Back in December we reported that Switch had reached 10 million global sales in its first nine months, while this is undoubtedly great news for Nintendo you might imagine that this impressive number was mostly down to North American sales where Nintendo traditionally does best.
It seems that sales in Europe have been really impressive for Nintendo Switch also. French outlet Le Figaro recently reported that Nintendo Switch shifted 911,000 units in 2017, which is amazing when you think that Wii U only managed to sell 832,000 units during its entire lifespan in France.
In other European news, Nintendo Italy announced via a press release that the console has become the fastest selling console of all time in its region. Nintendo Italy's general manager, Andrea Persegati attributes this success to the platform's outstanding range of software which has really connected with Italian consumers. The Switch sales have now overtaken sales of the Wii in that region, which is impressive when you think about how successful that console was in its day.
Let us know what you think about the Switch's success in Europe with a comment below.
[source gamereactor.eu]
Comments 89
FIIIIGAAAAROOO...!!!
Figaro ! Figaro ! Figaro !... (Speed up x 4 )
Viva le Switch !
Eh, pardon of my Horrible French...
France and Italy. Tagline should have been Très buono then.
Nintendo è condannato! Condannato!
On my way to the store to get baguettes and cannoli I'll be sure to pick up a Switch.
Prints money so fast!
I assume it hasn't quite managed to be fastest selling globally, since we are getting all these regional announcements instead. Brilliant results regardless.
It's not far behind Xbox One's lifetimes sales in France,in a few weeks it will overtake it. I'd love to hear similar news of strong UK sales but that's unlikely.
@OorWullie Yep, Uk feels like Xbox/Playstation world most of the time. The Classic Mini's may well help Nintendo get people's attention - but the Switch will need some games to rival Forza, full fat FIFA + COD to get much traction here.
Pot Pourri as Del would say.
Nintendo is stronger than usual here in Italy, I know a lot of people who never gave a sh*t about them and only had PlayStation consoles, but suddenly bought a Switch because they wanted to play Odyssey or Zelda plus they love portability. Nintendo really has something special in their hands with Switch, if they manage to keep this tremendous momentum it might as well become their most successful console ever
@chardir It happens almost everywhere, apart UK it seems.
@Cosats But the UK market is the only part of Europe that matters.
Even after Brexit, the capital of Europe is still the UK.
@GC-161 Oh, you are one of those people that think UK is the center of the world? You must be living in a parallel universe.
@GC-161 Yep, the capital of inept dunderhead politicians.
@Cosats Dude, I'm talking about it in terms of market for videogames.
The UK is the capital of Europe in that scene. Always was.
@GC-161 😂
@Anti-Matter What about your horrible English?
@GC-161 you speak english, therefore all gaming news you read is in english, therefore UK seems like the centre of the European gaming universe. Trust me, it's not. Nintendo is huge in Germany for example.
@GC-161 What are you talking about? Just Germany, France and Italy - each country seperately-
has more consumers than UK has. Even Nintendo headquarters are in Germany. UK is a nice country but it is not the capital city of that scene. Sorry to upset you.
@Cosats When was the last time we had a best seller list from Germany, France, Spain or any other EU country?
We have those from the UK almost every week or so.
I rest my case.
@Equinox Germany is a leader is censoring games.
Remember those bots in those Turok games?
I always wonder why Nintendo sells so well in France?
Whoa nice, I wouldn’t have guessed that to be honest!
I haven’t seen much mainstream interest in the Switch here in Italy, though certainly more than there ever was during the Wii U’s life.
I mean, I know a few non-gamers who bought one for Zelda and Mario, but from my perspective it was never a runaway success here.
