UK Charts Reveal That Just 1% Of FIFA 19 Sales Were On Switch, Physical Launch Sales Tumble

How has 3rd party sales been on the system overall? Bethesda seems to have made out okay on the switch with their games. Is it just sports games that nobody is buying?

...at long last, I am finally part of the 1%!

That was bound to happen when EA have neglected Nintendo platforms for the best part of a decade, and released sub-par versions on Nintendo if anything at all. What else would you expect?

Because EA are money grabbing lazy buggers and made an incredibly poor version yet again

@AG_Awesome I'm pretty sure the Bathesda games are also way less than 10% of all sales. Probably near the 1%.

Just think about how many more PS4/Xbox/PC copies were sold.

That they say they are happy does not mean it's anywhere near the other versions in sales. Not at all.

Third party games don't sell on Nintendo consoles.

This doesn't surprise me, other than new kits &the odd gameplay tweek most of the point of these football game updates seems to be graphical.. something the Switch simply can't compete on. Plus the UK high street is still stubbornly slow getting the Switch on the shelves.

Outside of GAME & Argos, my local supermarkets have only started stocking Switch games in the last couple of weeks (same with those in around 10 miles) whereas they've never NOT stocked Playstation & Xbox.

Either Switch owners don't like football or many Switch owners also have a PS or Xbox and feel that they are better consoles to play FIFA on. I don't think portability wins over playing on a big screen with better graphics and communication.

No surprise. The Switch version is missing features and has the worst visuals. Or maybe, enough people realized, that the portability isn't everything. And who wants to pay 20 bucks for this garbage online service

@BigKing That’s what I figured. I wonder how long until the support stops. It’s a shame when this stuff happens. Especially since I was hoping for a few last gen ports that I’d like to have portable like the Batman games or the bioshock trilogy. Lol.

I have Fifa 19 on Switch and it is great. Definitely plays different to Fifa 18 but in a good way. Faster and more responsive. Looks fantastic in portable mode and good docked and I have had no issues with playing online.

Just thought I would counter those people who havent actually played the game.

I lost all will to try this after last year's version broke me. I don't want The Journey, or graphical parity. But is a revamp of career mode and a slicker engine too much to ask for?

To make this game successful: all they need is Amiibo support. Turned the soccer players into Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and the rest of the gang.

Ugh...
EA....
Always Half Baked efforts for their games...

@BigKing not exactly true. Skyrim on Switch has 5% of all sales. Considering that this game came out 7 years ago and Switch doesn't have mods this is pretty good. Also companies mostly don't care about %, they care about profit.

@BigKing lol, have you also read that valkyria chronicles sold very well on switch compared to PS4 (UK is well known for being a PlayStation country). FIFA sells bad because is a sub par experience. Switch owners don't care about visual fidelity but expect the same game modes and engine.

Glad Fighter Z had somewhat of a bump due to it's Switch release. Have resisted buying it on PS4 all year but finally took the dive on Switch - it's a great game!

@AG_Awesome Indies and more niche 3rd parties routinely sell very well and often best on Switch. And there have been more than a few mainstream cases where the Switch version has done very well. Sonic Mania sold most on Switch.

Skyrim and Fifa 18 for Nintendo Switch are million sellers. Since Nintedo Switch is portable too, it is easy to understand why digital sales on NS are bigger than PS4 and XB1, but it also means that these users are not crazy to have the latest fifa or nba 2k on day 1.
I have nba 2k18 and Fifa 18, and probably will buy both 2k19 and Fifa 19 on december.

@SBandy I've not played the game personally & it probably plays great - I'm just wondering if Fifa is a game that suits playing on the go? Do you ever play it out & about or on a bus?

As someone that doesn't play football/soccer games, I'd have thought that they'd be more suited to something like the PS4. If you're not playing on the go... you might as well get that graphical bump.

It's not a case that the Switch is bad for the game, but that the game isn't a good match for the Switch.

DBZ on the 29th spot... that may likely be only at the low thousands or even hundreds. Ouch

No wonder, i bought fifa18 last Juli for 20 bucks only to buy the new for 60 bucks?

