There are many, many ways to buy and enjoy games nowadays, but it's fair to say that retail behemoth Amazon is still a big option for a lot of consumers. As a major player in game sales (and sales of pretty much anything) it's interesting to see its best performers of the year, and in terms of gaming the results are intriguing for multiple reasons.
You can see the regularly updated page here for the US store, though it'll likely now stay roughly the same for the rest of the year. Interesting point number one is that you don't see any games until #11 in the chart, with the top 10 consisting entirely of digital store gift cards and accessories. From a Switch perspective there's a $10 eShop gift card at number 3, while an officially licenced Mario-themed micro-SD card is at number 8. More similar accessories and gift cards can be found throughout the charts too, showing that consumers are more than savvy in terms of knowing they'll need store credit and expanded storage with their system.
Surprisingly - or not, depending on your perspective - the first game is Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury in 11th. It benefits from being a notable title with one of the longest times on the market (it was released on 12th February), but even so it's impressive that it's held off other big releases from later in the year. Amazon's audience in the US also loves dancing, it seems, with Just Dance 2022 on Switch being the next game in 14th, perhaps helped along by its modest price.
The key point of intrigue is that all of the other physical games in the Amazon US top 50 are Switch games, with the vast majority being first-party Nintendo games; Minecraft and Just Dance 2021 on the system are the third-party exceptions. While it's tempting to get out the bunting and celebrate Nintendo's dominance on one of the world's most significant retailers, context is also important.
Results like these show that Nintendo's approach to value in its retail games, especially the relative rarity and size of discounts either in stores or on the eShop, pays off on sites like Amazon. With a lot of game publishers there can be a temptation to 'wait for a discount', which invariably comes along within a few months. With Nintendo games it's a long wait, and then the discounts will be modest enough that it's not always worthwhile waiting. Add to that the eager Switch fanbase and the continuing desirability of physical copies for many, and you get a Switch-heavy focus.
The Sony and Microsoft segments of the market are very different - major retail games are discounted more often, especially as downloads on the PSN and Microsoft Xbox stores, and both platform holders continue to emphasize downloads through promotions and even digital-only versions of consoles. Then you consider services like Xbox Game Pass, and it's easy to see why PlayStation and Xbox have some smaller numbers buying physical copies of exclusive games.
This list is also Amazon-only and broken down by platforms, though it's still rather surprising that multiplatform big hitters like FIFA 2022 and all sorts of shooters / other sports games aren't represented.
As an indicator of Nintendo's ongoing model of maintaining value and physical editions, though, the Amazon chart is interesting.
And yes, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are still selling well after nearly five years.
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[source amazon.com, via dualshockers.com]
Comments 21
Mario paid for Bezos space vacation.
Indeed. The nuance in this piece is very important, the market is so diffuse it's hard to conclude anything by just looking at physical game lists.
Switch is the only current system that has meaningful physical versions so it makes sense. For example the only 1st party Switch game which has a gigantic day 1 download to make it functional is BDSP meanwhile this practice is extremely common on XB1 and PS4 (you have to install the whole game to the hard drive for PS and Xbox too).
Basically Nintendo had new and evergreen titles for a machine people either own or could buy. There’s part of me that wonders if Sony may have delayed certain titles to next year because there isn’t enough PS5’s out in the wild to sell the games day one?
Physical sales in general don't mean a lot these days. There's a reason why gift cards are always the top selling gaming-adjacent items on Amazon. Vast segments of the gaming population are moving to digital. And digital is where I think XBox and PS are killing it.
I really think it won't be long before all three console makers drop the physical option altogether. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the next generation of Sony/MS consoles was purely digital, with Nintendo following them one generation later. This saddens me, but I'm not the market they care about.
One can easily conclude Nintendo dominated 2021 by compiling worldwide sales numbers, and these also indicate it. If chip shortages continue this year, then they will do it again.
The Sony and Microsoft segments of the market are very different - major retail games are discounted more often, especially as downloads on the PSN and Microsoft Xbox stores, and both platform holders continue to emphasize downloads through promotions and even digital-only versions of consoles. Then you consider services like Xbox Game Pass, and it's easy to see why PlayStation and Xbox have some smaller numbers buying physical copies of exclusive games.
It's like I'm on PushSquare lol
@Matty1988 yeah. Nintendo fans are the only ones consistently resistant to move to digital. Then again, Nintendo is also to blame here for the super small storage space on the Switch, making players to either buy physical, or buy SD cards for their digital titles.
We bought 100s of dollars of gift cards this year!... After someone hacked our account and bought gift cards for just about every game.
