It’s an understatement to say the Wii U was a disappointment for Nintendo; the Japanese company eventually abandoned the console and released a new one, theNintendo Switch. TheSwitch is now expected to outsell even the original Wiiand is home to some of the most popular games of all time. Now, with the system having just celebrated its fourth birthday, Japanese publication Famitsu has compiled a list of the 35 best-selling Switch titles in Japan.
Famitsu’s list tallies sales data from the last four years, and while it focuses solely on Japanese figures, the top 10 largely matches up with the information inNintendo’s international financial report for 2020released earlier this year. With this in mind, it can be safely assumed the rest of the list would look similar for international sales figures.
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Big names includeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildat number 12 andLuigi’s Mansion 3at number 16. Both titles were high on the list of themost downloaded Switch games in 2019, and apparently sales have not slowed down since. Beating out both Nintendo originals, however, wasMinecraft. The sandbox game found itself in the number 10 spot, selling close to two million copies in Japan.
That said, it comes as little surprise thatAnimal Crossing: New Horizonstops the list, having sold six million copies in its native country. The latestAnimal Crossinggame is still selling in record numbersacross the world and will likely be a best seller for years to come. In fact, worldwide, the title has sold over 31 million copies.
Animal Crossing’s Japanese sales figures are made all the more impressive considering Famitsu’s list totals all sales figures over the last four years. WhileSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatehad a few years to get to the number two spot,Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis only just now coming up on its one-year anniversary. Even when taking sales figures from PlayStation and Xbox titles into account, Famitsu calculates thatAnimal Crossingwas still Japan’s best-selling game in 2020.
Coming in on the other end of the list, squeaking in at 34 isZelda: Link’s Awakening. Perhaps the title’s aesthetic made it a little too niche, however there’smuch to love aboutLink’s Awakeningand the adventure game still sold an impressive 300,000 units. In four years' time, with the Switch Pro rumors hopefully realized, it will be interesting to see the new games on theSwitchbestsellers list and which of the games on the current list remain.
Here’s the full list of the 35 best-selling Switch games in Japan, according to Famitsu:
Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 1,771,235
Luigi’s Mansion 3 – 745,825
Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! – 572,215
24. Mario Tennis Aces – 479,866
ARMS – 461,056
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – 376,481
Pokken Tournament DX – 344,201
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity – 341,519
Yo-kai Watch 4 – 303,978
Zelda: Link’s Awakening – 300,027
eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2020 – 284,876
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