Hell to the naw! and Fifa18 is the first soccer game ive ever bought in my whole life.

@DanteSolablood

I don't take my Switch out of the house unless I am going to a mates but I would play the game portably just around the house. The game is perfectly playable handheld and is pretty impressive looking to boot on the Switch screen.

I got Fifa 18 and 19 on Switch because I don't like the way the PS4 versions play. It must be the frozenbyte engine but I find it slow and cumbersome and a few extra visual bells and whistles doesn't make up for it. Also when playing on the TV I find the Pro Controller far more comfortable to use than the Dualshock 4.

I also play almost exclusively online seasons mode and dont go near the lootboxed evil that is Fifa Ultimate Team so I am not fussed about what the Switch version is missing. This is how I have always played Fifa by the way on my Xbox 360, exclusively online, so I am not making excuses for the Switch version not having these extras I am just telling it like it is for me.

@SBandy Thanks for the feedback - not being a footy fan (is it even still called footy?), these kind of games are a huge hole in my gaming knowledge. All I can do is assume... making an Ass out of Ume, whoever Ume is.

It's pretty simple. If you're the kind of punter who buys the new FIFA every year, then you have been buying it for PS4 or Xbox. That huge hardcore base isn't going to suddenly decide to get it on Switch instead - especially if they're looking to complete the Journey trilogy. Not saying it will happen, but I think next year, when there is no three-part story hanging over the release, is when Switch might start getting a bigger share. Also, as EA would presumably be starting a new story, it has to deliver that same content for Switch on FIFA 20. No excuses.

FIFA 18 was a huge letdown yet it sold surprisingly well. How anyone at EA's management could decide that they would release another half-assed port for Switch this year is beyond me.

They didn't even try. Getting the full experience (atmosphere) on the Switch has nothing to do with CPU limitation.

As I'm concerned, they can blame whatever for their poor sales and play the victim. I don't mind if EA takes their loot boxes elsewhere. 1% is still too much for the disrespect they are showing to the Switch community.

1%???
Surprised it's that high after reading that joke that you called a review. Keep going........... you'll make switch the new vita eventually. 👍🏻😄

That's baffling, because in the previous comment section, according to NintendoLifers, there were millions of people who were going to buy FIFA19 on Switch!

FIFA and Dragon Ball Fighterz will both hit the right amount of numbers worldwide.

Stop looking at UK sales like it represents worldwide numbers.

Thought people would have learnt from there doom and gloom predictions last year in relation to FIFA 18 and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 UK sales.

Considering sports games have almost zero resale value in the used market, it makes sense to buy it digitally if you really want the game. I generally buy sports games bi-annually. One year I get MLB the Show for PS and then the next year I get NHL for Xbox. I may grab NHL digitally this year when it goes on sale.

FIFA won’t sell well on the Switch until every sports game gets a Switch version. People who buy FIFA usually only buy sports games, so naturally they’d buy any other console to have their sports game fix.

Another guess is that Nintendo fans hate sport games. When Nintendo released the FIFA ‘19 segment from the Direct separately there were as many dislikes as likes.

I pre ordered fifa, but then saw the poor reviews for the switch version so picked up the Xbox one version instead.

@BladedKnight Fair point,but then their efforts have been abysmal

I wonder what percent of Switch owners bought their's digitally, and where that number stands in terms of overall sales. Since the Switch is a portable system, and like people have said, sports games don't have really any resale value, i bet the majority of the people that bought it on Switch bought it digitally. From what the article says, these numbers are only physical sales.

Also, I personally thought that FIFA 18 on Switch was pretty great. It's probably my most played game on the system. Sure, it doesn't have everything the other systems have, but being able to play a true FIFA game on the go is truly magical.

@NewAdvent It won't happen. Nintendo gave up the graphics arm race a while ago. The next system will be closer to ps4 and xboxone but will be behind the next gen. It is just a given at this point. I would really be surprised if they did anything more powerful. Especially since the switch(which so many consider underpowered) is selling pretty well.

