Nintendo Reveals Japan's Best-Selling 3DS eShop Games From 2011 - 2020

Those Battle Cats be really poppin huh

I thought this would be an overall list, would be interesting to see what that looks like.

I never thought we’d see a sequel to “Mom Hid My Game!” in 2022 but here we are.

It’s called: “Nintendo Hid Over 2000 of My Games!”

@AcridSkull that’s what I thought too. Interesting to see though!

Ya know I'm kinda curious, if you remove the ability to purchase a game, can you legally go after a Rom-Site for distribution of those Roms?

I really like this format of listing because it highlights some of the popular older titles. Like I haven't heard anyone mention Sakura Samurai in ages, and that's a good memory.

Interesting how many VC games are in that list. On the one hand it makes me wonder why they stopped releasing VC games considering they could be in the top 10, but on the flip side, most of the games are big Nintendo franchises. A re-release of Balloon Fight or some other lesser known game probably doesn’t bring in as much cash.

Monster Hunter really saved the 3ds

Interesting that Animal Crossing New Leaf was everpresent but the 3DS Pokemon games were absent. That's strange. Are Pokemon games primarily a physical copy purchase over there or something?

All of the 3DS Pokemon games I own save for X are digital.

Denpa men 4 life

@AnnoyingFrenzy yes ! Yes !

Fire Emblem Awakening wasn't top 15 in Japan for the year it came out?

Wow look at the Pokemon virtual console titles, they lasted pretty good. And now... 'uncontrollable sobbing' 😭

@Medic_Alert I gotcha. So it's the Disney Vault argument that we've suspected Nintendo was building for years.

@Krysus
They are their games. So yeah they can do whatever the heck they want.

@blindsquarel Well, the ones they own or have limited publishing rights too. Ya.

@Krysus
Then the people who own them can decide on if they care about it.

@Ralizah That was my takeaway too! I guess most people bought FE Awakening physically. However, makes sense to get FE Fates digitally, given that two-thirds of the game are missing on cartridge.

Nice to see an Etrian Odyssey sneak into a late top 15, once all the competition died down.

Lots of very big 3DS titles seem to have had no digital impact at all. Mario Land, Mario Maker, Link Between Worlds, Samus Returns, OoT and MM… There’s been a far more marked shift to digital since the Switch came out.

How long before games enter the public domain? In 100 years I know my great grandkids will not be playing on my 3DS as it will no longer be working. They will never know the joys of these games without emulation unless Nintendo release a 3DS Classic on it's 50th anniversary or something.

Crazy that Link's Awakening was the BEST selling the first year, but the remake never even entered the eShop top10.

I guess that one stuck to moving physical copies. :3

I hope they do this with other regions. Also, it's cool to see something Xevious related so high although it was 2011.

I got Animal Crossing New Leaf instead of New Horizons when it came out because it was cheaper and I wanted to see if I liked the formula. That was a good idea because I ended up not really loving it. I guess I'm just not a patient person.

It’s funny how you can see the Minecraft clones rising up until, oops actual Minecraft took over.

@Eel
Not gonna lie, survival craft was my main over Minecraft as a kid. Basically Minecraft but more realistic.

Now you get why they don't release GBC games on Switch. Love 2016. 7 out of 10 games are Pokemon and all classic OG games on top. Why dont they buy Analogue already and release an Analogue mini

@Ralizah These lists are eshop only. Fire Emblem Awakening sold mostly physically.

2011
10. Picross e7

Lol Did Picross e7 release before Picross e?

@Nontendo_4DS the third one is excellent

Nice to see Freakyforms and Tomodachi Life on these lists. Old, quirky favorites that I still play. These should be updated and released on switch.

2011: #3 3D Classics Xevious
That's probably the best port/version of Xevious with great use of the Nintendo 3D's 3D effect as well as great, great presentation.

Ah yes the beloved "@SIMPLE DL Series Vol. 1 THE Misshitsu kara no Dasshutsu ~Fushigina Kumadonald Burger-hen"

Ah freakyforms, that was one of the first eshop games I bought with my first prepaid card. Good memories

@Krysus no its still not legal. Its kinda like saying if a company stops selling a product its my right to get it for free.

Animal Crossing dominated! Loved the 3D classics series. As a 3DS Ambassador, and early adopter of the 3DS, I still play those free games!

@Harmonie
Most 3DS games outside of a few exceptions had very low digital ratios in Japan. For the new mainline Pokemon (not the old Virtual Console Pokemon games), that digital ratio was 1-2%.

I have literally never heard of Battle Cats POP! Wtf even is it? Anyway, what surprised me in this list is how buried New Super Mario Bros 2 is. It's a fun game, I got it for a tenner last year, but it clearly shows the decline in interest for 2D Mario, especially compared to the sales of 3D Land.

The Battle Cats Pop is surprisingly good. The Switch has an expanded version too, The Battle Cats Unite, which recently had an English release (but is still exclusive to Japan/Asia).
Seems like they take years to make English versions, then release them too late and don't know why they don't take off...

Small, cheap download games really thrived on the 3DS eShop, at least in Japan. Cheap games, sometimes even cheaper in sales, and a lot of them were great.
There were tons of Escape Trick (THE Misshitsu kara no dasshutsu) games, pity they never continued onto the Switch.

A lot of these cheap, small 3DS games seem to have disappeared in the move to the Switch, or increased in price (like Picross, or the Kemco RPGs...)

@Troll_Decimator
New Mario Bros 2 was one of the first retail games sold on the eShop, so it might've done better than 3D Land due to people buying it digital just for the novelty of that.

@PessitheMystic I know, right? Dragon Quest 1,2 and 3 hurt my feelings.

Huh, looks like White Dog Squad did better than Red Cat Corps lol. Surprised YW2 wasn't on here, considering I believe it outsold YW1

(Sidenote: this article calls the game "Yo-kai Watch Busters" instead of "Blasters", which was it's name in English.)