Thanks RolStoppable,
MK8D vs Zelda:
Its a bit difficult to compare Zelda & Mario Kart, few games have never reached the heights of Mario Kart.
As mentioned Breath of the Wild will end up the best selling game in the franchise in Japan. Prior to the release few expected for it to do as well as it has done in Japan.
To me Zelda is no doubt one of the best games on the Switch, but Mario Kart with its capability to support 4 players locally, online modes, most well know racing game in the World has much greater demographic appeal. It's the type of game that people buying Switch will always have on the top of their list, whether they are buying a Switch for Animal Crossing, Splatoon 2, Odyssey, Ring Fit Adventure. Zelda doesn't have the same appeal, and it's not a knock on Zelda - there is a reason why CoD sells more than Witcher for example.
Still it's very much speaks to the strenght of Switch's launch year line up: Zelda was a reason for hardcore Nintendo fans to buy the Switch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a reason for casual players to buy the Switch, Splatoon 2 was a reason for Japanese Market to continue buying Switch in the summer/Obon and finally Super Mario Odyssey was a reason for the Switch to continue selling strongly in the holiday months.
These games don't dissapear, even this year Zelda Breath of the Wild has sold 69.378, Splatoon 2 has sold 103.649, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 181.921. Only Super Mario Odyssey has dissapeared from the charts but that's probably because it's also compeating with a lot of other Platformers. Zelda, Splatoon 2 and MK8D don't have competition on the Switch until their sequels come out.
Considering the expanded demographics on the Switch this year and the release of BotW2, I won't be suprised to see these 3 titles actually do as well as they did in 2019. This year will easily see a huge increase in Switch Hardware and more importantly new demographics in Japan picking up evergreens as their second games. This will be especially easy to see when Nintendo releases their results, because vouchers basically mean that new people purchasing something like Animal Crossing are pickingup a second game digitally. Digital has only grown for Nintendo since vouchers, so physical sales don't paint the full picture. Every time Nintendo has a big game releasing or a sale of 30% for MK8D, Splatoon 2, BotW a bunch of new users are potentially downloading those games.
2019 Physical Results:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 587.829
- Splatoon 2 - 378.340
- Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 301.657