I bought the 18 full price and was hopping that 19 would be a "full" version of it as EA had more time to develop the game.
However, the game is still lacking some important modes, including the most popular "Journey", so yeah, they won't have my money this year.
Not paying full price again for a game that is not "complete".

@Nintendo4Sonic I gladly paid the $20 for online service and have still been playing Splatoon daily!

@NINCOMPUTER basically you want Nintendo to make Mario Strikers for the Switch.

I've recently started to wonder how meaningful these charts are for game sales anymore. Only counting physical sales. I have to imagine that counting digital sales could change up the lists quite a lot.

Honestly, I feel like only hardware sales numbers still matter like they used to. You can't buy a digital Switch or PS4. lol So those numbers remain accurate.

@spizzamarozzi People buying EA games are NPCs anyway.

I went with the PC version. Not paying full price for a hack job or extra $20 to play it on Mickey Ware online service.

Good to see Vaky4 on top 10. And Switch did well there at 39%. I got the LE version on Switch.

Based on how much previous FIFA games have sold on Nintendo hardware, including last year's entry, this shouldn't be a surprise at all. Expect the same to happen next year aka 1-3% of total launch sales of these sports sims come from the Switch version.

@whanvee I think you are mistaken to predict what their next totally new system would be like. Nintendo has surprised us each time with the Wii, Wii U and Switch. The motion controls of the Wii, the tablet controller of the U and the hybrid nature of the Switch were all pretty surprising. I personally think the Switch is the magic ticket and their next system, probably around 2022/2023 should be a Switch 2. Or at the least, another hybrid device. But for all we know with Nintendo, they could pull something totally new out of thin air again.

FIFA’s 1% vs Valkyria’s 39%... “Nintendo fans don’t buy 3rd party games” is clearly not the case, this chart proves it. But Nintendo fans generally favoring some genres while completely ignoring others seems to also be true.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is holding up well, nice to see.

Meanwhile, I've been really enjoying my time with FIFA 19 so far. It plays quite differently (for better and for worse) and I've had a lot of fun with it. Highlights include a particularly epic goal (in my opinion), a match where I had THREE red cards and still managed a win (including a hilarious incident where FOUR players tumbled over one another, resulting in a yellow card penalty to my team; I would have laughed even harder if I wound up with a fourth red card, which I was really, really hoping for, just for S&G), and a silly goal where I merely ran into the goalpost.

I'm really disappointed to find out that it isn't doing too well. I'd be surprised if physical sales are higher than usual as it is a pretty large game (14GB minus updates), so it would make more sense to buy a physical copy and save on storage.

I don't know why this continues to be an issue. EA and Nintendo system owners split more than a decade ago. EA always pursues the most powerful platform and Nintendo has NEVER been a sports platform. (The SEGA Genesis utterly dominated sports titles thirty years ago and Sony simply took their place.)

When it comes to sports, people play on one system. Period. I'm guessing it's because you and your friends need to agree on a single system because the online communities aren't typically compatible. So you pick a system and stick with it.

Switch will never be a sports platform. Never. Give it up. If they get a few good ports, great. But it's the definitive system for platformers, retro titles, indies, and Nintendo exclusives. For the money I paid for the system, that's all I want. I haven't bought an EA game in thirty years, and I don't intend to for the foreseeable future.

thats sad news. Its not only about missing features or sub-par version. Thats the main reason nintendo platforms don't have as good third party support as PS4/Xbox. Cause Nintendo owners prefer games for kids or just Nintendo games.

Isn’t this exactly what happened last year? But it seemed to do better after some tome and some sales. It’s not the lead platform to buy for a lot of consumers I’m sure.