@Savage_Joe If they kept getting rid of games from digital stores, I could see why physical games ain't going nowhere either. If digital really is the future, companies need to at least find a way to keep the digital version of a game relevant for at least two or three generations or else consumers will see through the cracks and hesitate to purchase. In Japan, Asia, and NA, buying game physical is a must as not everyone had high speed internet, some had internet just fast enough to download a patch or an update but not the full game.
You said Nintendo fans but you failed to realize that physical edition of consoles and games sell better than their digital edition not only on Switch but PS3, PS4, PS5, and Wii U as well. So far only the Xbox, mobile, and PC audience are the only few that embrace digital and that's cause those platform doesn't change much, Xbox got GamePass so Xbox customers were satisfied with that, they don't buy to keep anyways and mobile and PC aren't just for gaming anyways so those being digital doesn't matter. Mobile games come and go and PC games are either buggy mess or power hog so that's right at home with their audience.
As for Switch having small internal storage space for games and save files, I could see that as a benefit for the consumers as 32gb and 64gb are good starting storage for a portable home console while keeping the cost of the Switch affordable. Remember even handhelds like 3DS and PS Vita hardly had any internal storage space at all, for the Switch to had that give consumers a good starting point. The fact that the Switch support microSD card over a proprietary memory card also made the system even more easily accessible as microSD card are cheap for consumers to afford and they could use any one so if a consumer had a microSD card that were previously used for their old camera or phone, they could just format that and pop that onto the Switch no problem.
I think the big take away from this article is not so much analysing sales etc etc (what are we doing with our lives?) but to appreciate another area where Nintendo just have a different philosophy / approach to what gaming is about. It's one that I relate more to than sat in a stupid chair with a headset in a dark room.
@Gwynbleidd
Just to explain on their behalf, people hacking accounts of various storefronts to buy a bunch of digital game codes or gift cards that need to be redeemed elsewhere is a common issue for any website where somebody can store payment details (sometimes for personal use, but more often than not these codes will be flipped on eBay/gift card exchange sites/etc. for a quick buck that will be much harder to track back to them). Digital goods can be shifted on aftermarkets much more effectively before relevant parties are notified something is wrong, compared to physical items which need to be shipped.
It's usually why most sites will require people to re-enter their full credit card number (even if it's stored), send additional confirmation emails, or something similar when buying digital codes. An extra layer of security compared to placing orders which will be shipped.
2021 Nintendo Switch hardware and software sales records should be no suprise to anyone in the Gaming Industry only those dismissing belongs in the NintenDoomed fandom whom fail consistently to see the writing on the walls. Nintendo is laughing all the way to the bank in 2022 and not even looking back.
What is the incentive for Nintendo to release the next Mario Kart if 8 Deluxe keeps selling like crazy.
@Dman10 You had to wait for their next gen console to get a new Mario Kart, they're not making a new Mario Kart on the same gen that they're still supporting the current ones which are Mario Kart Live and Mario Kart Tour.
I've already had many games, DLC and others removed from stores to where they are not able to be re-downloaded, that I am glad that all my favorite games are physical. And yes, I have an Xbox and Gamepass and its great...but if I love a game, its going physical so I can have it forever and preferably on Switch if possible. I have Atari 2600 carts from the late 1970s that still work just fine, yet I have downloads from the mid 2000s that I can't re-download as the store is closed and if the hard drive crashes, which it will, they'll be all gone. I hate that. Its a ticking timer of death for some games. Digital is convenient upfront but is a terrible way to keep your library intact in the long run. I think most Nintendo fans care about their library much more than others. I've had numerous hard drive crashes in my life that wiped out entire contents...game carts crashing? Its a huge count of zero gone bad, dating back to gaming in the 1970s, so 40 + years.
@Specter_of-the_OLED yeah but if they don't want to make another mario kart game till their next console then why wouldn't they do the same with botw
Uhh no the highest game on this list is 11th place Mario 1 through 10 is mostly gift cards.
I'd hardly call that "dominant"
@Gwynbleidd they were giftcards for things like fortnight, Apex legends, and other online games I don't play that use microstransactions. I assume they sell them on eBay or somewhere else. Kind of like the scammers that want itunes and Google pay giftcards.
Hard to call this "dominant" when Nintendo is the only console with an incompetent digital store AND physical media still worth buying (ahem, most of the time anyway). Xbox and PS disc sales have gotta be dropping now that the world has mostly discovered they're just discs with license keys on them and the whole download still has to happen anyway
Looks like the Quest 2 dominated?
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