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The game proved to be a massive success for Nintendo during the COVID-19 pandemic and has shifted a total of 38.64 million units since it launched in March, 2020. Here’s the top ten best-sellers on Switch:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 45.33 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 38.64 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 28.17 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 26.55 million
- Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield – 24.27 million
- Super Mario Odyssey – 23.5 million
- Super Mario Party – 17.78 million
- Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Pokemon Shining Pearl – 14.65 million
- Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! – 14.53 million
- Ring Fit Adventure – 14.09 million
Animal Crossing one of my favorite games
I’d like to see an actual list without the Pokemon games. They count the total sales of two products for one game. And you can’t just say, “We expect each person to just buy one version of the game” because they sell BOTH versions as a bundle too.
And people buy multiple copies of other games as well, not just Pokemon. Not that many people actually buy both copies of what’s essentially the same game but with 5 changes. The double pack is there for you to gift one to your friend or family member, it makes no sense to act like it’s making a big enough impact to boost the games’ sales that much when it comes to crazy people buying it for just themselves. At most probably only 5% of the sales are contributed to a single person wanted both versions.
The double pack isn’t a gift because it’s also digital.
As someone who was a manager of a Gamestop for 5 year, I couldn’t even begin to express to you how wrong you actually are. Every new Pokemon release was like a holiday in terms of sales and a huge part of that was the fact that about 1in every 2 customers would buy both versions. The amount of revenue we would generate from mainstream pokemon releases could turn a whole bad quarter around for my store and the double dippers were almost certainly the reason, as they were also the kind of customers to pick up cards, plushies, etc, and we were told to milk them for everything they were worth. I’m aware that one Gamestop doesn’t represent national or global trends, but based on my experience your 5% guess is WILDLY off from the truth.
I honestly do not leople who buy two versions of the Pokémon games make up over 5% of total sales. Very few people see value in buy two copies. Maybe that particular GameStop branch was an anomaly but def not a representation of the entire population who enjoy Pokémon games.
Nope. It’s been this way since Gen 1. I knew people who bought a second Game Boy so they could trade between their copies. And there is a lot of players like this and the Pokemon Company KNOWS this because they started selling version bundles (both physically AND digitally). I mean, seriously… the digital bundle is one cent cheaper than buying both games individually. It’s not for value. It’s for those people who always buy both versions.
Anecdotal, anecdotal, anecdotal. I also was once a manager at a Gamestop, and people buying both versions were a completely insignificant portion of sales. Does that mean nobody does it? No, of course not, because my singular store says absolutely nothing in terms of the game’s entire sales history. As a matter of fact, in 2022, Gamestop sales as a whole mean very little to the game’s entire sales history.
How many friends you had that bought both means nothing, absolutely nothing. We know nothing else about you, and have no reason to take your personal experiences as an average sampling. Personally, I’m the only one in my friend circle that’s ever bought both versions of a pokemon game, and I run in extremely hardcore gaming circles, and we all love pokemon. Does that mean no one does it? Of course not, because I am not Johnny Everyman, I do not represent the mean.
We don’t have any real data on this, we just don’t know, but a better question to ask in my opinion, is why is this data relevant? If customers like your game enough to buy it twice, that seems to me to be a better indicator of success to me than convincing a larger number of peoplle to buy it who might not play it very much or care about it at all.
“We don’t have any real data on this”
Can you read? That’s what I originally stated I wanted. I’d like to see these lists without the sales of two games in one slot. It could even be interesting to see which versions seem to sell more.
Also you can’t argue “that’s anecdotal!” then proceed to give your own anecdotes. C’mon.