Here Are The Top 10 Best-Selling Third-Party Switch Games As Of May 2019

This is interesting, but it would be a whole lot more interesting if it included all 3rd party games.

It's nice to see Crash and Diablo 3 so high up on the list. Great games😊.

Funny... I still haven't touched my Mario + Rabbids since 2 years. 😅
I'm not ready yet to play that game.

I wonder where Doom and Wolfenstein fall on this list. And also MK11.

This is just physical, I'd guess the digital sales are a less "gift to kids"-y list.

Civ 6 for me had been the best 3rd party I've bought, among many. Happy to have NBA 2K as well.

Here’s hoping Witcher 3 will join that list once it launches.

@cyrus_zuo How is Civ 6? I'm so tempted, but I never played a game in the series... is it a good entry point for a n00b like me?

2k 19 will probably go even higher next month with the 3$ deal during E3

Honestly, I thought a Just Dance game would be number 1.

There should be a big old asterisk next to Mario + Rabbids. Technically it is third party, but it's also a Mario game (and typically the cheapest retail Mario game on Switch). One would expect it to follow the sales patterns of Mario spin offs more than the average third person game.

Flawed list without all the digital sales. I imagine Minecraft would be top 3, if not number 1, and I’m curious where the Bethesda games fall in here. Nice to see Diablo 3 up there.

The Mario and Luigi in the Mario + Rabbids game look better than in the U Deluxe one.

I'm sure having Mario in Kingdom Battle did help its sales, but aside from that it's just a really well made game. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about it. I'd love to have a sequel.

I'm a little surprised to see monster hunter in the list, but I'm really glad for that because it makes it more likely we get a brand new MH for switch.

A little surprised Octopath Traveler isn't on this list, but no other Square Enix games are - maybe they don't share sales data with the NPD, then?

Now that is one sad list. And #10 is not even worth making on Switch anymore 🙄

@Tantani
This chart is based on revenue. Having such a steep sale won't do you any favors in this ranking.

Does Warner Bros. not want to share sales figures as well, why is Mortal Kombat 11 not up there or was it just hot during April only?

@westman98 oh, I thought it is copy numbers, my bad

@PikaPhantom Octopath Traveler was published by Nintendo outside of Japan.

All in all, there are so many exclusions from the list that it's not especially informative.

It's heartwarming to see EA is not in the top 10, assuming Skyrim and Minecraft are in the top 5.

American Nintendo fans are the best.

Skyrim is probably not on the list because Bethesda doesn't share digital sales.

Surprised at how well Diablo 3 has done.

Crash Team Racing should be pretty big if Crash Trilogy is anything to go by.

Quite surprised FIFA made the list given that it's a USA list.

@Baart But alas FIFA 18 is at the 10th spot...bummer.

@BacklogBlues If had know back then that there was that massive discount for 2k18 I would have picked it up but I recently got 2k19 for same price.

Good for Ubisoft taking the top spot.

@Galarian_Lassie
...Oh. Um, yeah. Right. Guess I was thinking the list was tied to the developers when it's based on publisher.

For anyone who still doesn't have Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, it's still 100% worth it. The story may be silly but the gameplay is super fun and surprisingly in depth. Plus, the game gets pretty difficult toward the end. Highly recommend it.

Crash is also pretty good. Also picked up NBA 2K19 for $3 during E3 and it's pretty solid. I'm excited for CTR and the Spyro Trilogy!

@BacklogBlues 43GB is massive, but its worth it.. Is the online community alive in 2k?

Fifa had made the list but we still don't have madden, ea seems to hate money as much as Nintendo.

@uximal not with Skyrim and Minecraft ...

What it does show is that third parties still don't sell in big numbers on a Nintendo platform, Crash is likely around 1.5 million sales at best and that's second and had nostalgia on its side. It'd help if third parties would make games specifically for the Switch and not just port older games but despite t minority on here saying they hold off on games in case it comes to Switch, most simply don't. Thankfully so far Nintendo are more than keeping up their side of the deal

Kingdom Battle deserves every bit of its success. It's my favorite Switch game thus far.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 will probably make it to top 5 3rd party software easily when it releases.