I haven´t started getting into FIFA 18 yet

Several interesting details in this. First, I think the kind of gamer that buys FIFA, which in very many cases is the kind of player that buys only FIFA, buys a console only for FIFA and doesn't buy other games (and there are a lot of those players out there) is not the kind to buy a Nintendo, but to buy "whatever is popular", and in particular, "whatever is advertised in the sports they're watching." FIFA gamers aren't necessarily valued customers for the industry though. If you look at the total attach rates on PSXBox they seem pretty low considering the bredth of games out there.....they indicate a significant portion of the install base generally buys only 1 game a year. And FIFA is likely that game more times than not. Nintendo machines are great for "family fun" and they're great for "dedicated core gamers"....but they're not the first pick machine for "oh I need a console to play ports game x on"

The other interesting piece is of course this isn't digital sales. For FIFA I strongly suspect a huge mount of the people buying it are going to buy it digitally as they are buying it for quick pick up and play multiplayer when out and about more than as a home game. It won't match PS4 sales but I imagine Switch digital sales for this are 2-3x stronger than physical sales. I don't even like FIFA, but if I were to buy it, it would be only digital, no chance of physical on this.

Third, this is the UK charts. When has the UK ever been a strong Nintendo market, in what's probably the craziest football market not named Italy or Brazil.

And finally, total sales down 25% yoy? Oof! RIP FIFA.

OTOH it's good to see Valkyria really doing well, just 15% behind the massively larger PS4 install base, and install base already familiar with older games in the series, on that game. That's a huge win.

No more FIFA, lots more Sega strategy RPGs on Switch. That's a future I can live with.

Edit: Also, how is Crash Still #3? It's a fun game. Play is addictive. But seriously chart topping for months for a 20+ year old trilogy?!

@NEStalgia
I'm glad i Love Boxing.
I wasn't born with Football mindset.
So i can choose any sports but Football to play.
For me, The More Popular those sports, the More i Dislike them.
The More being Underdog like Boxing / Swimming / Bodybuilding / Judo / Baseball, the More i like them.
I'm Against that such popularity.
It's look like David vs. Goliath.

@dimi Lol. I love how I get blamed because I prefered buying Valkyria Chronicles 4 instead of those Fifa garbage. Hey dude, nothing changed since the Wii. Casuals' opinion about videogames have still the same value as my grandma's. Owning a PS4 won't make you "cool". You're still a casual.

@BigKing third party games dont sell on switch thats not true dood skyrim,doom,mario rabbid kingdom,xenoverse 2,disgaea 5 and other rpg games from 3rd party devs have sold very well on the switch so lets not assume anything if fifa18 and 19 sucks big time due to ea being lazy and greedy.

@dimi
"Cause Nintendo owners prefer games for kids or just Nintendo games."

Sounds correct to me.
And you must be granted for Kiddie image of Nintendo because there are some developers who still dedicated their Kawaii / Cute games like Kawaii Koinu 3D (3DS), Wan Nyan Pet Shop (3DS), Neko Tomo, etc that their games are targeted toward Females & Kids (And including me).
You will Rarely Find A Lot of Cuteness from PS4 / Xbox1 games.

Oh EA

Nintendo fans just don’t like sports games all that much

Wow you guys are salty, as the kids say. If it doesn't matter how poorly it sold, then why are like 90% of the comments people trying desperately to explain it in a way other than the game did poorly. Switch owners didn't buy it. Don't expect more games like it.

Where's Madden?

@baller98 Interesting, good link! Yeah NL has been doing this. Ryan and Glen in particular seem to be into the whole "social marketing" mentality of posting things. It might net them clicks now but it cheapens the site overall, long term. I'm really hoping they get out of this little trend before it really damages the reputation here.

@Rondog
FIFA 19 sold more on Switch than Valkyria Chronicles sold on all platforms combined.

@dimi "Kids and Nintendo games" seems like quite a stretch showing positive sales on a new SRPG that launched multiplat. I think more specifically Nintendo gamers consist of two audiences, yes, families that buy kids and family games, and also "core" gamers that are looking for very "video gamey" games, generally deep games with higher learning curves. So kind of the super casual and the super hardcore, with a gap in between. There's a large market for "gamer casual"...people that like the sports games and story telling adventures that aren't particularly difficult to learn and aren't too complicated, but are more than simple family games that tend to gravitate toward other platforms. But if you look at big sellers on Nintendo it's often a split between "games for kids" and "really complicated games." I've often said the Nintendo base tends to have more in common with the core PC base from back before all this "AAA visual showcase shooter" nonsense showed up and took over PC. The people that played things like Civilization, Diablo, Might and Magic, etc tend to be a strong overlap with Nintendo. A very hardcore gaming audience with particularly complicated taste, often involving a bit more math, beyond more basic mass market gameplay.

