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Soundwave on 30 April 2023
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SvennoJ said:

It's the only dedicated handheld on the market (no I don't see Steamdeck as competition) with combined user base of Wii/Wii U/3DS and PS Vita.
It's a portable, not that expensive, much lower barrier to buy multiple. We have Switch original and Switch lite in the house and I haven't even touched either in years.
It plays Minecraft and Fortnite (which is what my youngest mostly uses the Switch lite for)
It still has the Wii appeal (my youngest still likes to play 1-2 Switch with the grandparents now and then on the original model)
And it's the only place to play all the Nintendo magic, now combined in one device.

Hmm, almost looks like a monopoly and exclusives aren't that bad?

None of Minecraft, Fortnite, or the "Wii type titles" are even among the peak sellers (20+ million club) on the system though. 

Mario Kart, Zelda: BOTW, Smash, Animal Crossing, Mario Odyssey, and various Pokemon games are the main sales drivers for the Switch (all 20+ million in sales). 

Those other games help sure and have a part to play in the overall puzzle, but the above mentioned games deserve to most credit. 

I think the aging up of Nintendo's fanbase in particular has drove IP like Smash and Mario Kart to new heights and Zelda: BOTW represents a turning point that franchise achieving sales success far beyond any previous Zelda game. 3D Mario also ... once thought to the be "too complex" ... well now you see Mario Odyssey putting up 25+ million in sales, crushing Mario 64 and even Mario Galaxy in sales. Mario 3D All-Stars sold 9+ million despite only being available for a short period of time, that should really be 15+ million if Nintendo had allowed it to sell, Mario 3D World selling well also. 

What I think is happening is you're seeing successive building of multiple Nintendo fan generations who keep playing and enjoying Nintendo games well past age 18 ... this is also what's driving the Mario movie to sky high box office. 

Also maybe its anecdotal but this generation's 19-30 year olds seem very, very into Nintendo IP like Smash and Animal Crossing and what not. Like the enthusiasm is sky high. Every time I'm in a Switch section of a store, it just feels like there's a lot of 20 somethings particularly whereas in the past if felt like the Nintendo section skewed younger than that, but Nintendo's own demographic stats also seem to back this up (popularity of Switch with 20-somethings). 

I think something is happening demographically here, it's less taboo for 20-somethings to be into anime, comics (or comic based movies), etc. etc. and I think this has benefitted Nintendo too. The late 90s and 2000s could be hostile to Nintendo in this respect, but the 2020s is much warmer waters for them. 

 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 30 April 2023