This shows how bad Nintendo in general performs in europe. Japan has 130 million inhabitants, europe has 750 million. Even if you only count the EU, that are over 500 million people. Nintendo really needs to step up their game in europe, it hurts them that they are so behind in this region.

There's a reason why Europe is Sonyland, there is very little nostalgia for Nintendo in Europe when you look to the demographics of 30 year + as Sega (Mega Drive / Genesis) was pretty huge here. And in some countries much bigger than Nintendo.

Then Sony pretty much carried the mantle of being top dog ever since, to the point that non gamers will default to Playstation as the main word they associate to videogames.

So just on lack of nostalgia for the other competitors and complete mindshare take over by Sony across Europe, I don't see this situation changing anytime soon.

I think Nintendo would have to really change their "toy company" perception to be taken seriously as a competitor to Sony in Europe.

Well, from a German PC hardware forum I could get that they consider the Switch mostly too pricey and too weak (well, many consider the One X too weak there, it's a site for high-end PC gaming and upgrading after all, but the Switch is special case there). However, they do see the game lineup and consider it worthwhile if the price comes down. It should be noted though that a PS4 is generally cheaper to find there than a Switch, as almost all the time at least somebody has a promotion on the PS4 going, but that's rarely the case with the Switch.

@Setsunatenshi: It's not just that, it's also their background as Computer gamers. They are used to higher-end graphics, a department where Nintendo traditionally lags behind. Also, much more Playstation ads than Nintendo ads there.

Europe in general is behind than if going by population.

Population

United States-325m

European Union-512m

Japan-127m

Total sales this week

US-171,505

Europe-216,846

Japan-100,223

The EU has ~4x the population of Japan but only ~2x the sales and ~1.5x the population of the US but only ~1.25x the sales.

Europe in general is behind than if going by population.

Population

United States-325m

European Union-512m

Japan-127m

Total sales this week

US-171,505

Europe-216,846

Japan-100,223

The EU has ~4x the population of Japan but only ~2x the sales and ~1.5x the population of the US but only ~1.25x the sales.

If you factor in PC gaming you your have a much more harmonized picture. PC gaming is much more prevalent in Europe than in the US, and infinitely more than Japan.

I'm curious if this is normal or a downward trend?

I know but I was just talking dedicated consoles/handhelds. Its always hard adding PC since we dont really know the number of people who play on gaming PC in any region.

I agree, but not just on the graphics part. The type of gaming experiences people tend to appreciate in Europe are the more "mature" ones. Nintendo still carries the kind of "toy for kids" perception in here.

Just an anecdotal experience that kind of illustrates this, I tried to get my gf into trying gaming for the first time, so I thought I would ease her in with some Super Mario (easy controls, 2d, etc). After 5 minutes of her failing miserably to control the character and complaining about video games being "for kids", she saw me playing Dirt Rally. Her comments then were: "oh, this looks much better, can I try?". I was like "are you sure? this is much harder than the previous one." She took the controls over and 30 minutes and 1000 crashes later she was still having fun with it.

There seems to be an aversion for more casuals or non gamers to try a more childish experience (with cartoony graphics, etc) than a more realistic looking game. Maybe it's something cultural, but it's extremely prevalent here.