@baller98 yeah. I fear the "sources" some of the news authors here use tend to be the most sensational other sites around. I would not doubt they just pull the salacious links out of their own social media feeds.

2016's FIFA 17 sold ~1.11 million retail copies at launch, while this year's FIFA 19 sold ~620K retail copies at launch. Increasing digital sales should help mitigate the declining retail sales, but it's pretty clear FIFA has reached saturation and likely decline in the UK, despite Konami handing over the Champions League rights to EA. It's a stark contrast to the growth that FIFA has seen everywhere else in the world.

@geheimxy 5% is way less than 10%, just like I said. And also it's more near 1% than it's near 10%. That's actually really sad.

5% means they might release some older games or port if it's relatively little work. It also means it's not worth making any Switch exclusives, because, like you said, they care about profit. And it can't be profitable to create something from scratch exclusively for the Switch if you would've sold multiple times more on any other platform.

@Heavyarms55 I don't know what they will do as it is Nintendo. I would put money on the fact that it won't have cutting edge CPU or graphics chip. Beyond that who knows what they will do. The switch is basically a Wii and Wii U put together. It really is what I expected from my Wii u. Until I realized I couldn't even go to another room with my Wii U pad.

So yes, I agree that who knows what Nintendo will make next but I highly doubt it will be on parity with the power of whatever Microsoft and playstation will come up with next. Like I said the fact that the switch has sold so well just proves to them that they don't need cutting edge tech (graphics and processing wise) to make money.

I question the 1% is made up by someone if the UK chart shown on nintendoeverything is correct. According to that chart, fifa19 swtich ranks the first among Nintendo switch titles last week, even higher than Mario kart(no2) and Mario odyssey(no3), and ranks number 6 among all consoles, the ranking is not bad at all, assume PS4 and Xboxone version sold ard 800k first week like fifa18, then switch version has 8k only, which means all games rank below 6, the likes of Mario kart, pubg, valkyria chronicle 4, Minecraft, sold less than 8k? I’m not convinced.

@AG_Awesome 3rd party sales have been pretty good overall. YS VIII far outsold the PS Vita and PS4 version combined for example, Shining Resonance Refrain posted comparable numbers, Crash Trilogy did well, all of Bethesda's games, etc. But yeah, you hit the nail on the head with sports titles being the issue, though it's not necessarily the genre. Nintendo fans are far more likely to take issue with microtransactions, since instead of being standard they're only in NBA2K and FIFA on this system. Throw in WWE2K18 being unplayable, and both of NBA and FIFA missing significant features, and the hybrid nature loses out to getting actual complete versions of the game.

@link3710 That’s a good point with micro transactions and all that. It’s very different from what Nintendo fans are used to. Plus getting the “gimped” versions rather than the other console ones doesn’t help.

And man, that wwe game was a joke. Such a shame as I was finally going to get my first wrestling game in years and passed on it.

Maybe it’s a crazy idea (or too costly) but it would be cool to see some Mario/Nintendo sports game made with those engines. Nintendo fans seem to love their mascots and those game engines wouldn’t be going to waste if they’re just sitting there undeveloped and unused after poor sales.

@AG_Awesome If it means we finally get a new Strikers, I'd be all for it! Though, to be honest, any game with the mascots needs to be over the top crazy to attract people. I picked up FIFA 18 after missing Mario Strikers and I just found the game incredibly boring. Probably why I'm not usually a sports person lol

Nobody is gonna pay full price for a port missing features EA. Drop the price to 40.

Good. I for one don't think the Nintendo Switch needs heavily monetized AAA garbage with in-game economies that tempt and pressure their players to gamble on loot boxes. As far as I'm concerned, EA/Ubisoft/Activision/2K Games can bugger off. (Maybe not SOME Ubisoft games, Rayman, Mario Rabbids, Child of Light, Trials)

People will say Nintendo gamers don't buy third parties now, but will fail to acknowledge that VC4 sold 39% on Switch, in the Switch 's weakest region(also selling way more than on XB1). People with a negative agenda will ignore this, and it's a shame about FIFA sales, but you have to give credit where credit is due.