It appears I was wrong (and that is great news for good ol’ Ninty) lol
@itslukec It’d be “condannata” as companies are usually femenine in Italian
I’m not correcting you to be a d*ck, I hope it helps you 😄
You know, I don’t know many non-Italian people who speak or are interested in speaking Italian, so I appreciate your knowledge and effort 😄
@GC-161 this is a UK website, written in English, and with readers from primarily English speaking countries. We get sales lists from US, UK and Japan, and we only get Japan because it's Nintendo's home. Furthermore, how do you know any of those countries list comprehensive sales lists for video games? And you're literally commenting on an article about sales in a European country that isn't the UK… the mind boggles.
@quinnbad Well this site has to throw the other EU countries a bone, now and then.
Less they feel left out.
@GC-161 lol grand I get it now, you're just winding people up, no worries. As you were.
@GC-161 c’mon dude, give it a rest. Truth is it really ain’t that hard to find EU charts; the fact you don’t constantly find them on here doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
As @quinnbad above says, just because you’ve got your head up your UK-centric butt doesn’t mean hard data doesn’t exist. Not perceiving a thing =/= the thing bot existing. I’m amazed I even have to say it out loud.
I’m Italian, but that doesn’t mean I come here expecting Italian-centric news, as I know that a UK-based, English-speaking site will always be more focused on the UK and the USA.
Edit: you’re just trolling, shame on me for trying to make you reason.
@clvr Where are those weekly non UK charts?
I wonder why they rarely show up on a gaming site.
@GC-161 VGChartz for example. It might not be the most accurate site, bit it took me the grand total of 20 seconds on Google to find that site and see the weekly EU chart displayed right on the home page.
To clarify for a limited mind like yours appears to be: the weekly chart is right there, set on “Global”, but you can change it to Europe or any other major region.
So no, those elusive EU weekly charts are not that elusive at all.
And again, the fact they don’t show up doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Will you try to convince me giraffes don’t exist just because you don’t have one in your backyard?
If you reply, know I probably won’t bother continuing with this pointless debate. Cheers.
@clvr aw, c'mon... vgchartz? Seriously?
That site has the reputation of Breitbart, the National Enquirer and Buzzfeed.
But I will say that thanks to the Switch's eShop best seller lists from specific countries, that we're now getting a better idea what sells outside of the main 3 videogame markets.
@Julien
Yeah, pardon of my Horrible English because i am an INDONESIAN user here.
English is NOT my Mother Tongue, you know.
Germany doesn't censor games anymore exept for those which Nazi-Symbols in it since they are forbidden. But the German market is very large and Nintendo is there popular too. Even in Switzerland you can find now sometimes people play Switch in trains while you never saw a 3DS gamer (exept some children). But the laws are here different and its not so easy to collect sales data for companies exept Nintendo itself. So there is no regular release of sales figures.
@Anti-Matter Just jesting. Your English is infinitely better than my Indonesian!
@GC-161 And it is a crap scene. Isn't it
@Cosats yeah it annoys me when I go to the toy section in Sainsburys... Xbox One and PS4, but no Nintendo at all!
The Switch has sold quite well for my folks this past year. Every one of my folks all across the country (meaning USA) including Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska all bought a Switch. Even my out of town brother who went to serve the military bought a Switch while on duty there. Quite impressive for Nintendo to have brought joy to all of us. This is unlike last gen where most of us took a passed on most consoles like the Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, PS Vita, and Xbox One.
@TJM Haha us miserable Brits are all about the PS4 and XBO! Just take a look at any Game or supermarket, no presence all.
I am glad to see my home country of France support the Switch! I live in the US and have for decades now, but this is great to see none the less.
Tres bien fait les gars!
@GC-161 You are obviously XENOphobic (= a Greek word used in English as well that means having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against other countries than your own).
I wish you 2 things for the New Year: 1. To become XENO-friendly and 2. To play more XENOblade 2.
@aesc Thanks, but I usually visit English or German or Greek Nintendo sites since these are the languages I speak. (and I am under the impression that connards is not a nice word in French)
Lot of shade being thrown at the UK gaming scene, and it's somewhat true; the UK gaming scene is mostly middleaged males who buy either Sony or XBOX consoles.
