Sales Data Updated sales numbers for Switch titles: Tears of the Kingdom (18.51M), and more (UPDATE: new sales numbers for many other games, see threadmarks)

[hologram]

Everything except Link's Crossbow Training.

And Cadance of Hyrule...

And Hyrule Warriors (all of them)...

And Zelda Tetra's Trackers...

And the Tingle game...

And Four Swords adventures...

The only one of these games included in that 150m number is Crossbow Training. If you exclude it, the total number is still at over 146m.

 

[Lugia667]

Stuff like Engage, XB3, Splatoon 3, etc., should generally be expected to sell less tbh. Besides the typical issue of being late life sequels, they released at a time when economically people are being more choosy about what games they purchase, which hit all publishers over the last 12-18 months. That said, it will be interesting to see what the return of the voucher program does for their legs. That was almost certainly a response to weakening game sales in NA.

I'm wondering did people call Halo 4 a flop when it did worse than Halo 3?

 

[WestEgg]

And Cadance of Hyrule...

And Hyrule Warriors (all of them)...

And Zelda Tetra's Trackers...

And the Tingle game...

And Four Swords adventures...

Four Swords Adventures is mainline.

 

[AtomicZach]

Honestly, I'm not worried at all about Monoltih Soft. Not only did they make 2 brand new large-scale RPGs and a remake in a span of a single console generation, they also worked as a support studio for many of Nintendo's biggest hitters in that generation. Given that its Monolith Soft's expertise in open world desing that gets used the most, I'm quite certain that even if all Xenoblade Chronicles game sold negative copies, Nintendo would still probably greenlit whatever they wanted to make. Because even if those games are seen as failures (and to be clear, they aren't), they're certainly paying dividends on Nintendo's other franchises.

 

[Hailinel]

I wonder if the real meaning is somewhere in the middle: they wanted Engage to help onboard their new fans to the characters in the series, so they could expand the appeal of those games. (They will inevitably be remade/emulated on current and future platforms.)

That's what FEH has already been doing for about six and a half years. I think the truth regarding Engage is more close to what they stated. They wanted it to expand the audience.

 

[meatbag]

I'm wondering did people call Halo 4 a flop when it did worse than Halo 3?

Uhhh, yeah. It’s always the same song and dance.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

And Cadance of Hyrule...

And Hyrule Warriors (all of them)...

And Zelda Tetra's Trackers...

And the Tingle game...

And Four Swords adventures...

Nintendo would absolutely disagree on FSA, but despite that, all those games add up to maybe 10m, not the weird almost 40m you were assuming.

 

[Christo750]

Honestly, I'm not worried at all about Monoltih Soft. Not only did they make 2 brand new large-scale RPGs and a remake in a span of a single console generation, they also worked as a support studio for many of Nintendo's biggest hitters in that generation. Given that its Monolith Soft's expertise in open world desing that gets used the most, I'm quite certain that even if all Xenoblade Chronicles game sold negative copies, Nintendo would still probably greenlit whatever they wanted to make. Because even if those games are seen as failures (and to be clear, they aren't), they're certainly paying dividends on Nintendo's other franchises.

I also honestly think, regarding Monolith/Xenoblade, Nintendo has a better understanding than most companies that some games need to exist to please the most loyal of the loyal audiences. Xenoblade games probably sell in line with expectations but the fact that it's actually not this incredible sales juggernaut with iconic characters and it's getting multiple iterations and DLCs is really nice. most other companies might've canned it by now.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

I also honestly think, regarding Monolith/Xenoblade, Nintendo has a better understanding than most companies that some games need to exist to please the most loyal of the loyal audiences. Xenoblade games probably sell in line with expectations but the fact that it's actually not this incredible sales juggernaut with iconic characters and it's getting multiple iterations and DLCs is really nice. most other companies might've canned it by now.

Regardless of direct sales impact, the xenoblade games are pretty likely a significant testing bed for technologies and approaches that then get reused elsewhere within Nintendo. BOTW probably struggles to happen without Xenoblade X first, and they've made a bunch of strong cutscene technology that can likely be used in other projects too.

 

[meatbag]

Nintendo has a better understanding than most companies that some games need to exist to please the most loyal of the loyal audiences

Nintendo understands the importance of having breadth and diversity in their output. No matter how mainstream the appeal of a particular IP is, you’re not gonna reel in everyone. So it’s good to make stuff that caters to a variety of different crowds.

Regardless of direct sales impact, the xenoblade games are pretty likely a significant testing bed for technologies and approaches that then get reused elsewhere within Nintendo

Another great point. Each game serves as a testbed for ideas and tech.

