Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of March 2020

New milestones:
> Mario Kart 8 DX has outsold Mario Kart DS and is now the 2nd best-selling game in the series
> Pokemon Sword/Shield has outsold every Pokemon game since Diamond/Pearl (which it will outsell by the end of this current quarter)
> Animal Crossing New Horizons is now the best-selling game in the series. It is also the fastest-selling Nintendo game of all time, exceeding the launch sales of Pokemon Sword/Shield
> Luigi's Mansion 3 is now the best-selling game in the series
> Super Mario Party is now the best-selling game in the series
> Fire Emblem Three Houses is now the best-selling game in the series (having outsold all three versions of Fates combined)

MK8 Deluxe = Beast. BotW killing it also and well deserved as it is incredible.

Would be interested to see the figures for other games released in the past year like Luigi's Mansion 3, Astral Chain and Links Awakening.

Glad to see that Pokemon SwSh is still behind BotW and SMO, this game don't deserve to sell mor than those masterpieces

Also maybe it makes GF realize that good game actually sell more (but probably not 17.37mio sales is still much better than any 3DS pokemon game)

Remarkable sales for New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe. I'd be shocked if Nintendo don't port 3D World based on these figures.

Fire Emblem Three Houses is at 2.87 million copies sold in less than a year since release. This is amazing given that it's a tactical RPG and this genre is nowhere near as popular as turn-based ones. Valkyria Chronicles is the only other one that's still around while Disgaea has just gotten ports but no new games. FE is the only major SRPG left, and I suspect it'll hit three million easy before July.

To give you an idea of how awesome this is, Persona 5 is in a much more popular genre of RPG (turn-based), and has more pop culture relevance given how often Atlus advertises it with every chance they get. And yet, it took about two years just for it to reach 2 million copies sold.

Fire Emblem meanwhile outdid that in less than half the time despite being more niche and not as culturally relevant. This proves just how far the series has become since nobody cares about it 10 years ago. And now it's the most popular game in the TRPG genre, proving that despite a grid-like gameplay style being enjoyed by less people, it can still be profitable at the end of the day.

I still don't understand how NSMBU sold better than Mario Maker 2. I mean I bought both and Mario Maker 2 is just SO MUCH better! I think a lot of people just got NSMBU first and just burned out on 2D Mario for a little while so it hurt Mario Maker 2's sales.

I never doubted Animal Crossing would make this list, nor as high as it is. And I expect it to keep rising. I also expect Pokemon to get a big bump once the DLC drops. I know most people on this site hate SW/SH but me and around 17 million other folks quite like it.

@mariomaster96 What is "deserve to sell"? People buy what they enjoy. I know people like you have a crazy dislike of SW/SH but a lot of us really enjoy it. Don't be bitter toward a game you don't enjoy just because other people do.

I’m still amazed they didn’t release any DLC packs for Super Mario Party. They’d have made a tidy profit based on a 10m install base.

@Heavyarms55

I bought New Super Mario Deluxe as it is a game filled with quality Nintendo made levels. I didn't buy Mario Maker 2 because after playing Mario Maker 1 I realised it is only Nintendo who make truly great Mario levels.

Is there a reason the ACNH and Mariokart aren't in bold? wasnt sure if it was just from editing.

I'm really surprised to see mario maker isnt up there. really thought it would have outsold NSMBUD and Super Mario Party.

I wonder how this list will look when we get a Pikmin and Metroid release?

@Heavyarms55 "People like you" my ass. I actually did enjoy it but it was still very dissapointing since it lacked heavily on content (compared to both other switch games and prior pokemon games) whereas BotW and SMO are one of the best games ever with so much care and work put into it so they deserve to sell more copies than pokemon

@RadioHedgeFund i said this the other day. Its an absolute disgrace that the havnt even added in a couplr more boards or mini games yet the aupport that shower of sh*t they call Mario Tennis. A couple of boards and 20 new minigames a year as paid DLC would be amazing and give this Mario party new legs and a bigger fan base. My kids still play it but im just nored of traipsing around the same 4 boards.

@mariomaster96 Whatever dude. Whatever.

@RadioHedgeFund yeah you’re right on that. I would love it if they would make a pack with the best mini games and boards from previous Mario Party titles.

Remember at the beginning of the Switch’s life cycle, people complained there were no games?

When its all said and done and we look back, this will probably go down as the best Nintendo platform for games ever

@hashkey I wonder why XC2 is missing from the list, i mean it's first party and sold more than 1mio copies (close to 2mio i think), so it should be there

@CowCatcher ah ok, thx

If you own a Switch and do not own those top 4 titles... you are a chump. Do you hear me? A chump!

I own all of these bar MK8D, because I bought it and all the DLC on WiiU. I'm really surprised there hasn't been more DLC for it, that would have been a reason to buy it for me. I can only hope it's because MK9 is in the works, so they're saving it all for that!