@Oubie - If you want to put in the time, yes! Civ is crazy deep, you could play for hundreds of hours and still be learning.
That said, if you put it on the easiest setting and leave tips on, you'll learn as you go, and the longer the play the more you'll realize you can do.
I particularly liked the scenarios in this one, the settling of Australia scenario was a great short version of the game.
I hadn't played Civ for years, and was blown away again by just how enjoyable the game is. I can't recommend it enough!

While Kingdom battle has Mario on its side, it is still worth it.

However, without actual numbers, this list is not really useful.

Not useful data if it doesn't include every publisher. Bethesda and Microsoft (Minecraft) in particular are two massive holes in the data

@Anti-Matter I finally got round to playing my copy last month. It is really good. Then sold the cartridge on after completing the dlc.

I hope Rabbids 2 is announced at next years E3 for release in 2020.

@Oubie Civ 6 is amazing. One of my top Switch games. It is complicated and has lots of nuance but it will ease you into the game. There are advisors on hand to explain everything in the game, and a very extensive help section, a.k.a. Civilopedia. If you have any interest at all in this style of game, don't miss Civ 6.

nice listing

@JasmineDragon @cyrus_zuo Thanks guys for sharing your experience with me! I will pick up the game during the Summer.

I bet Sega, Bethesda and Microsoft would mix up the charts quite a bit.

I have a hard time playing Mario + Rabbids, I constantly run into glitches and crashes. It's not fun. :/

Monster Hunter GU I'm still enjoying, though.

I'm happy to see Monster Hunter and Mario Rabbids are very popular on Switch!

Good to see Crash so high! Wonder if Mk11 will be on that list in the near future. Pains me to see anything by EA in the top ten, though. I hope those who play FIFA aren't suckered into the "surprise mechanics."

@BacklogBlues same here

Aside from Diablo, you could use this list to point out who Nintendo’s core audience still is.

I mean I bought Skyrim and LA Noire, but after reading how deep they are I realised they bore me stupid. Can’t be bothered for Doom and the Witcher 3 either.

Wow, I only have one of those (Mario + Rabbids). Looking over my collection, I didn't realize how many of my games are really niche titles: Battle Chef Brigade, Penguin Wars, Legendary Fishing, and loads of racing games. To be fair to one game that is on the list, I absolutely would have bought Monster Hunter except I kind of burned myself out on that franchise with the 3DS releases.

Mario + Rabbids deserves that first spot, it is a great effort by Ubisoft. I had a lot of fun with it and with the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC.

@BacklogBlues 2.99? That’s quite the deal... where did you find that?

Here's a crazy fact. The Wii U's lifespan for games, including 3rd parties, was the longer than Nintendo 64 and GameCube's! Look it up, the N64 launched worldwide in 1997, and its final game came in the summer of 2002, while GameCube launched worldwide in 2001 and its final game came in the summer of 2007. Wii U launched worldwide in 2012, and its final game (Just Dance 2019) came out in the fall of 2018 (nearly 2019), longer than N64 and GCN! Who would have thought that a system with an extremely short lifespan got 3rd party games longer than N64 and GCN?

And I have Mario & Rabbids Kingdom Battle! It's my favorite Megaman Battle Network game! It's also my favorite Super Mario & Megaman Battle Network game! 🤪

@Edu23XWiiU Probably not that high seeing its a port of older games.

This list is really...sad.

But by the end of this year, I hope it shall be awesome with Astral Chain topping that list....just, saying.

@SNES64DD I think it must be at number 11 hehehe.

@SNES64DD If you think this is sad, you should check the top 10 most played games on PS4, that one's f&%$ing pathetic.

@Edu23XWiiU Ha! Ha! I swear if Astral Chain doesn't sell well over a million or two, it will be very sad.

It might be a bit weeb to some and not everyone's cup of tea but I mean all that effort a developer puts in would be so wasted that I don't think they would want to try it again and that would not be good for quality big third-party games on the Switch.

