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Nintendo Switch Aligned Year Two Report
Updated: 01/02/2023
I feel like I just went through 12 years of hell and just found out that I'm not even close to 1/6th of the way through.
[0.] An Introduction To The Most Diabolical Aligned Year In Nintendo History
Year Two In A Nutshell: Nintendo
Switch committed attempted murder against lot-check and game
reviewers. Okay; I'm joking, but this felt like a "how many
times will Nintendo let trolls hold their beer before the year is
out?!" I don't know what the actual count is and I do not want
to know. That's the short version of year two. Now for the long
version and it's boring, but the numbers are important along with the
context of time here.
Year 2 was a year where trying to
predict how many games were going to be on the Switch felt like a
sick game of "Can you top this?!" And it wasn't just the
amount of games released during this time frame and overall for the
Switch's run. I mean, in a vacuum without context, the Switch has
awesome game numbers, but it didn't surpass Nintendo DS. Sure; it
surpassed every other system Nintendo has and even surpass most of
the dedicated consoles and portables from Nintendo's competitors (at
least from the preliminary numbers I found on their official
websites), but without context, it's not all that scary...Until you
look at the amount of time it took for every system to get that
library. Switch has just become two years old while the remaining
systems have gotten at least four years up to 12 years in the case of
Wii and Nintendo DS (which is at least seven years worth of games in
two years). And the pace is not slowing down. Nintendo was not joking
when they told investors that they expect 20-30 indie games a month.
(1) And yes, I'm using "indie" because it means that it
doesn't include the other games and apps on top of it. Even
Nintendo's imagination was limited at the time. The only weaknesses
in the game lineup are Sports and Apps. Sports is at least improving
to a point now which Switch is respectable, but Apps have been moving
at a snail's pace at this point when compared to the competition both
outside and inside Nintendo. I don't know when Apps will start to
increase like the other genres, but at least the Switch can be called
a mostly pure gaming system, rather than a all-entertainment center.
Now it's time to break down the stats for Nintendo Switch's gaming
library.
[1.] Nintendo Switch Game List Stats
http://cloudkicker.50webs.com/NintendoNX.txt
http://cloudkicker.50webs.com/NintendoNXD.txt
-
As of March 2nd, 2019; the total number of games has reached 2893
games either announced or released among 2113 developers.
-
That's an over 1781 games and 1141 developers increase since March
3rd, 2018. The support for Switch is reaching a point now where I
literally have to split the developers and game list in two because
50webs has a 500KB limit and the text file is at 457 KB at the
moment.
- Four of those games have been cancelled: Old Time
Hockey from V7 Entertainment (which is the only developer with a game
cancelled that has yet to release a game for Switch), Guardians Of
The Galaxy from Telltale Games (although that one is suspect at the
moment), My Little Red from Sunsoft (although the development has
halted temporary) and Steep from Ubi Soft. Two of those games are
winter sports games. Steep at least wasn't so painful since Go
Vacation practically fills that void, but Switch has only one ice
hockey games at this point (an old NES Classic title), making the Old
Time Hockey game cancellation really painful and trusting Electronic
Arts to do anything even sports related is asking for trouble at this
point. The remaining games aren't really important or
anything).
Side Note: Keep
in mind that I didn't include many of the Indies Database games and
various other games with the Nintendo Switch hashtag on Twitter due
to the fact that there are some developers/people who appear to be
using Nintendo Switch to draw attention to games currently not on the
Nintendo Switch. (Once I confirm directly that the game is confirmed
on Switch; I add it to the list. Even with games which have not
officially been confirmed on Switch yet. It's just that I am so used
to Nintendo getting the short end of the stick that I'm very
cautious.) Consider it a warning on my part:
http://www.indiedb.com/platforms/switch/games
[2.] Nintendo Switch North American Game Release List Stats
http://cloudkicker.50webs.com/NintendoPlatform.txt
http://cloudkicker.50webs.com/SwitchAA.txt
I
have a more detailed comparison of all platforms from Nintendo in the
links I have provided. This is the meat of the report and there is a
lot to cover here. Unless otherwise stated, these figures apply to
the North American region:
[a.] Total Number of Games
- Total number of games for Switch has reached
1791 games as of March 2nd, 2019.
- It took 377 days to
surpass 500 games, it took 176 days to get it's second 500 games; a
total of 553 days to get to 1000 games. It took 119 days to get it's
third 500 games, meaning it took a total of 672 days to get to 1500
games. 291 games were released in the first two months and two days
in 2019, only six short of surpassing N64's LTD game library.
