ESA Publication Lists Pokémon Sun and Moon Among Best Selling Games of 2016

Gotta sell 'em all.

Good for them.

Not only are they the only Nintendo games to make the list but of the remaining 18 games on the list, Minecraft is the only other game on Nintendo hardware.

Well, they were basically the only games Nintendo made worth giving a damn, so it's unsurprising

Who is in the first place ?

How times have changed when 'platformer' doesn't even appear as a separate genre in the pie chart, no doubt being rolled up into 'Others'.

I'm definitely a retro gamer, seeing those games in the top 20 list and the pie chart of genres makes me realise the hobby I've loved since its origins is not the same hobby anymore. Thank goodness for Everdrives! I now literally have access to enough 'new' retro games on proper hardware to last me until next decade.

Well, also the great Paper Mario: CS was released last year, but yeah, of course that one is not going to be among the best selling games of 2016...
Weak year overall. The first four months of 2017 are already better than the whole last year lol

@Anti-Matter Call of Duty Infinite Warfare - and that's despite it selling less than previous entires. It's a franchise that won't ever die... most likely.

@FragRed
Gah...!!!
Disgusting games.
I should never asked who was the first place.
I feel regret now.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE To be fair, neither Sony nor Microsoft had any exclusives on the list. So Nintendo actually achieved something.

The picture loaded on the homepage and I thought 'What does the European Space Agency has to do with Nintendo?'

Nintendo was in hibernation last year.

Every time I see "esa", I think of that :

Interesting read from what I've scanned through. Overall not too surprising on the results apart from Madden beating FIFA and Far Cry Primal's success.

The importance of graphics as a deciding factor to purchase games is a disappointing yet understandable considering human tendencies to judge with our eyes and the desire for visual realism for immersion.

@FX102A
That's really suck to be a gamer like that.
Graphic is not everything.
Gameplay does matter.

@Anti-Matter wow. That's harsh

What if you combined the sun/moon sales to reflect the fact that they're pretty much the same game. How much higher would they be in the list?

Damn, I was hoping Infinite Warfare would not be first. I generally like playing Call of Duty, but I just could not get into IW and I've been finding myself playing Modern Warfare Remastered more.

I was kinda hoping Infinite Warfare would drop a bit, and scare Activision into fixing some things.

The real shame is how low Titanfall 2 is on that list. Honestly, that was the best Call of Duty style shooter last year, and I'm still playing it even months later.

I also have one question. Who the hell keeps buying GTA 5? How is a four old game still number 3?

@GravyThief I think that's kind of a misnomer. Polls and percentages can show any fact you wish to be true.

I don't think the kind of games you and most traditional gamers enjoy have actually shrunk in popularity since then. In fact I think they've exploded in popularity significantly. It's just that gaming as an overall market has grown SO much to include so many "casual" (or movie-watching sports-watching people that aren't 'gamers' in that traditional sense) that the niche of true old school gamers represents a tiny portion of the overall gaming pie chart, even if that niche is actually bigger than it was back in the day by population.

Imagine living on an island....Yoshi Island. And 100% of the population is Yoshis. And in 2017 there are 8x the number of Yoshis there were in 1993. But the island was bought by Mushroom Kingdom, so now only 7% of the population of Mushroom Kingdom is Yoshis, the rest are all Toads. It seems like "nobody's a Yoshi anymore" even though there's 800% more Yoshis than there were back in the day

Also platforms are likely "action". Even Miyamoto has often said he makes "action games" rather than saying platformer specifically.

I also think the "best selling games" list is skewed versus the rest of the stats since it includes games that are sold on 5 different platforms including PC sales, including regions that consoles have no presence at all, and also consists of games that are games often bought by "non-gamers" e.g. people that buy one game to play with friends, but may not spend any other money on the gaming hobby, so it's kind of a very mixed demographic versus what is popular among experienced/vested hobbyists. I.E. Transformers might sell a lot of movie tickets to people who go to the movies once a year, but it's not going to represent what avid moviegoers are most interested in.

What I do find interesting is that Skyrim, 6 years later, made that list, behind Pokemon and ABOVE FFXV. That's some EXTREME staying power for a pretty darn old game, and makes me think much more highly of its prospects on Switch (not just a game that still sells well but a game that sells near the top of the charts still.)

@Ryu_Niiyama: Interesting fact here based on our conversation the other day: 53% of the most frequent gamers play multiplayer games. The official industry metrics showing about HALF of the most frequent gamers are playing online. Which means about half are NOT playing online. And that includes only "most frequent gamers" and doesn't filter out how many playing online are also playing offline games, only that half IS playing online games. That's some good solid backup behind the prior discussion.

