Nintendo has provided updated sales figures for its best-selling games on Switch, giving us a great look at which titles have performed the best since the console launched back in 2017.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to sell like hotcakes – it actually managed to shift 14.27 million units between April and September this year – but it still hasn't managed to quite top the overall chart. That honour remains with the evergreen beast that is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Below, you'll find the Switch's best-selling games as of 30th September 2020. Note that the data only includes Nintendo-published titles.
Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games (as of 30th September 2020):
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 28.99 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 26.04 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 21.10 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 19.74 million
- Pokémon Sword and Shield - 19.02 million
- Super Mario Odyssey - 18.99 million
- Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! / Let's Go, Eevee! - 12.49 million
- Super Mario Party - 12.10 million
- Splatoon 2 - 11.27 million
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - 8.32 million
The numbers above are worldwide sales and include retail, digital, and copies bundled with hardware all combined. Nintendo has also revealed that Switch hardware lifetime sales have now reached more than 68 million units, overtaking the NES.
Any surprises in that top ten? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments (69)
And Animal Crossing hasn’t even had a holiday season yet!
I have 6 Switch games from the list above.
1. Mario Kart 8
2. ACNH
3. Pokemon Sword
4. Super Mario Odyssey
5. Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu
6. BOTW
But i (almost) never touched my BOTW for more than 3 years due to lost my interest with BOTW. I bought it just for curiosity and i found it didn't appealing me but i still kept it for some reason.
Mario Kart is approaching Mario Kart Wii numbers now, if you count the Wii U sales it's already passed it.
I am happy to see New Super Mario U Deluxe do so well. Always thought it was the best in that series of games.
And Luigi's Mansion 3 at 7.8 million or thereabouts so another great success for the green guy!
Not sure how I feel about 2 of the top 10 being Wii U ports...
@MS7000
3. Breath of the Wild is a port as well I would argue as it was originally a Wii U game.
And it shows people who own a Switch wanted those games, nothing more to it.
You'd think at this point I'd stop being surprised by Animal Crossing sales, yet here we are. Also, Pokémon SwSh is on track to overtake Gen 2's sales. Inb4 the haters come and say how Masuda ruined their lives
wow, the top 6 games have sold a combined 134 million units, it shouldn't take too long for those titles to exceed 150 million units, that's incredible.
Imagine mario kart 9! Please just make it Nintendo. For us Wii U buyers who want a new game.
Such a disappointing line up from my perspective.
@WiltonRoots Yeah, sure. Both versions combined reached 37.4 million copies sold by now. Mario Kart Wii has reported lifetime sales of 37.3 million. MK8 is already the best selling game in the franchise. That´s just awesome.
Long live Mario Kart
Glad to see that BotW is selling so incredibly good and leaving Pokemon SwSh behind, who would have thought that a Zelda title would sell more copies than a Pokemon title
And by the next report it will pass 20mio sales (although it has already passed 20mio sales if you include the Wii U version)
except for Super Mario Party I have all of them.
12+ million Mario Party sales and ZERO post-release content for an already barebones game.
Let that sink in, Nintendo.
Over 8m copies of NSMBU Deluxe, crazy!
Come on Nintendo the masses are hungry for Mario Kart 9.
Wow. Nintendo are going to have 6 Switch titles that have sold over 20 million copies each soon enough by the looks of things.
@MarioBrickLayer Just seen your post after posting mine. Jinx!
@TheFullAndy Eh, to be fair, didn't count BOTW due to releasing simultaneously, but yes, you are correct.
But it's irksome that rather than new games, people are seemingly buying the ports... or is that perhaps because we have yet to received new games in said series (not that I expect new games for either Mario Kart, due to insane numbers or NSMBU Deluxe due to Super Mario Maker 2).
@sanderev get Super Mario Party then 😉
It surprises me that Super Smash Bros is not Number 1.
@chewytapeworm It's unplayable on the Lite, which is my primary Switch.
@MS7000
It is just a symptom of the Wii U being a such a bad selling console and the games couldn't be backwards compatible on Switch. That and there are many millions of players who didn't play the games first time round who own a Switch.
The good news is the Wii U well is close to being emptied and I see Nintendo moving forward with the Switch model and the next in the series will very likely be backwards compatible with Switch so Nintendo will have to make new games.
I also argue that the list of new first party games on Switch is comparable to PS4 and Xbox One at the same stage in their life cycle, probably better so I am happy enough
The ACNH sales numbers are impressive for such a short amount of time. Also obligatory comment about the disappointment of MK8 selling so much since it means we won't get a sequel for a while.
All solid or excellent games there.
