The NPD charts for the month of July have been released, and as noted by Venture Beat, not only has the Switch won this month with Octopath Traveler in the top spot, the system is also right out in front when it comes to physical retail game sales so far this year.
Nintendo's platform is reportedly the sole system to experience year-on-year growth, with full-priced game sales in the month of July up by a total of 70 percent. This is not taking into account digital game sales, as the NPD Group has not tracked them.
The Switch is predominantly sustaining sales with key Nintendo releases including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey - all of which placed within the top ten on the charts for the month of July. Meanwhile, certain games are considered to be overachievers, with Square Enix's Octopath Traveler being the primary example. Although, it's admittedly not all that surprising considering the ongoing reports about the JRPG selling out.
Overall, the combined sales have resulted in a better than expected second year for the Nintendo Switch. Here's hoping this successful run for Nintendo continues leading into the holiday season.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 45
Was there ever a doubt......well yeah, I'm sure there was.
In before someone says It's a down month for Video game sales!
and western devs still can't figure out how to port their games to switch...
Long live physical games!
I'm pleasantly surprised by Octopath's success. It's a really good game and I hope it gives Ol' Square the nerve to release more like it.
It matters when you release your biggest hitter IPs in the first year. Brand recognition out the gate created it's own sustainability. Pokemon and SSB can only fortify that. 2nd year isn't over, but Nintendo is already having back to back winning years. I'm just trying to enjoy the ride.
Just wait until Night Trap gets its physical release...it's going to be a sales bonanza!
That's impressive no doubt, but Octopath Traveller beating expectations is a success in itself.
Goes to show you dont need hyper realistic visuals and cinematic cut scenes to sell a video game in this day and age 😂
I realized my comment can kind of sound negative or snarky. Internet .... octopath is a very well made game with high production values ... just not what some people are used to coming from 4k or ultra HD graphics
Impressive, though i’d like to see major third party performance as well e.g Bethesda
Hang on a minute.
I have it on very good authority from another commenter in a different thread that Nintendo is the laughing stock of the gaming world.
Can someone sort this out? I’m just a silly video game player who is clearly a slave to Nintendo.
@MeloMan Yeah.. But Nintendo also put its three biggest hitters of this year in October, November, and December so the holiday season could be quite huge.
Do we have any actual numbers? Not to put a down on Octopath sales, but I don't recall many big games releasing in July? So would assume getting number #1 isn't too challenging.
Though still its good to see headlines highlighting an (currently) exclusive Switch title being top.
"JRPGs don't sell because people don't want to spend the time involved in playing them"
Octopath Traveler is the best selling game of the July
"The Switch has no worthwhile exclusive titles!"
Octopath Traveler is the best selling game of the July
@Heavyarms55: Bu-but the Switch is clearly a failure! Year 2 is a sad port-fest! Some games are over six years old!
Doomed! Nintendo should go third-party!
(In all seriousness, this is pretty great. Go Octopath!)
I got a refund on octopath. just couldnt get into that game n I was part of the ps1 jrpg renaissance (I played them all) I didnt like bravely default either.. somebody will call me a troll next
@XenoShaun
From what I have heard, Octopath Traveler's physical launch sales were a bit lower than Xenoblade 2's physical launch sales.
Note that Xenoblade 2 was an early December (holiday) release while Octopath Traveler was a supply-constrained mid-July release. So it's a pretty good launch IMO.
So Square are having success with the type of game that made them famous in the first place, who'd have thought it eh?
Suggesting that is an overachiever is also wrong and is the same garbage that certain publishers have been peddling for years about us gamers not wanting single player, survival horror, JRPG or whatever the agenda is that month, just so that they can sell us there stupid live services.
Us as gamers never stopped wanting these types of games and it seems the likes of Square and Capcom have finally realised this
@westman98 Yeah that's pretty decent. We know the game was definitely held back with stock issues, isn't SE still having problems in Japan over a month later?
@XenoShaun
Japan is a nightmare for Octopath stock.
The situation is much better in the west.