Kinda sad ol' Luigi didn't make the top 10.

Mario Maker 2 has to be one of the Switch's main misfires, it should have been as big if not bigger than the first and yet it really didn't hit the mark. I look at how Splatoon 2 was really a refinement of the first and has hit 10 million and then Mario Maker which has Luigis Mansion 3 and NSMBUD outsell it and can't help think missed opportunity.

Sales really have shot up since only December. Surprised to see splatoon 2 continuing to sell extremely well. I’m glad they brought back one last splatfest, wonder in continued sales will cause them to continue giving that game events? I knew animal crossing would bump a few games down this list.

@TheFullAndy
Agreed. I had some fun with Mario Maker 1 but finding good levels was next to impossible, most of the ones I ever played were either impossible death traps or were those auto-playing levels where you're not supposed to touch the controls. The latter are obviously very cleverly constructed but aren't actually fun for someone to play...

@Heavyarms55 Release timing, NSMBU Deluxe released during a game drought meanwhile Mario Maker 2 was the start of the insanely packed lineup. I feel Mario Maker 2 would've done a lot better as a December 2019 or June 2020 release.

Based on New Super Mario U Deluxe sales, it's easy to understand why we heard that recent rumour about the bunch of Mario possible remasters. 6 million is an excellent number and it proves that great games will sell, no matter if they're ports or not. I just don't understand why it sold more than Mario Maker 2, which is also a great game in my opinion

Just for once, I wish the games I love get the recognition they deserve...

Again, Mario Party at 10+ million sales and hasn't got a single update.

@Heavyarms55 I'm glad you like Pokémon SW/Sh. I haven't played it yet so don't have an opinion on it, but would suggest that sales figures don't always fully align with satisfaction figures.

@hashkey

Cheers!

@BulkSlash

Yeah the novelty wore off fast.

I know Nintendo put a lot of single player levels into Mario Maker 2 as well but they are bound by the creative tools of that game. I would rather just play a fully fledged Nintendo made Mario game with no constraints.

no surprises, damn mario kart is killing the game though!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2014/5/15/5718168/mario-kart-series-sales

Journalism 👍

I will never understand the fact the mario maker 2 is not there... the best game of last year...

@gcunit That's a fair enough point. Not everyone who buys a game ends up liking it. But frankly I don't believe that that is a significant number. SW/SH became the popular thing to hate. Like Sword Art Online or Star Wars or Harry Potter or Call of Duty or FIFA or GTA. It has a large active fanbase of devoted fans and that makes them easy to target and hit back on because people want to be different and defiant. People like to attack the popular thing.

I just refuse to believe that millions of people bought a game they didn't like. Maybe, maybe a couple hundred thousand out of that 17 million.

But sure, you or anyone else can write me off as the dumb fanboy or whatever, I'm used to it. Every time I point out the truth that I like this game and so do millions of others, I get that same flak.

Great to see BotW second!

I'd love to see a top 30 with third party games included, honestly.

Im so Happy Super Mario Party has sold well...it really is a lot of fun when you have a family to entertain. The boards and content are enough for us if you take into consideration the rythym games and other modes (partner/river etc)

Very suprised/sad that Mario Tennis Aces has not sold too well though...I personally love that one!

@Heavyarms55 actually a lot of those 17 millions quite hate it like a lot of my friends...

@Heavyarms55 millions pf people gave it a chance because it is pokemon and they like pokemon. Most of the "haters" of swsh are pokemon fans. Many of them (don't know the percentage) were then disappointed by the game's lack of content for the price.

@Heavyarms55 A lot of people don't understand the fact that even if you see thousands of people complaining it's a very little fraction of the total with number like this. Also: on internet usually the people who hate something are louder than the others.
Probably SwSh is loved by a lot of people, millions of people, but we hear only the 0,1% who complains.
And the devs don't give a s*** about that type of complaining, they look at sales and the data that the consoles send them

I own nine of these, only missing BoTW (criminal, I know).

@Heavyarms55 I think the NSMBUD issue is two fold. I've seen many families not go for Mario Maker because the IDEA of it being a Maker makes it sound either harder/confusing or they then (mistakenly) believe it doesn't actually have much gameplay to it. It makes NSMBUD a safer, more complete game experience, in their eyes.

Beyond that, gamers still do want a completely Nintendo made, full length campaign with world maps, secret exits and the like. As great as Mario Maker 2 is, even with Super Worlds, it still doesn't deliver the same experience, even if it's better and a larger package in so many ways.

@Deltath Are you kidding? The single player experience in MM2 is some of Nintendo's best work! I think it's clear that people must have misunderstood what the game is. You get a stellar Nintendo original campaign and virtually endless fanmade levels. And while some are understandably trash, others you could slot right into a real Nintendo release and never know the difference!