Two other bits I find interesting in this data:

ESA is trying VERY hard to show that digital is replacing physical by showing a disastrously skewed metric. They show this trend where now digital represents 74% of purchases, physical 26%. Not only does that include PC that effectively has no physical option anymore, it gets worse when you read the fine print that shows that the "digital" metric includes not only retail games, but includes DLC, subscriptions, mobile apps, and even social network browser games. Why would they print a metric that shows digital dominating physical when they include everything under the sun for a bunch of platforms that don't even have physical options, web content, and add-ons (for physical games!) unless they really WANT that metric to show something that it otherwise wouldn't show when presented as a useful metric?

And the sad stat: the #1 criteria for choosing a game? Graphics! 67%, followed by price at 65%, interesting story/premise at 59%, online 50%. So yes, Scorpio has it right there. You buy a game because it's pretty looking, not because it's fun or interesting. Gaming in a nutshell in 2017 right there.

I think I'm going to sell COD: The Artbook. I'll be rich!

@Anti-Matter It depends on the game. First-person games tend to rely heavily on high graphical fidelity due to the "closeness" of the action and thus technical advancements in graphics are more noticeable enhancing the experience (Battlefield 1, Crysis, etc).

In contrast, other games instead use good art direction to produce distinct looks, which usually withstand the tests of time (Okami, Wind Waker, etc).

An exception to this would be the Borderlands series that used a cell-shaded comic book style but a first-person game with mature themes.

@BensonUii its just a rehash game.besides that call of dookie ain't call of dookie anymore.

@Caryslan I thought the same and in a twisted thought with lots of sterotyping and generalisation I could only guess that the game is being re-bought by people who loose or damage games, have then stolen or trade them in for reasons only to rebuy them.

Or kids who buy then secretly, parents find out and get rid of them; rinse and repeat.

Graphics ain't everything. Just facts,your could have the best graphics and it still be a crappy game.star wars battle front is prove.has awesome graphics but sits on my ps4 haven't played it in a year.lol re7 beat it haven't played it since.

@FX102A
Sorry, I hate Rated M games.
Please don't remind me those titles again.

@NEStalgia
That's suck.
Digital only = Lame. Not cool.
I prefer physical than digital only.
Who cares about being so Hi Tech or Ultra Futuristic Lifestyle ? For satisfying who ?
Having NON Real things is not cool.
Graphic 67 % ?!
Pffft.....
Their eyes Blinded by Delusive OMG Ultra HD Graphics with Tons of NSFW contents. Bruhh...!!
Sorry if I pissed off.
Their decision is insane.

@Anti-Matter To be fair, there are some good M-Rated games out there. Do you not like any mature game or just a certain genre?

BOTW will be on here this year!

@Caryslan
I'm sorry.
I HATE All Rated M games. 100%.
I Hate every single of them.
I don't care at all with the genre.
If I see any Rated M games in my eyes, believe me, it will be destroyed / banished forever.
I ONLY Play Everyone/ Everyone+10/ Teen games. (Majorly Kiddie games rated Everyone and Everyone+10)
Rated M games are simply 100% Prohibited in my gaming area.
I Banned completely.
Sorry if I have to tell this again.
I don't want to recite my hatred again because another people will send me another negative feedback.
Please, don't remind or asking me with this question again.

@Anti-Matter You know what, I understand and everyone has their own tastes in gaming(or any media for that matter), so nobody should be bashing you for what you like and what you don't like.

And I was not trying to bash you or be insulting. I was just curious, and I really hope I did not offend you.

@Anti-Matter Yeah, I agree about physical. Any time I buy something digital it feels like money vanished but I didn't get something for my money. Even if I spend tons of time on the game, without something tangible it doesn't feel like I got something for the money. I tend to have "buyers remorse" more often with digital!

Though I'm currently debating for Kart, Arms, and Splatoon between physical and digital. And I've already decided on Puyo Puyo Tetris digital. Those 4 games are probably the only exceptions to my rule of "always physical" I might make, because they're not really games I want to play beginning to end but games I might pick up for short periods over several years and I know I wouldn't play them much if I had to take my "main game" (the physical one) out of the slot often to do it. I.E. Kart comes out next week, but I wouldn't play much if I had to take Zelda out of the slot. And then Disgaea comes out in May, and I know I wouldn't want to move that from the slot...so Arms probably wouldn't be played much if I went physical So I'm not anti-digital as an option because it can be handy for some games. But I don't like not having the option of physical, because for "big games" I like it much much more, and the game has more "value" to me when I know it physically exists

Graphics...yeah, it's really a shame that gaming has become all about which is the prettiest, not the best. Then again I suppose it's just human nature and should be expected. How many bad relationships are because people pick the prettiest rather than the best or most fun person?

@GrailUK calm before the storm