Last Friday saw the launch of Descenders on Nintendo Switch, an extreme downhill biking game that's been available on Steam and other consoles for several months now. Despite already being out in the wild elsewhere, the game's Switch launch has been a pretty major success.
Mike Rose, of publisher No More Robots, has shared some fascinating statistics about the game's launch on social media today. Rose says that the game is the team's "biggest Switch launch ever", earning a six-figure revenue in its opening weekend alone.
The release caused the game's total concurrent users to spike to 6,100, a total that's 1,000 higher than the game's previous record, and one that demonstrates just how many players are active and jumping into new releases on Switch. It even caused sales on other platforms to spike by 40%, too.
The news follows a string of similar success stories on Switch, with a number of indie publishers recently speaking out about how their games have performed surprisingly well on Nintendo's console.
If you haven't played Descenders yet, we'd certainly recommend it. In our full review, we said the Switch port is a surprisingly robust package that's well worth a go, even with the graphical downgrade it's received when compared to other versions.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 21
Glad to hear this! I will be picking up my copy in due time. This will definitely be a welcome, and unique addition to my Nintendo Switch library.
Awesome news but still won't change the many developers that treat the Switch like the red headed step child.
In this case, Nintendo Life, you contributed to this. I downloaded my copy because of your review and description of the game.
Don’t let that one dev who complained on here about the poor sales for his niche games read this...
Trials Rising is one of my favourite Switch games so I might pick this up if it's kind of like a proper 3D version of it.
Haven't got around to picking this up but I will. Both interesting & good to read.
Make a good game that scores well and chances are good that it will sell well.
Funny that.
No need for all of Mike's analysis this time it seems.
But I thought you need to have 90% off sales to do well on the Switch eShop? All jokes aside, this game does seem pretty interesting so I might grab it eventually.
Just got mine in physical version and just gameplay videos itself, i’m sold... i think there’s no biking game (with first person view) yet on switch... other than motorbikes... but I’m still about to play it ... november seems a great month for switch new games.
If you're in the indie business and your game's not on Switch or imminent then you're doing it wrong. I've barely touched Steam since Switch released.
Sadly, the console versions lack mod support, so there's no user created maps, etc, which is a big part of this game's appeal.
Why is this still a surprise? And where is our 360 port of GTA V? These questions will never get a satisfactory answer.
@Deerock69 I'd even be happy with GTA IV, bring back Nico Belic!
Too bad EA doesn’t care for these results
Getting this on Black Friday (physical)
The NL review caused me to discover the Descenders game is on Xbox Game Pass and play the game there {hides face!}
I just wish I ran at 60fps on Switch. It's hard to tell if it runs that smoothly on PS4 Pro or Xbox one X, but I'm sure it will on their sequels. I remember how fun Downhill Domination was on PS2. I wish someone could port that to Switch and get it running at about 720p at 60fps. Oh, I just realized Descenders might even run at 120fps on the not yet released consoles. That would be awesome! I've been on the fence, but I'll probably get Descenders eventually.
This is definitely worth picking up no matter which platform you get it on.
The only thing that spoils it for me is the occasional hiccup which can be frustrating when going over the jumps. But it'll probably be patched out at some point.
My copy is being delivered by Amazon tomorrow. £24 hope it's worth it.
I’m glad that developers are finding such success on Switch but can someone explain to me why the Switch is such an independent developers wet dream?
I still need a decent racing game for the Switch that isn't Mario Kart, and this is the first one that got me interested.
I've great memories of racing games, especially on the N64 and Gamecube, and even on Wii I bought the unexpected masterpiece Excite Truck near launch. Switch is pretty bad for racing games in comparison.
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