@BigKing You're speculating on sales numbers just to fit your false premise that 3rd party games don't sell on Nintendo systems. Again, that's false, especially with the Switch. I'd agree that the Bethesda games likely sold a far less percentage of total game sales with Skyrim, Doom, and Wolf 2 but they've been out on the other two systems for far longer and are excellent but inferior versions. We have far too many Switch success stories and indies are cleaning up on the system, which alone slays your premise that 3rd party software doesn't sell on Nintendo systems. NDS, 3DS and Wii had tons of 3rd parties software sales.

@BigKing as i said it's about sales numbers my friend. Actual sales is what matters since this means if they actually make money off it. Skyrim is one of the top most selling games of all time. Switch version sold over a million copies. That's a lot of profit. Also, you're saying that on an article which stated that Switch accounted for almost 40% sales of Valkyria Chronicles 4. In a country which isn't fond of the Switch. The fact that third parties don't sell well on Nintendo consoles is just false and many Switch games show that.

@Kenology I don't count indies as third party developers. That's a whole different story. Indie games are doing great, everything else not so much.

Just watched Jim Sterling's video on FIFA 19, you have a less than 1% chance to get the rarest cards with their loot boxes. Are you kidding me? How do people even defend the "AAA" game industry at this point? With this and Assassin's Creed Odyssey's different editions, having THREE more editions all better than the ULTIMATE edition, and them partnering up and locking DLC behind frigging Tostino's Pizza Rolls, I just don't get it. Why buy their products and support them when all they want to do is nickel and dime their customers? It's awful. Keep these games off the Switch, please.

Hmmm. A game that doesn't have all the features of the other versions and EA are still expecting people to pay the same price? Nah. They must think people are mugs.

@WiltonRoots

They think all of their customers are mugs, their employees too. Why anyone would buy this game on ANY platform is beyond me.

I wouldn't mind at all if EA stops putting anything on the Switch from here on out.

@geheimxy Suddenly everybody cares about Valkyria Chronicles 4.

Just because it sold more than on the PS4.

So now that is the game to mention.

Valkyria Chronicles 4

@RyanSilberman
"I wouldn't mind at all if EA stops putting anything on the Switch from here on out."

But i Really WANT The Sims 4 for Nintendo Switch.

Was reading a review from the early 90s when EA was considered one of the most adventurous and daring publishers for Sega & Nintendo 16-bit releases (Desert Strike, Road Rash, The Immortal, F22 etc) not to mention likes of Theme Park & Syndicate on PC.

Wow how times change!

@link3710
" I picked up FIFA 18 after missing Mario Strikers and I just found the game incredibly boring."

Of course boring because it was Not a Blitzball from Final Fantasy X.

I see crash bandicoot up there. Amazon NA has it listed at 50% off right now. Anyone know if $ 20 is a steal (as I've never played a crash game)? How does it rank with other platformers?

@Anti-Matter i wouldnt trust anything from ea anymore since all they do is rush their games out broken or messing content.

@Anti-Matter To be fair, I found Blitzball incredibly confusing, though I'll probably try it again once I pick up FFX for Switch.

@PrincessBowsette
If there is a game that BETTER than The Sims series, i might left from The Sims series if in the future The Sims 5 is not better than The Sims 3 & 4.
The Sims 4 PS4 is the ONLY game i still want to play since i don't play PC games anymore. It would be Awesome if The Sims 4 also on Nintendo Switch. If only EA is Not Half Hearted when making their franchises...

@link3710
And to be honest, i really Hate to play Blitzball on FF X since Blitzball is an "Underwater Soccer". Just only ONCE play Blitzball to continue the storyline, i don't care if i Win or Lose. That's means i will neglect Wakka to get his strongest weapon.

@BigKing Okay just for you I started comparing a few multiplatform examples.

