Last week brought a few retail releases to Nintendo hardware, but none were blockbuster arrivals in the UK scene - the latest chart results demonstrate that point.
As expected Destiny 2 took top spot (PS4 and Xbox One) and was the biggest launch of the year. Considering the impact of heavy bundling and discounts around the Xbox One S, however, Ubisoft and Nintendo will probably be relatively pleased to see Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle holding on in 10th place - after its debut in second the previous week. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still racing away in 16th place, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (primarily Switch version sales) in 19th.
Sticking with the Switch, its version of LEGO Worlds is credited as boosting sales for the multi-platform game - it moved up two spots to 14th in the all-format chart, but the Switch version only took 39th place in the single-format results. Further down Splatoon 2 continues to tick along in 24th place, while The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ secured 36th place overall following its EU release.
Moving on to 3DS, Monster Hunter Stories made its debut in 21st place, which is a tad underwhelming but not necessarily surprising; 3DS titles face a challenge getting gamers to pay out in the current market. There are a couple of evergreen successes for the portable, however, with Mario Kart 7 re-appearing in 32nd place and Pokémon Sun still hanging around in 38th place.
Plenty of games on Nintendo hardware throughout the UK top 40, then, even if few are at the top end at present.
[source chart-track.co.uk]
Comments 36
Mario + Rabbids fell hard. Probably the farthest of any Switch week 2 yet.
The UK just isn't the region. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the first top spot, and only just, since 2011. Who knows when the next one will be.
Didn't even know Monster Hunter Stories was releasing this week, though my 3DS hasn't been touched since getting the Switch.
Sucks Destiny 2 is doing so well, that game looks like just a massive microtransaction money hoover.
@BLP_Software Switch games have fallen further than that in week 2.
Here's the charts in full.
Individual Formats
All Formats
It's been asked and answered before but I don't remember what was said, how come ye don't publish the charts in full?
There's always an excuse for Nintendo first-party games not topping the charts.
@BlueOcean Well its true. Due to past things and their lack of support here in the NES and SNES days (We didn't get most of those fabled SNES RPGs after all), Sony and SEGA got market dominance.
Plus, due to how they underperformed with the Wii U, supermarkets don't stock Switch or 3DS things. Our only major gaming retailer barely does that. So expecting a top spot from Nintendo is like predicting the apocalypse at this point
Or ya know, maybe the games are just crap.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Never thought i would agree, but good point, why doesn't NLife show the charts like you have put in your post?
@BLP_Software 3DS was out before Wii U. You can't blame Wii U's failure for 3DS's removal from supermarket shelves. Neither as far as I can see sold well. And NES and the SNES were popular in the UK and Ireland. It was when Sony came on the scene that everything changed.
@BLP_Software Manipulation overdrive again? I mean things like bundles and marketing being noted as the reasons why other games sell better than Nintendo's. I just find it funny, didn't make a fuss. You seriously have a comprehension problem.
The logic says that the more people that have a console the more games they sell but it isn't always necessarily true as you can see in the full chart with some games selling more on Xbox One than on PS4.
If a Switch game is number 2 like last week that's a great achievement because fewer people have a Swich console. Nintendo can be proud of it. However, it's more important how a game sells in the long term.
And for your information I don't care about what others buy, that's why I have a Wii U and an Xbox One even if most people prefer PS4 this generation.
You know, you don't have to be so ridiculously touchy.
@Bunkerneath Yes, agreed. The single-platform chart is particularly interesting.
Knack in the Top 10! Get in!
Due to the release of Destiny 2, people probably bought new PS4/XB1 units, and including additional games too. Which is probably the reason why a couple of PS4/XB1 games jumped high in the charts. We were just given the rankings. Maybe a huge number of people bought Mario+Rabbids. The ranking may have declined but who knows, maybe the sales increased so I guess it's still a win for Ubisoft and Nintendo if that is true.
This is a pretty good position for Nintendo in the UK. Years of disinterest in, and mishandling of their UK branch, followed by the crashing impact of the Wii U, puts them at a real disadvantage here. So this is not bad.
I enjoy your euphemisms for 'crap'
MH Stories deserves better. The game is incredible. Be you a fan of Monster Hunter, or Pokemon, or Dragon Quest Monsters, or just good games, this is worthy of consideration.
It's a real love letter to the Monster Hunter series...
Rabbids did well considering last week was a big week for releases, Monster Hunter did well for a spin-off.
Here's hoping Metroid does the numbers.
Switch Sales Top an Estimated 5 Million Units Worldwide - Sales
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/269374/switch-sales-top-an-estimated-5-million-units-worldwide/
I was reading that report this morning and according to them the Switch had sold 225,726 in the UK by July 22nd. So by now it should be somewhere around 250,000.
I'm hoping Super Mario Odyssey is number one for one week, at release at least, before COD comes along and dominates
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Had to check the date on that link, I thught VGChartz had fallen really behind or something
I can't be too mad. I am enjoying the heck out of Destiny 2 and I don't care for shooters.
@BigBluePanda Mario Kart 8 DX was #1 for two weeks if my memory serves. Super Mario Odyssey is not a port and it is hyped so I expect it to be #1 at least for one week, but I might be wrong.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I think there may be many things hidden from view with regards to the relationship between Nintendo and the major UK supermarkets.
They all bought very large amounts of Wii U stock and ended up price dumping it. Asda famously offered some incredible deals to get the console off their shelves but I saw (and narrowly missed out on) Tesco dumping Pro Controllers for £5 each (although I did get a spare nunchuck for about £1.50).