@aesc
Ha, Merci! Je regardais! Vive la Revolution Nintendo!
@Agent721 Oh, TinTin and Milou. My favourite comic characters
@Cosats
All time classics!
Twintelle approves of the tagline.
Some Switch software sales in France:
Mario Odyssey: 512,000
Mario Kart 8 DX: 508,000
Zelda BotW : 410,000
Splatoon 2 : 252,000
1 2 Switch: 200,000+
Mario + Rabbids : 150,000+
FIFA 18 : 73,000
Just Dance 18: 50,000+
Rayman Legends DE: 50,000+
Some 3DS software sales:
Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon: 400,000+
Miitopia: 100,000+
What about Germany and UK? They're the two biggest economies of Europe there as well.. I'd love some positive UK sales too since that's not Nintendo's best region.
Why all the salt
Does it matter if UK prefers Sony or Microsoft, afterall it's games we like that brings us altogether regardless of what hardware you own.
Just to throw this out there
Switch launch sales in Italy 45k and UK 80k, Greece 2k. Enough of the salt already.
These numbers were released by nintendo just after launch
@OorWullie Nintendo aren't any less popular in the UK than France/Italy traditionally so similar figures are likely there. For example Switch and its games have been in the top 20 since launch in Amazons best seller list which is a good indicator of popularity.
@WhistleFish Well said...
Bastaaaaa! i hate when people say UK is the capital of European charts. I once read in another website that the sales in UK were bad so they automatically said that the European sales were bad. Cmon UK is a small island compared to the rest of the continent. They should start a European Chart !
@Cosats I like XENOsaga more but XENOblade is fine too.
BTW, I don't hate Germany, France or any other European country not from the UK. I actually think those countries are awesome places.
Just not for videogames, tho! 😙
In the UK I feel the switch is doing well it's just shops like GAME which have not yet given the marketing space to the console and it still sits with one tiny shelf in a shop which is 60% Xbox and 40% playstation
I hate to say it, because I honestly love England (I lived there at one point, and I visit family there every couple of years), but the UK stopped being the capital of anything but Anglophile culture several decades ago. And unfortunately, Brexit is not going to help that situation at all.
Currently the UK is in sixth place worldwide for GDP and fifth place worldwide for video game revenue specifically. Within Europe, Germany is ahead of the UK in both categories, and France recently snuck past UK in GDP.
Switch=world domination
@JasmineDragon Well that may be true. But we're not seeing the UK being replaced as 'the face of Europe' any time soon in the videogame scene (politically or economically that's a whole 'nother ballgame).
The reason for that is that a good chunk of the videogames industry was born in the UK. No one can erase that. And I doubt that it will change soon.
Not unless the gaming markets in Germany, France or Italy get better organized in making themselves known. You barely hear about them unless its about how x game wasn't translated or because it was censored.
In terms of Nintendo, I think said company has better support in most European countries. Better than in the UK. Since retail stores in the UK traditionally ignore Nintendo products.
@GC-161 I have no idea what relevance you imagine these ignorant comparisons have.
@TJM I have no idea what your on about.
But you sure need to simma down, man.
Just ignore GC-161 and move on - your day will be better for it. You can’t reason with the unreasonable...
@WhistleFish Personally I just wish the UK was a bit more open minded and easy going in relation to gaming: Willing to embrace some of the frivolity and fun of Nintendo - and able to see the craft and challenge beneath the brightly coloured surface.
I work with teenagers and children and think it's a shame that many of them shun Nintendo as they get older because they perceive it as childish and are unwilling to step outside of the Forza/FIFFA/COD mould.
I don't think it's down to how enjoyable they'd find the games - it seems to relate to broader cultural ideas and identity around play and technology that I'm not able to put my finger on.
I think the Switch is going to be a big step in the right direction for Nintendo in the UK though - it's marketing and design is moving the needle in relation to how people perceive it I think.