 

[Christo750]

Regardless of direct sales impact, the xenoblade games are pretty likely a significant testing bed for technologies and approaches that then get reused elsewhere within Nintendo. BOTW probably struggles to happen without Xenoblade X first, and they've made a bunch of strong cutscene technology that can likely be used in other projects too.

100%. Wonder how Open-Air 3 will look on Switch 2 with their help.

 

[Djehuty]

I think that IS was really hoping for another Awakening. Or rather, hoping that another fanservice/nostalgia-heavy game with colorful characters and simplistic story would draw in new players like Awakening did. But FE in general is in a much better place these days than it was prior to Awakening and that lightning in a bottle approach isn't likely to work twice.

That's what FEH has already been doing for about six and a half years. I think the truth regarding Engage is more close to what they stated. They wanted it to expand the audience.

I think FE engage and ff16 are really simlair in that regard

Both wanted to expand the audience further form the 4-5mil range.

However both misread the market, ff16 was flat from 7r most likely and fire emblems range has declined to a 1-2mil seller.

If IS wants an expanded audience they already know what works at this point, I think they just don’t want to develop games like three houses and engage was an experiment in seeing if they could stay in that range with a more colourful less serious tone, and it didn’t work at all.

 

[hologram]

However both misread the market, ff16 was flat from 7r most likely and range has declined to a 1-2mil seller.

Maybe I'm misreading what you're saying but FF16 has already sold more than that

 

[Hailinel]

I think FE engage and ff16 are really simlair in that regard

Both wanted to expand the audience further form the 4-5mil range.

However both misread the market, ff16 was flat from 7r most likely and range has declined to a 1-2mil seller.

If IS wants an expanded audience they already know what works at this point, I think they just don’t want to develop games like three houses and engage was an experiment in seeing if they could stay in that range with a more colourful less serious tone, and it didn’t work at all.

They have developed more serious FEs, though, and aren't averse to making TH-style titles. Shadows of Valentia is a very straight-laced take on Gaiden, and IS was directly involved in Three Houses even if most of the dev work was done by KT. IS staff that worked on Three Houses also weren't directly involved with Engage.

 

[Djehuty]

They have developed more serious FEs, though, and aren't averse to making TH-style titles. Shadows of Valentia is a very straight-laced take on Gaiden, and IS was directly involved in Three Houses even if most of the dev work was done by KT. IS staff that worked on Three Houses also weren't directly involved with Engage.

Ik but it’s been awhile since they independently have done a new serious fe.

Either way I believe the experimental nature of fe will be reduced a lot, by all accounts engage didn’t fail but it was a failed product.

None of its characters latched on, there wasn’t anything of substance in world building , there just isn’t really anything to say about it. Wom doesn’t spread like that and three houses was sold on Wom.

 

[nostoppingepoch]

Just a small reality check for my own benefit which I dunno, some folk may disagree with but XC3 opened to critical acclaim and a series high first sales quarter. It's on track for 2m in its first 12 months and they just released another huge, critically acclaimed DLC expansion for it. XC2 and XCDE yoy sales are flat in spite of genre trends. We set 3m as an arbitrary target here that's contributed to Xeno doomposting on 8 months of positive sales data, none of which is new I should add, we've known 1.86m since May. I understand how additional sales data for previous titles contextualises the data for XC3 but I think there's a bigger picture.

Having the whole trilogy on one console is obviously working and there are a lot of variables when you look at the sales story of each individual title but any speculation on XC3's legs, good or bad is ultimately speculation until we have more sales data and even then, whatever happens with backwards compatibility on NG Switch will probably alter that picture even further. I know there's a propensity to play these games off against each other because of the psychological damage XC2 did to people (I have seen some truly insane stuff on Twitter off the back of this) on both sides of the argument but this is a thriving series! I don't think a single person at Nintendo or MSI is looking at any of this data and going "uh oh!"

 

[Deleted member 1896]

Zelda outselling 2D Mario. Smash outselling OG Pokemon. What a time to be alive.

 

[Luminoth9090]

Super Mario Advanced 4 drops out the top 100, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom enters at number 27 and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild breaks the top 10. Nintendo Switched games colored purple

Top 100 Best Selling Nintendo Published Games

 

[Ab]

Literally everything

Fair

 

[WestEgg]

Super Mario Advanced 4 drops out the top 100, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom enters at number 27 and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild breaks the top 10. Nintendo Switched games colored purple

Top 100 Best Selling Nintendo Published Games

Breath of the Wild is going to pass Gen 1 Pokémon. Now that’s something.