As much as I love that Nintendo is not like majority of companies that drip feed DLC to their consumers...I'd be perfectly happy if they did for Mario Kart 8. I can only imagine how much extra cash can be made if they released more tracks.
I own all of them except "Super Mario Party". Maybe if it was called "Super F-zero Party" I would own it as well
Splatoon 2 rise because of Halloween Splatfest.
Those AC numbers are just crazy.
Animal Crossing in second is a surprise (considering the year, at this time everyone know about this) for me
I had 2 of them as physical copies and sold: Mario Kart 8D and Splatoon 2.
I have 6 of them as digital: Smash, BotW, Oddyssey, NSMBUD, PKM Shield and Let's go Eevee
And don't have any interest in Animal Crossing and Mario Party
Wow, I don't even own any of those 😂😂
Maybe if Animal Crossing overtakes MK8D Nintendo will finally consider making Mario Kart 9. It's been long enough.
Wow. Ok. Let's have a new New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart game then.
Fastest-selling Nintendo games ever after 3 fiscal quarters on the market:
1) Animal Crossing New Horizons: 26.04 million (~7 months)
2) Pokemon Sword/Shield: 18.22 million (~8 months)
3) Wii Sports Resort: 16.14 million (~9 months)
4) New Super Mario Bros Wii: 15.81 million (~8 months)
5) Pokemon Sun/Moon: 15.67 million (~8 months)
Used to own Mario Kart 8 and NSMBU for Wii U.
Currently own Smash, BotW, Odyssey on Switch.
Don't own any of the rest.
For me, the third party offerings on Switch have been the real draw.
Hollow Knight
Alien Isolation
Dark Souls
Cuphead
Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle
Ori 1&2
... and so on
Of course... Mario Kart ALWAYS takes the lead. I'm one of the few Switch owners who DOESN'T own Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
I'm quite surprised Ring Fit Adventure isn't on the list. It seems like every other week there's an article about how well it's selling.
@TheFullAndy You have it backwards. BOTW was designed with the Switch in mind. It was ported to the Wii U, almost like an after thought.
As well as MK8D is doing, I'm sure ACNH will overtake it before long. Especially during the holidays!
The whole list is full of solid games IMO, though that evaluation is based on impressions in some cases as a couple of them don't interest me.
It's depressing seeing Mario Party rank so high and yet never receive an update or added content.
I have this whole list. Lol
@glenny3214
That's just completely incorrect.
It hurts to see the Mario Party game there.
It had so much potential for expansion and it has been completely neglected by Nintendo.
@TheFullAndy You're info is the one that's incorrect
Mario Kart better watch out for a blue shell...
I would have never thought zelda selling 20 million copies....wow, thats absolutely insane. Back in 2017, i thought it would sell 10 millions tops, but it turns out double that! AC too, 26 mil is crazy. I had tons of fun with both of these games, great job nintendo 👍
@glenny3214
It started out being developed for the Wii U then later on development switched to both Wii U and Switch but the development originally started on Wii U and therefore it cannot be a port.
Look up the wiki page for the game or just use your common sense. The game was revealed in 2014 due for release in 2015, 2 years before the the release of the Switch.
This isn't difficult to grasp bud.
botw is my favorite game I have ever played it is god mode and the only reason I am not surprised it didn't top the list is because it released on WiiU too (also I have all but last 4)
I guess the ultimate question now is, will Animal Crossing surpass MK8 Deluxe in the end? Animal Crossing's a best but MK8 has got legs aside from being a pack-in title.
@Anti-Matter I have them all cept for splatoon
Always fun to track Mario Kart 8 DX annual calendar year sales:
> 2017: 7.33 million (Apr launch)
> 2018: 7.69 million
> 2019: 7.94 million
> 2020: 6.03 million as of Sep 2020
If Mario Kart 8DX sells as much this holiday quarter as it did last holiday quarter thanks to the Black Friday bundle returning, it will sell nearly 10 million copies in CY2020.
@MS7000 people didn't want new games because they hadn't played the old ones. hell some of these games sold more copies than the Wii U did consoles in it's entire life span. it's not surprising and it's not a bad thing, you want the most people enjoying those games. people like me who didn't end up getting a Wii U.
Holy crap! Xenoblade 2 is at 1.92 million? I remember when this franchise struggled to cross just one mill and now we are on the verge of seeing the franchise cross over to two?!
@mariomaster96
Uh...don’t meant to burst your bubble, but Pokemon SWSH has sold nearly the same amount of copies in just under a year as BotW sold in three.
I’d hardly call that being left behind.
