In some ways, 2020 has felt like a pretty quiet year on the Nintendo front, but that doesn't mean that Switch owners have been starved of content. We'd argue that the opposite is true, in fact, especially if you're using this slight lull in major new releases to pick up games you might have missed, and that's exactly what players in Japan have been doing.
Nintendo has released a list of the top 30 best-selling games on the Switch eShop during the first half of 2020. There are two charts - one for downloads of retail games and one for digital exclusives - and as you can see, plenty of games that originally launched in years gone by are still doing the business today.
Thanks to Perfectly Nintendo for compiling these lists:
Most-Downloaded Switch Retail Games (Jan - Jun 2020)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) [20.3.2020]
- Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Nintendo) [05.6.2020]
- Human: Fall Flat (Teyon Japan) [28.12.2017]
- Splatoon 2 (Nintendo) [21.7.2017]
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) [28.4.2017]
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) [07.12.2018]
- NBA 2K20 (Take-Two Japan) [06.9.2019]
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (The Pokémon Company) [06.3.2020]
- Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Level-5) [20.9.2019]
- Minecraft (Mojang / Microsoft Japan) [21.6.2018]
- Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy DX (Level-5) [09.8.2018]
- Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Nintendo) [29.5.2020]
- Overcooked! 2 (Team17) [07.8.2018]
- Pokémon Sword (The Pokémon Company) [15.11.2019]
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) [03.3.2017]
- Brain Training for Nintendo Switch (Nintendo) [27.12.2019]
- Super Mario Party (Nintendo) [05.10.2018]
- Fitness Boxing (Imagineer) [20.12.2018]
- Undertale (8-4) [15.9.2018]
- Pokémon Shield (The Pokémon Company) [15.11.2019]
- Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Capcom) [25.8.2017]
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Nintendo) [26.7.2019]
- Trials of Mana (Square-Enix) [24.4.2020]
- Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold (Level-5) [12.4.2018]
- Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition (Square-Enix) [27.9.2019]
- Kotoba no Puzzle Mijipittan Encore (Bandai-Namco) [02.4.2020]
- Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega 39’s (SEGA) [13.2.2020]
- Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo) [28.6.2019]
- Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Nintendo) [31.10.2019]
- Yo-kai Watch 1 for Nintendo Switch (Level-5) [10.10.2019]
Most-Downloaded Digital-Only Switch Games (Jan - Jun 2020)
- Minecraft Dungeons (Mojang / Microsoft Japan) [26.5.2020]
- Final Fantasy VII (Square-Enix) [26.3.2019]
- Futari de! Nyanko Dai Senso (Ponos) [20.12.2020]
- Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R (Arc System Works) [16.5.2019]
- Of Sand and Mice -Revised- (Arc System Works) [21.12.2017]
- Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (Square-Enix) [27.9.2019]
- Final Fantasy IX (Square-Enix) [14.2.2019]
- Cuphead (StudioMDHR) [18.4.2019]
- Good Job! (Nintendo) [26.3.2020]
- Oumori Charisou DX (spicysoft) [08.2.2018]
- Resident Evil 6 (Capcom) [31.10.2019]
- Puzzle & Dragons Gold (GungHo Online Entertainment) [15.1.2020]
- Ultimate Chicken Horse (Clever Endeavour Games) [25.9.2018]
- Gnosia (Petit Depotto) [30.4.2020]
- Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (Square-Enix) [03.9.2019]
- Dragon Quest X All-in-One Package (Square-Enix) [14.5.2020]
- Goonya Fighter (Mutan) [27.6.2019]
- Dead Cells (Motion Twin) [07.8.2018]
- Conduct Together (Northplay) [13.6.2019]
- Overcooked! Special Edition (Team17) [12.10.2017]
- Resident Evil 5 (Capcom) [31.10.2019]
- Cities: Skylines Nintendo Switch Edition (Paradox Interactive) [14.9.2018]
- 10 Second Run Returns (Blueprint) [21.12.2017]
- Catch ‘Em! Goldfish Scooping (D3 Publisher) [02.8.2018]
- Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe) [11.1.2018]
- Kuukiyomi: Consider It! (G-Mode) [30.8.2018]
- Tick Tock: A Tale for Two (Other Tales Interactive) [05.12.2019]
- Kuukiyomi: Consider It More! – New Era (G-Mode) [26.9.2019]
- Invisigun Reloaded (Sombr Studio) [05.9.2019]
- Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (Square-Enix) [27.9.2019]
Any surprises on these lists? We can't get over Human: Fall Flat's huge popularity with the Japanese audience...