Starting with stuff that supports your point:
Wolfenstein 2 (8%), NBA2K18 (8%), LA Noire (5%, almost same as PS4 tho), Crash Trilogy (8%), NBA2K19 and Fifa19 probably (numbers not out tho)

Now lets go over examples that say otherwise:
Shining Resonance sold more than on PS4. Dragonball Xenoverse 2 had around 25% of sales on Switch.
Fifa 18 had over a million copies sold. Doom also had around 10%. Attack on Titan 2 had the same amount of copies sold as Ps4 and One, Rocket League has over 10% of physical copies on Switch. Dragon Quest Builders over 20%, Ys 8 20%, Bomberman has over 90%, Sonic Forces 50%, Rayman 25%, Blazblue 50%.......

You want to start looking at numbers or keep on "thinking" you're right? It's a myth people kept on repeating over and over just because someone said that. Still not satisfied? I could search for more games if you want me to.

This site is sad. They posted the same thing for NBA 2k19 as if it's a badge of honor to report. I'm done with this site and flame bait articles. Back to Gameinformer!

@NEStalgia i agree, but its mostly veteran gamers that grew up with Nintendo games or a casual gamer. I don't think a game like Horizon Zero Dawn or Witcher would sell well on on Switch. Horizon maybe if you could transform the heroine to Link

@dourfram no one blames you. I agree that having a PS4 doesn't make you cool (having a cute gf is cooler)!

Good grief the number of baseless generalisations in this comment thread is borderline embarrassing.

@geheimxy you think those are great numbers? I would expect games like Sonic, Dragon Quest Builders to do much better on a Nintendo platform. Rocket League: why do you talk about physical copies all of a sudden. Bomberman had decent sales because it was one of the very few launch games.

I'm happy that you are impressed, I'm not. That's basically why there has only been one real third party exclusive(Octopath Traveler, unless you count a Mario game) in the 1.5 years that the Switch is on the market. EA, Ubisoft and Activision, Capcom, Konami and so on are barely supporting the platform

@SBandy I'll probably get it when it goes on sale.. Do you have fifa 18 also? If how does this measure up?

@Equinox fifa 18 was not too bad, not pes but not too bad

@BigKing First of all, you're changing the point now. I was talking about how "Nintendo players don't buy 3rd party". These numbers do prove otherwise. Also, you're expecting games that came out later, on a platform with 1/4th of install base to do better than its competitor? If you compare it to the XOne most multiplatform games outsell the One. These numbers definitely show that Nintendo players buy the same as other consoles.

@ICISAZEL

I have Fifa 18 too and thoroughly enjoyed it. Only annoyance for me was the lack of video recording which was introduced a couple of months ago but dozens of world class goals too late haha. Thankfully it is in from the start with Fifa 19.

Fifa 19 is more of the same but better. Im getting used to the double touch shot mechanic and the game seems a bit faster and more responsive. I certainly wouldn't class it as a simple re-skin.

I was playing an online game taking place on a wet pitch and it really affected how the players moved, it was great fun! I recommend it highly with the caveat that I play almost exclusively online seasons so other peoples mileage may vary.

@dimi I think it's a little bit of a misnomer that only those that grew up with Nintendo in the golden age are the core gamers that like Nintendo. That certainly is one group, yes. But it's broader than that. It's a group of the "core" market that represents what the core market used to be pre-2003 'AAA' or so, but that doesn't mean necessarily only people who played then but anyone the concepts of what gaming was like then appeal to.