@Bondi_Surfer Good point - and a really nice profile pic.
@TJM Thanks. Profile pic is just my name: Davo
It seems like the U.K. is the only major market where Nintendo isn't gaining much traction with the Switch.
You limeys with your soccer and your Playstations.
I'm from & still living in the UK and don't really understand why Nintendo fairs so poorly here compared to other regions across the globe. It might be something to do with the British tendency to put class/status before our best interests at times... despite a lot of geeks & gamers pointing out that the PS Vita was always going to fail, the mob mentality was basically "it's Sony, Sony make us look good, me buy now." While peer pressure exists everywhere, it's in the Brit DNA.
As for the whole "England is the best & biggest ever European country LOL" thing that's been going on... there are a lot of people here that have never been abroad and don't realise other countries have doors and windows too. Genuine quote from last years The Apprentice UK "do French people love their kids?"
Nintendo isn't selling "poorly" in the UK like some here seem to imply. The Switch and its major titles have been quite successful there.
It's just that the Switch is more popular in other European territories, relative to the overall size of each of the respective markets and relative to its competitors (PS4 and XBO).
I feel like Canada has a lot of sales too, I know tons of friends here in Canada who have a switch so we must account for a good percentage of the quote "US" sales. They must have grouped Canada in those sales or they're not recording our sales at all?
@JasmineDragon
Interesting stats. More proof that the U.K. charts aren't the total be all end all when it comes to gauging how successful a game is.
Good to read that the Switch is doing well in Europe.
Always annoys me, that there are no good sources for the german market.
They exist, but you have to pay to get access to them.
@JasmineDragon Isn't sixth place worldwide for GDP rather good in a world with hundreds of countries? I'd say it was.
Also the UK still punches way above its weight in many aspects when you consider how small it is. For example relative to size it is very good at sport (2nd in medal table last Olympics for example), popular music and in finance London is still considered the financial capital of the world so I wouldn't be so hasty to say the UK has lost its way.
@KryptoKrunch Out of interest who claimed that "the U.K. charts are[n't] the total be all end all when it comes to gauging how successful a game is" in the first place? I doubt anyone from the UK did...
@GC-161 The roots of the gaming industry are almost completly in the united states. (Atari, Harvard, Pong are all American) and after the united states comes Japan with their contributions. It does depend on which side you’re looking at it, from the gaming scene or the game industry side. In the game industry UK is indeed the leader in Europe, and worldwide behind Japan and USA. But in terms of game revenue you’re behind Germany. Matter of perspective. And that is also why you don’t hear anything about other markets on this website. Multiple people said it before: you’re on an UK based gaming website.
https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/
The UK is an iffy place for gaming in general because it's very trend based and favours only a hand full of games. Niche games barely chart and certain games practically never leave the charts.
CEX stores often has a wall of pre-owned FIFA games with more copies of a particular FIFAs from 5+ years ago than they ever get of more obscure new games.
@Dr_Lugae LOL please attempt to do some kind of research before typing such dribble, the level of incorrect here is unreal. look at the top 5 best selling games in the UK, not one is Fifa and two are by Nintendo, further proves how misguided this comment is - Switch is selling just fine here, all publications report good news, not a single news outlet in the UK has reported any bad news for Nintendo in the UK, the stores have allocated lots of shelf space and if im not mistaken the sales of the Switch passed 1m here with black Friday sales in November (before both France and Italy)
UK gaming industry is worth 4.3 billion pounds (British pounds)
France gaming industry is worth 2.7 billion Euro's
As for Italy, they have the second biggest gaming market (i thought it was Germany but not so)
https://calvinayre.com/2017/04/12/business/italys-online-gambling-market-second-uk/
What really makes me laugh is people have no clue that the biggest gaming market in Europe is the UK.... and Europe is the biggest gaming market in the world (outside of China), Yes Europe as a collective is bigger than US or Japan. - people who claim gaming in UK is small are throwing verbal diarrhea at a screen hoping that some of it sticks.
https://kotaku.com/5011543/europe-now-a-bigger-gaming-market-than-the-us
in fact just for you i am going to go into a Game store tomorrow and take a few pictures for you, then you can chow down on those words.