[source nintendo.co.jp, via perfectly-nintendo.com]
Comments 29
Happy to see Conduct Together on the digital-only list, great game!
Not at all surprised by the Level-5 titles being so high on the packaged list - all of the titles present have been 1000 yen on sale multiple times this year. At that price, even I felt the need to double-dip on a few of them.
Seeing XC DE so far down breaks my heart, I mean yeah it released at the end of may but still
I'm impressed as how Clubhouse games is doing pretty well considering at first glance looks like shovelware, however you can tell developers crafted this game with love to videogames. Also, I can see these are digital games, and honestly I think it's a game perfect for having anytime you want by being downloaded directly to your system.
I'm looking forward this brings us new updates or so ever. But also opening opportunities to different kind of experiences Nintendo can bring us.
@Oswald Clubhouse games is NOT shovelware. If you look at it for more than 1 second you can see that it's not. I think the correct term should be a "casual" game.
Clubhouse Games looks to have sold more digital copies than retail copies based on these rankings.
No Mario Odyssey?!?!
Trials of Mana
Now, please can we have Legend of Mana
@Oswald I definitely agree with all the others here that the Clubhouse game is NOT shovelware. Just pointing this out and glad that everyone here corrected you.
@DanskCarvalho Yeah that was the biggest head scratch to me too.
whats nice see is the bulk of them got released in the west. Remeber bloody N was the ffffffffffffffffffffff worse for oh you round eyed people cant play this game. Amazing took wii u disaster for that to change
So awesome to see MHGU still at a decent place on the list. I still play that religiously.
@Cosats @sanderev I said looked like at first glance :/ and then talked about how wonderful it is, sorry not giving myself to understand. I remembered about the Wii era where we had a lot of shovelware of compilations. However not knowing about games, I'd not be surprised by some people missing this gem out confusing this type of experience with those games we had on Wii
@Cosats @sanderev @Oswald either Oswald ninja’d their post or you both need to work on your reading comprehension. Oswald said “at first glance looks like shovelware” and, frankly, anyone who recalls the Wii era would know what they mean.
Goonya Fighter lmaooooooo
@DanskCarvalho 3d Mario has never sold well in Japan
Very surprised at seeing Resident Evil 6 at 11 on the digital only front, and a little shocked at NBA 2k20 on the all formats at number 7. No wonder 2K keeps pushing out NBA. 2k20 runs very well, and the Myleague component dwarfs other franchises. I hope Capcom considers more Resident Evil in the future.
Not played any of that stuff the last 6 months. The Mrs got bored of Clubhouse Games, was worth a try regardless. I got NBA2K for free on PS4, not played it yet.
But here in the States the general top 10 of 2020 does not look like that. Japan is another world when it comes to gaming.
Very nice to see Three Houses still has people's attention. Easily the best RPG of this gen!
whats Three Houses
@TheAwesomeBowser i like your profile pic/vid
More than 3 years after launch, BotW is still number 15. Amazing!
@DanskCarvalho Pretty much everyone has Odyssey at this point, not exactly surprising.
@TheAwesomeBowser it was like 9 cents for a long time. They kind of just gave it away to get there.
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva controller is averaging 1000 bucks on ebay. It looks like a super basic rhythm game too, the controller only has 4 buttons. What a world Japan is.
I was surprised to see NBA2k up so high but then I remember, wasn't it on sale for like 95% off at one point?
Sad to see Xenoblade, Pokemon and Fire Emblem all so low.
I'm glad Pokemon is so low. Hopefully they actually put some effort into the next game.
Actually dissapointed with the list. Lots of old evergreen titles but few new ones.
@Kid_Sickarus I never thought it looked like shovelware. Because I remember the Wii era, and I absolutely know what shovelware looks like.
This game absolute does not. It's high quality, and it has been from the first screenshot.
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