The Switch is predominantly sustaining sales with games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey - all of which were released during 2017. Wer're near end of 2018. Evergreen titles got legs for sure...but that doesn't make up for a lackluster second year.
why wont you just post the chart? @liamdoolan
Octopath Traveler is not my cup of tea, but glad to hear it's doing well, and putting the Switch back in the spotlight. With this kind of recognition, it should bring more games, that's if developers stop being gun shy. No reason now why they shouldn't, unless they just don't like money.
Nothing more gratifying than the physical media fetish
How is Nintendo going to satisfy demand later this year? It's going to be nuts.
@GrailUK easy answer - they’re not planning to. They’re hoping to drip feed Switches into the market via eBay resellers at 200% mark up. Cha ching!
@StuTwo Oww of course. The artificial supply constraint. Works every time lol.
@dimi says "but that doesn't make up for a lackluster second year."
You are overreacting. Nintendo Switch still needs more than half a year to celebrate its 2nd year . How do you calculate time? By planet Jupiter's standards?
@dimi we're not even halfway through the Switch's second year and we still have plenty of titles rolling in. Including, but not limited to, Smash Bros Ultimate, Pokemon Let's Go, Super Mario Party, Starlink, Valkyria Chronicles, Mega Man 11, Diablo 3, The World Ends with You, and Just Dance 2019. These are just the titles that I happen to be interested in, because there are more smaller titles out there, as well as Remasters, ports, JRPG's, and Indies to fill in the gaps.
Switch is doing just fine.
Yet square is hesitant to release more games...
I'm happy with the game and maybe the success will make Square make more traditional rpgs again.
But then again who knows with it being Square?
I would love either Saga Frontier or star ocean remakes would be awesome to play on the go as those we're great games in their day
@adam9431 Agree with your thoughts. And that goes for The Legend of Zelda, Splatoon, Daemon X Machina to name a few existing and future hit games. Not all have to be COD and the next COD with some shadow improvement, then the following one where there a correction on eye movement and so on. That being said, would love to have a RaibowSix (or COD) type of game for the Switch.
Square: "Wow, our exclusive Switch game sold really well! This must mean that we should make more PS4 exclusive games."
@giantenemycrab Yeah, this report must be wrong! The gaming prophet, whose name we shall not take in vain, is always 100% correct!
Great news regarding Octopath! Well deserved!
Now if we can just get Square to give us that secret of mana trilogy JP got! I still think it would sell better here especially since we never got an official release of seiken densetsu 3.
I'd love for this to finally convince them to put out the SD collection in English since this does prove that there is demand for games along that line. They could throw in Evermore too for good measure. It's pretty much extra cash just sitting there for them to grab, the only thing they have to do is finally do an official translation.
I hope the success of Octopath (great game btw) gives Square Enix the confidence to finally bring Seiken Densetsu Collection for the Switch over to the West with an English translation. And to also consider the Switch for Kingdom Hearts (re-release the Remix collections on Switch & port over Kingdom Hearts 3 to the system too)! KH3 doesn't have to be a simultaneous launch with the other consoles, that just can't happen. But I would be willing to wait if they'd just announce that it was in development.
Clearly there are no games on the switch. The system is selling the most physical copies of any systems this year solely off of copies of Odyssey and BotW /s
@westman98 No, Octopath sold more than Xenoblade 2. Xenoblade 2 sold 97k while Octopath definitely sold more than 100k, and both released on Fridays.
Which annoys me because Octopath has been uplifted in popularity primarily due to its visuals and it launching at the right place and time. It's still a great game, but it's pretty standard as far as JRPGs go that doesn't do much to differentiate itself.
@EvilLucario
This article is referencing US sales, not Japan sales
@westman98 Oh, damn, I'm sorry. I completely missed that. Then I don't remember on that note.
This system has no games and this article is fake news.
I was one of these Octo sales. 6hrs in, loving every second.
Great news!
I have definitely been enjoying OT, it has such an awesome battle system.
@Cosats well actually i meant 2018. Ok Pokemon and Smash at the end of the tunnel is great but its been a pretty slow year no? Switch still needs better 3d party support.
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