I'm kind of getting tired of being treated like Nintendo "doesn't matter" anymore. Even the Wii got a nerfed but unique version of Call of Duty for example and people are saying how this and that "isn't possible" for the Switch when the Switch is more powerful then a Wii U and nearly as powerful as the base Xbox One.

Also the best selling third party game on the PS4 is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt followed by Monster Hunter: World. Neither are my cup of tea but it's not half bad. Thus why I would like Astral Chain to be on the top of that list competing with it.

@Edu23XWiiU In all honesty though if the NPD data of all games were released we will see an amazing amount of indie titles that have probably sold well over 1 or 2 million copies making the list seem less...pathetic. I mean I see them in the top of Switch eShop all the time so I no doubt they must have sold quite well. SEGA/Atlus also needs to make an appearance but they haven't exactly launched all that many big games on the Switch yet.

Edit: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a great game by the way. Deserves to be on the list, just that it isn't exactly a big or very unique title in the big scheme of things.

@BenAV @Agramonte @Mando44646 @carlos82 Yeah. A lot of data hasn't been released for the Switch though. Like if they include all the wonderful indies I would suspect it would probably change that list quite a bit.

@SNES64DD I doubt it'd make that much difference, indie games don't sell in the same numbers as traditional releases. Celeste for example, for all of its praise sold 500,000 copies across all formats last year. Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley would probably be the closest to making that list as they have been huge successes but even then it may not have passed a million on Switch. Latest information shows 2.8 million total sales but it sold over 1 million on PC before launching anywhere else. Having said all of that it seems new indie games sell better on Swith than anywhere else and have success on it but for them success isn't millions of sales, its thousands or hundreds of thousands and still a fantastic achievement for them.

Nintendo games are obviously selling in huge numbers on Switch but outside of that nothing else really is in the AAA space, which has been an issue for Nintendo for a very long time. On that list alone Crash is effectively top and that has sold less then 1.5 million (worldwide), with only Skyrim realistically likely to be above it

@carlos82 I have no idea how much they have sold but I suspect some of them have sold higher and others lower. Enter the Gungeon has moved 1 million units for example on the Switch and it isn't the highest selling indie game if I'm not mistaken...but I could be wrong.

Crash sold well because it came out when it did and wasn't too delayed.

Third-parties is struggling on the Switch but I suspect that's because they port old games or gimped games to the Switch.

Again I could be wrong and can only hope that Astral Chain is the first third-party game that smashes the 2 million sales barrier. (Seriously, I want to see it hit like the 5-10 million barrier but good luck with that.)

But based on YouTube video views, it doesn't look like that is even that likely.

It's kind of a sad situation for third parties.

Its sad everyone wants a Switch Pro for "third party" (when I suspect its just more greed on their part) and I think Nintendo is possibly done with the Switch after two generations and move into making Nintendo phones or something.

I dunno.

I just want to see more quality games and timely ports tbh.

@SNES64DD We're getting most of the big third party games now, so games must be selling well on Switch. And no, you're wrong on the best sellers of the PS4, the best selling title on that platform is the FIFA series, and CoD.

@SNES64DD And I read your other comments, Nintendo will keep making consoles, and the Switch won't get a revision any time soon. People are just too stupid and want something that doesn't even exist.

@Edu23XWiiU Yeah. The Switch is moving into the best years of its life. We aren't even finished with all the 2019 Directs yet. There's going to be more competition incoming in future Directs.

As for the best selling PS4 titles, I got my information from Wikipedia so I don't know how accurate it is.

And yeah, I believe and hope the Switch won't get a revision any time soon either. Not sure if the Switch mini counts as a revision though as it is more a market-expanding device.

@SNES64DD Yeah, the Switch is killing it right now, and I don't think Nintendo would do a "mini" any time soon, since the Switch is making more money than the Wii at the same spot of it's lifetime. it appeals to everyone and it offers something the other consoles don't. So, let's keep on playing! A lot of kick ass games are already out, and more are coming this year and beyond