@EliteXeos Uh...you are aware that when Nintendo released the last sales numbers 3 months ago Botw was at 18.41mio sales while SwSh was at 18.37, so the difference was only 0.04mio sales
Now 3 monts later BotW is at 19.74 while pokemon is at 19.02, making a difference of 0.72mio
Imo that looks like BotW is leaving Pokemon behind
I used to own 7 of them but I no longer collect games. I sell them once finished.
The only 1 from the list I still have is Mario Kart as we won't be seeing mk9 til Switch 2.
I want to know how Deadly Premonition 2 sold. Great game, still tickled to death we got a sequel. I hope it becomes a regular franchise!
@plug313 I don't get it sometimes - you get Wii U owners complaining about ports of games that sold about a million or so on the Wii U, saying "we've all played it already", yet a million on the Wii U is 1/13th of its total user base. The Switch user base is over 5 times bigger, Nintendo would be fools not to try and capitalise on that easy money.
@mariomaster96 That literally means nothing in regards to what my comment meant.
I'm talking overall sales. It took 3 years for BoTW to acquire that number and SWSH has almost reached that total in less than 12 months.
Even if we were to go by the quarterly sales numbers, the very fact SWSH is keeping close to the number of sales BoTW is making is no grounds to say it's leaving it behind.
Methinks you just have a dislike to the sucess of Sword/Shield.
@EliteXeos I played SwSh 400h+ (including both DLCs), yeah I definitely dislike the game (or it's success) lol
I think you don't get what I mean, I just meant that by the end of the Switch's lifecirce BotW will probably have sold more units than SwSh and that's incredible cause Zelda games never sold nearly as much as Pokemon therefore seeing a Zelda game outselling a Pokemon game makes me happy, not because I dislike Pokemon but because I really like Zelda and grant that series that success
@TheFullAndy what really sucks is that the Wii u controller was clearly going to be used as the Shekiah Slate when playing on the tv.
@mariomaster96
I'm happy that BoTW is selling incredibly well too, although I think SWSH will overtake it soon.
On November 7th the games will re-release with the DLC expansions completely on the cart. I can't help but think that people who have yet to purchase the games as well as those who prefer entirely physical will purchase those and further boost the sales alongside the regular releases of the games.
Also it's hard to graps the stance of some people's comments sometimes to forgive me if I came off as rude.
@EliteXeos I know that the game+dlc bundle will release today (or tomorrow idk) but the thing is, it costs 90$, therefore the same as the base game + dlc (or even more than that since you can easily find SwSh for 40$ making it a total of 70$ if you buy the dlc) so while some people will grab that I don't think too many will buy that bundle since it's too expensive. If it would only cost 60$ things would be different, I'm sure many would pick it up for that price
But yeah CT could boost sales but seeing how IoA didn't push sales too much I'm not sure if CT will greatly boost the sales
@matdub
Yeah was disappointing that was dropped.
@mariomaster96 I know you was using dollars as it's probably your currency, but there are other countries aside from the US where it doesn't feel as if it's expensive.
Here in the UK that version is £65.
Also the main selling point for this version would be that everything is on the cart. I mentioned it in my last comment that for people that prefer physical only, this would be a better choice.
@EliteXeos Actually I'm european and my currency is € but it's still 90€ for the bundle whereas you can find the base games for 40€ (+30€ for the DLC). Don't know why I always use $ instead of € ^^
Yeah you are right, it's nice to have all on the cardridge and probably many people waited till both DLCs released (that's why IoA didn't boost the sales too much) which will boost the sales but as I said, if they would have made that bundle cheaper it would boost they sales so much more than if it costs 90€ ^^
edit: Ok you are right, I just checked Amazon, it actually costs 75€ there, it's just that online shop I usually buy from who sells the bundle for 90€ for some reason
So to make it simpler we have 6 Nintendo franchises on the top:
4 Mario games
2 Pokemon games
Zelda
Animal Crossing
Super Smash Bros
Splatoon
NSMBU DX and Mario 3D All-Stars should approach or surpass 10 million copies sold by the end of the year (and certainly by March 2021).
It's then safe assume that Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury, Breath of the Wild 2, and the inevitable Pokemon Diamond/Pearl remake will exceed 10 million copies sold by the end of 2021 (maybe 15+ million for the latter two).
In addition, Luigi's Mansion 3 and Ring Fit Adventure should be able to exceed 10 million copies sold by the end of 2021 with their current legs.
So the Switch will have at least 16 different 10+ million seller 1st party titles by the end of 2021.
@Tulio517 As we all know. Sales = quality. And therfore SWSH selling means that the game is amazing /s
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