UK amazon best sellers list - Fifa not in the top 5, but Nintendo is one and 2.... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-PC-Video-Games/zgbs/videogames
Best selling games ever - Fifa doesn't feature in the top 5, Nintendo does, twice.
I suggest anyone who makes unfounded claims on the UK gaming market please research your claims, like if you are going to say "the best selling game is Fifa" or "gaming in UK is small", please make sure your comment is backed up by actual facts before spurting it out as such.
@Dr_Lugae
The CEX here has quite a lot of nieche titles here, its heloed my Wii collection imnensley however the prices for used Switch/3DS games are pretty much identical to wgmhat Game has for brand new. Its such a rip off.
@datamonkey Sure, sixth place is good, and the UK is still a prosperous country and a good place to live. For the record, I would move back there in a heartbeat if all options were open. And, as you say, the UK is still a strong leader in many areas. But it's not THE leader or THE most important market for much anymore, and that is the claim I was responding to.
For what it's worth, the US will also lose its status as the #1 market soon, probably within the next decade. And just like the UK, we'll still be a major market for a long time, just not #1.
@clvr Google translator. I have learned nothing today, and will continue to learn nothing. Good day.
Neat. I'm glad the rest of europe doesn''t suck in terms of taste unlike the UK.
Mange tout!
@JasmineDragon Fair enough
@iMarkU "In the game industry UK is indeed the leader in Europe"
Yeah that was my point.
In regards to this being an UK based site that primarily caters to the UK... its certainly a site that caters mostly to English speaking countries (as in the UK and the US).
@itslukec well, sorry for trying to be helpful and supportive then lol
I sure as hell didn’t expect such a rude reply, but if you’re content with being an a*s and bragging about actually not learning anything then by all means go on.
@Razer "As for Italy, they have the second biggest gaming market (i thought it was Germany but not so)
https://calvinayre.com/2017/04/12/business/italys-online-gambling-market-second-uk/"
Your article is about online gambling, not gaming. That is not quite the same thing. At least i hope it isn't.
@xSHINIx ehilà! 😄
Nice to see another fellow Italian gamer in here!
And it seems you’re relatively new to this site, so...welcome to NL! 😄
@Razer While you're correct that the media in the UK is full of great stories about the Switch, you're a little off about shelf space. Most large super markets including Tesco & Sainsbury are still defaulting to Playstation/Xbox with no space for Nintendo (in the majority of stores) despite the Switch's glorious sales. In Hampshire at least, GAME is giving the Switch half of a small display alongside the 3DS, meanwhile Sony & Microsoft get either side of the store (and often some displays as big as the entire Nintendo display). There is a huge bias in the UK marketplace right now towards Sony & Microsoft... hence I had to go to a toy store to buy my Switch so I could get a decent price & the support I wanted.
I'm really hoping that things balance more now that Nintendo is doing so well, but the one thing that's consistent with us Brits... is how hard headed we are. We own a couple of islands & act like we own the World.
@clvr Apology accepted
My son has a Switch, his two cousins each have a Switch, my brother wants one for his family, my sisters boys want one, two people I work with got them for Christmas for their children, my cousin has one, two friends of my daughter have them, multiple kids in my sons class have one... These are just the people I can think of off top of my head, I've thought of two more actually as I key this... what's that about the Switch not gaining much traction in the UK? Myth.
@clvr hi and thank you! Is nice to be part of your community
@NinChocolate cause they have good taste
@xSHINIx well, it’s your community too now 😄
You’ll see that, aside from a few mandatory trolls and negative nancies here and there, it’s a really lovely community 😄
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...