Specifically, the goal of the gaming industry was to broaden its market. They succeeded, but they succeeded by learning a lot about mass market appeal from the film industry. As a result they appealed to a lot of people that otherwise wouldn't be interested in video games by making them more movie like, more like sports, more relatable, etc. And it worked, they got a lot more customers. But a lot of that pulled in a broad new audience that didn't play games before, but that market for the kind of people that did play games before (not just the individuals that did, but new gamers as well that otherwise would have been interested in that kind of product) didn't go away. PC originally had that push for blockbusters but it moved to console with XBox. Sony and Nintendo, and a huge swath of PC remained "traditional" in gaming. With the 7th gen it got weird. Sony started abandoning the traditional and moved squarely into that blockbuster space with endless brown shooters. Clearly there's a huge market for that. But that left Nintendo and PC as the holdouts of traditional gameplay, and there's a strong pull for that. It's a different market overall, and yes, skews older, isn't as mainstream, but that paints the wrong numbers. Gaming was never mainstream. The blockbuster market took gaming and moved it from gamers to moviegoers and sports fans. This made the numbers of players much bigger in the broad umbrella of "gaming", but it didn't actually change that market for what traditionally was games. That not only didn't shrink, but has grown considerably, and it's focused largely on PC and Nintendo at this point.

This is why statistics are a problem, they can say anything you want them to say depending on how you frame them. On one hand, Nintendo went from 90% or so of the US gaming market to probably less than 20% overall. That looks bad. But the thing is, it's not so much that Nintendo lost market so much as other companies gained market even faster than Nintendo, or specifically, those blockbuster type games (that cost a lot more to make as well) pulled in tons of players that never would have touched Valkyria 4 or Dragon Quest 11 or even Mega Man 11. But there's still more people interested in things like VC4, DQ11, MM11 than were interested 15 years ago, even if the number interested in Forza and RDR2 are 4x bigger than that, dosen't mean that interest in traditional games reduced, it just means interest in blockbusters increased faster than the increase in interest in traditional games. But both have increased.

Switch has sold 20M units + in 1.5 years. It's only had one holiday sales period, and that's all at launch MSRP. That's a phenominal display of interest in that kind of product, and I don't think it's just 80's gamers and kids driving that interest.

Last year I bought Fifa 18 day one for switch I was so hyped it was coming and that we had ultimate team. Overall the game was alright but lacked fut modes. Fifa 19 I have skipped for now anyways there has been slight improvement to graphics and overall gameplay but there has been absolutely no change to ultimate team while xbox/ps4 users get rival divisions and continue to have fut champs and squad battles. Don't get me wrong i spent over £70s worth on packs last year but with no improvements I say whats the actual point wasting my money again. ps4/xb1 users can earn mega packs while playing these game modes and all we get is standard basic league systems that are very old. If ea expects the game to sell well at least keep up to date with all the game modes and changes other versions have at least.

i'm also a little upset fighterz isn't higher in the charts its such a great game. Anyone on the fence i would recommend it. I love the story mode so far and it has very addictive gameplay. didn't think i would like as much as xenoverse 2 but i really do and its well worth the money.

@SBandy thanks for the info, I actually have fifa 18 physically and digitally, will look out for a sale. Are you physical or digital with 19?

@ICISAZEL

I went digital. It is a game I will always want on my Switch to play at a moment's notice and apart from Zelda, which I got with my launch system, I have gone digital this gen.

@NEStalgia thats a nice analysis and i agree with most parts of it. But i'm sceptical about the "gaming was never mainstream" part. I was on the metro and next to me a granny was playing witch bubble saga on her galaxy. So casual mobile games are mainstream imo. I don't think she will spent 89,99€ for the FIFA 19 Champions Edition though !

@dimi haha, true mobile gaming certainly is mainstream, but when comparing that historically, id compare it to solitaire, mine sweeper and mahjong on Windows 3.1 and 95 pcs. Everyone played them, but that didn't really factor into the "games industry" metrics and they weren't people going out of their way as an actively informed customer spending money on dedicated games software and hardware. Similar that they're all "games" but completely unrelated markets otherwise (a fact often lost on share holders, it seems )

@SBandy how big of an sd card do you have? I'm on 200GB here

@ICISAZEL

128GB, I am looking to upgrade to 256GB before the end of the year as I am having to juggle a few things now. Fifa is the only game I saved to my Switch memory as it is the biggest game I own at 14GB (give or take) and the rest are on the SD card.

@BigKing: They are 3rd party devs though. But feel free to make exclusions to make your argument work! Although it still doesn't because 3rd party games are selling on Switch. You really have no leg to stand on cause your premise is untrue to begin with man!