In theory that shouldn't have affected the 3DS but who knows. I can absolutely believe that Asda asked Nintendo nicely "will you take these products we can't sell back", Nintendo said "Haha - No" and Asda said "Ok. But if that's your attitude we'll make you pay for it in other ways...".
It clearly hurts Nintendo not to have a strong relationship with the supermarkets but if they play their cards right it could work out for them long term. The Switch is likely to be a better bet for impulse physical purchases as time goes by, it becomes cheaper to buy and builds a significant install base amongst kids.
One more thing to note about charts like this - Nintendo's business model favouring the long tail means they'll always be at a disadvantage. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe could well become one of the biggest selling games of the decade in the UK but it's spent hardly any time at the very top of the charts.
Considering Monster Hunter Stories flopped in Japan where they're obsessed with Monster Hunter, I don't think it was ever going to do that well anywhere else. I'm (pleasantly) surprised it was released in the west at all.
Destiny 2 launch sales were down 58% compared to Destiny 1 launch sales. Sequelitis strikes again.
@Bread-Not-Toast I wish but sadly Metroid games have never sold well
@JaxonH I'm hoping Capcom writes another love letter to the fans in the form of English Monster Hunter XX.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE as far as I know GFK ask that sites such as this don't publish the charts in full. I like reading the article here each week then checking out the charts in full from their site.
@westman98 But digital sales and pre-orders are more significant today than in 2014.
@StuTwo That might explain why many supermarkets don't want to stock Nintendo stuff. Even new Nintendo games are scarce and late in most of them.
@BlueOcean
Digital sales have no doubt grown a lot since 2014, but I'm not sure the growth in digital sales can make up for a massive 58% drop in physical sales.
And if Destiny 2 had higher preorders than Destiny 2, shouldn't its launch sales be higher than that of Destiny 1?
@westman98 By "digital sales and pre-orders" I mean "digital sales and digital pre-orders". The adjective was for the two nouns.
Digital pre-orders are a common thing these days because of the huge downloads. Some people can't wait to play their favourite games.
If the increase in digital sales can make up for a 58% drop in physical is anyone's guess, I'd say probably yes or probably not. What I'm saying is that comparisons of physical sales between 2017 and 2014 are not real, but make sensationalist headlines.
Mario + Rabbids has comfortably outsold all the Mario RPG spinoffs on 3DS and Wii U (Paper Mario Sticker Star, Mario & Luigi Dream Team, Mario & Luigi Paper Jam, Paper Mario Color Splash).
Ubisoft's marketing is doing work...
Samus to the rescue next week? Please just do well Samus Returns.
@StuTwo
(source - friend is a buyer with a major UK Retailer chain that has a good relationship with Nintendo)
Exactly this. There's push and pull between retailers all the time with the vendor trying to sell their goods and retailers wanting more of some products but not wanting to touch others and the relationship goes from there. Wii U flopping damaged that relationship pretty badly, off the back of UK retailers being stuck with a lot of DS shovelware (though that's mainly their fault).
The supermarkets especially took a bath on Wii U. They have a very single-minded approach with games where they're basically interested in the big hits. They sell so many other goods they often sell the biggest games for cost or even a slight loss to get people in the store. They got caught out with the Wii (like a lot of the industry) then overcompensated with Wii U and struggled to get rid of it. That's why it's very pleasing to see little anecdotal things like the Switch in my local Asda and a Mario v Rabbids display at the entrance to my nearby Sainsburys.
(Source - working in Video Games Retail in the 1990s where I met the friend referenced above)
Nintendo have had an uphill struggle in the UK since the 1980s and not just because of bad decisions from NCL. The NES struggled to make an impact against the 8-bit then 16-bit computers and Bandai struggled to get it into stores. SEGA outsold it with the Master System with Virgin Mastertronic even getting into chains like Boots. The SNES did better but got outsold by the Megadrive.
THE Games had not taken over by the time of the N64 but weren't great, they tried to operate like Nintendo in the USA in the 80s strictly controlling the flow of cartridges ("Well, we've only got a few Ocarina of Times left, maybe if you take a couple of cases of Bomberman Hero"). This might have worked if the only competition was Sega who were a shambles by this stage but it was monumentally stupid in the face of Sony coming in and winning UK retailers over almost immediately. They took the opposite approach to THE Games offering high margins, consistent supply, free in-store displays, consistent price drops on hardware, a budget range of software, strong marketing etc.
Nintendo Europe took over, properly installing Nintendo UK in the early 00's. They were held back by decisions from above on when games would get released but things did improve. Wii got a near-simultaneous UK launch and (along with the DS) things looked pretty rosy for a bit but Wii U ruined that, especially with the supermarkets. Competition for retail space is very tough with MS and Sony having very strong grounds sales operations. Irony is the specialist chains that stuck with Wii U made a decent amount of money off it whereas a lot of big releases in the last couple of years have disappointed and needed marking down in price to sell (Dishonoured 2 says hello).
I find it funny that we went from "Knack outsells core 3D Mario platformer" to "Knack 2 falls short of 2nd week sales of 3rd party Mario crossover spin-off." Goes to show you how much being a launch title can do to a game's commercial viability...
@BlueOcean
The likeliness of digital sales overcoming a 58% drop in physical sales is low. However, Destiny 2 will also launch on PC in about a month, so there is certainly a possibility that the combined launch sales of Destiny 2 on consoles + PC will match/exceed the launch sales of Destiny 1 on consoles.
@westman98 Yep, probably. By the way, I don't have Destiny or Destiny 2. The last game that sucked my life was Monster Hunter Tri (Wii, online mode). I will probably get Anthem next year, though.
People need to get over this whole, "I'm not buying any more 3DS games b/c of Switch."
If a game is good, buy it. Stop making excuses not to.
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