Wow, super mario maker 2 did not make the cut, no wonder support is going to stop

The Switch would fail, they said.
It's just a gimmick, they said.
It has no games, they said.

Nintendo is laughing all the way to the bank.

@Heavyarms55
Yea, I agree. Mario Maker 2 really deserves to be on that list. It sure is a list of excellent games, though, so inevitably something isn't gonna make it.

Ok let's have a new 2-D Mario game. The newest one (other than Mario Maker which I do not count) is in the top ten selling games on both Wii-U and Switch.

Splatoon 2 over 10 million now, that's good to see....

Do they had a top 10 Switch game list that doesn't include Nintendo games?

@TheFullAndy Mario Kart and Smash are good games but they are also pack-in games with the console. I guess this is why they sell more than BOTW.

Surprised Luigi's Mansion 3 didn't overtake NSMBU DX

Interesting. Nobody’s going to talk about the fact that Zelda outperformed Mario for the first time ever?

I think the issue with Mario Maker 2 has to do with the Wii U being better suited for the game than the Switch. The Switch doesn’t have the Wii U gamepad or free online. The lack of Weird Mario also sucks, though I’m okay with it not being definitive since it’s a sequel rather than a port. In any case, still very sad to see Nintendo stop supporting it so quickly.

Also, pack-in games are a bit of a chicken or egg thing. Games are generally bundled with the console if they’re major titles that are guaranteed to sell a lot of units (should they fail to, Nintendo would quickly replace the bundled game with something else). Mario Kart still would’ve been in the top 3 if it were never part of any bundle, while Xenoblade would’ve never been in the top 10 even if it was.

@rallydefault I'm not a fan of this idea of a game "deserving to be on the list". It's just a list of sales numbers. I'm more surprised that people chose NSMBU over MM2. I wouldn't have guessed that had a snowball's chance of happening.

@Heavyarms55 I'm not sure which part I would be kidding about. I never once said anything even vaguely resembling that Mario Maker 2 didn't have an amazing campaign. I said that many people clearly didn't understand it and that they had an idea of what it was that obviously wasn't accurate. Beyond that, though, Mario Maker irrefutably has elements missing from the 2D Mario experience that many fans still want. Traversing a fully realized world map, life and power up progress carrying over between levels, a story with little cutscenes bridging the worlds together, dozens or more secret/alternate exits that give more meaning to exploration within a giving level, as well as star coins to collect with trackable progress to get them all through the campaign. And more. Does it make NSMBUD a better game? No. It's definitely worse and has a lot less and the campaign in Mario Maker 2 is fantastic, but there's no argument that it's different and doesn't follow the normal style and feel of a traditional 2D Mario game. I've seen thousands of comments on here, YouTube, Reddit, etc that people still want those elements, particularly the secret exits.

I'm not here to say NSMBUD is better, just clear up some confusion as to other reasons why people may have bought it.

@CowCatcher And it makes sense in a certain way. They're really different kinds of games. I love Mario Maker but I have to admit I have a problem with it: most levels people upload are in the "almost impossible levels" category. I don't get why people spend their time making those levels. I'd rather play levels that are intelligently crafted but not that hard. Thanks god we have dozens of good lists with reasonable levels on the internet to help find something nice in the middle of all the madness

Eh, I've never played Mario Maker 2 but I've 100%ed Mario Maker 1.
Super Expert is mostly (not completely!) full of kaizo and stupid troll levels, but I find that I get lots of good levels on Normal and Expert 100 Mario Challenge (random selection). Challenging and fun, but well-designed too.

I'd like to praise this comment section for bringing a lot more cool facts about the sales of all those games. Way to go, guys

ALOT boycotting did for pokemon I dislike pokemon neckbeard fanboys! im glad 18 million great game!

@mariomaster96 speak for yourself let people enjoy things!

Not to be in competition, but a curious fact is the PS4 has 5 10 million+ selling games (Uncharted 4, Spider-Man, God Of War, The Last Of Us Remastered and Horizon Zero Dawn). XB1’s highest selling game is Halo 5 at 5 million.

It really does suggest that if you want a successful console, you really do need exclusives. Big surprise there.

@ItsOKToBeOK "Remember at the beginning of the Switch’s life cycle, people complained there were no games?"

I remember at the beginning, when it was first released, people were saying Switch was dead in the water. A silly gimmick that wouldn't sell. Ha! I knew it would do well if only as Nintendo's next generation of handheld. Even 3 years ago the 3DS was getting a bit long in the tooth and looking primitive.

Mind you, I also thought the WiiU would be successful. So what do I know!

Never saw TMSE on the top 20 again. Too bad thought. it was a great game.

6/10.
Good, good.