-
At that pace; it might take the end of April to surpass Nintendo DS's
entire North American library and that's low balling. It's entirely
possible it could happen before that, although the chances of it
happening before Reggie Fils-Aime officially retires is roughly 10%.
Then again, this is the new Nintendo we are talking about.
[b.] Number of Publishers and Developers
- 625 publishers and 1106 developers have
released at least one game on Nintendo Switch.
- No Nintendo
system outside of Switch has reached the 500 publisher milestone and
has already doubled it's second highest platform in terms of
publishers, which is Wii U (who hasn't broke 300 developers, at 299).
In fact, the Switch has more publishers than the Nintendo DS has
developers (Outside of Switch, DS has the most developers.)
-
As for developers; Nintendo Switch has double those numbers as well;
and has pass the 1000 developer milestone. No Nintendo system comes
even close to that mark, even though DS has more games at this point.
This is due to Nintendo's policy change outside of Japan during the
later stages of Wii U's life, meaning that more developers can
sub-publish their own titles.
- Despite this; even Japan has
1104 games released in just two years according to Perfectly
Nintendo. Europe's numbers are similar to North America's as
Perfectly Nintendo has it at 1781 games. This means overall (since
Switch is region-free) has roughly 1977 games released in all
regions, according to Perfectly Nintendo.
[c.] Comparisons Between Nintendo DS, Wii
- Nintendo DS's 24 month numbers were at 214
games by September 20th, 2006.
- Switch got to 214 games by
November 2nd, 2017 which is a mere eight months into it's run,
meaning Switch increased their numbers almost nine times over in the
same two year period.
- Nintendo DS didn't get to 1791 until
September 27th, 2011, almost six years ten months.
- Nintendo
DS's overall numbers have reached 2048 games after a massive recount
I did for the list.
- Switch will surpass Nintendo DS within a
couple of months and then the real fun begins with Nintendo being in
uncharted territory.
- Overall; 169 publishers and 548
developers released games on Nintendo DS.
- Wii's 24 month
numbers were at 720 games by September 19th, 2008.
- Nintendo
Switch reached 720 games by June 6th, 2018, which is one year three
months into it's run.
- Wii's overall numbers reached 1788
and Switch surpassed that just before I wrote this article actually,
on March 1st, 2019.
- Before March 3rd, 2018, Switch only
surpassed Virtual Boy (Surpassed this on month one alone times two),
Nintendo 64's LTD gaming library and GBC's LTD gaming library.
Currently; they have surpassed every Nintendo platform, except
Nintendo DS!
- Overall; 196 publishers and 536 developers
worked on Wii.
(d) Breakdown Of ESRB Rated Games
- Nintendo Switch has already released 133
M-rated games in two years surpassing DS (10), 3DS (24), Wii U (33),
Wii (37) and Gamecube (48) despite those platforms requiring over
6-12 years to pull it off. SNES had only three M-Rated games, Gameboy
had one game, GBA had nine games, N64 had 28 games, GBC, VB and NES
had none. In fact, Switch only needs 60 more M-Rated games to surpass
all Nintendo platforms, combined.
- PSP only has 54 M Rated
games and PS Vita has 45 M rated games. Playstation has just 100
M-Rated games and Playstation 2 has 260 M-rated games. Xbox has 189
M-Rated games.
- Still a long way to go before coming even
close to PS3 (Sony's website doesn't have a filter and Moby Games
includes DLC which I don't count (MG claims it's 628 games)), PS4
(320 M-Rated Games), XBOX 360 (Same problem Sony's website/Mobygames
has (MG claims it's 615 M-Rated Games)), XBOX One's (236 M-Rated
games) numbers.
- Another interesting trend; Switch also has
over 512 T-rated titles in the first 2 years compared to 151 for
Nintendo 3DS, 116 for Wii U, 156 for Nintendo DS and 296 for Wii in
their entire lifetimes (4-12 years).
- Switch's ratio of E10+
to T rated titled is now more slanted towards T rated games.
(e) Publisher & Developer Breakdown:
Side Note: In the case
of developers, it can be quite messy since a lot of game nowadays use
a ad-hoc approach in that multiple developers get into the action.
The developer numbers are based on the planning team and don't
include the out-sourced developers (like Bandai-Namco Singapore for
instance or porting teams like Blind Squirrel and QLOC. Those are
included in the Nintendo Switch Game List though). If a game is
published by a third party; but sub-published by Nintendo outside
Japan, the 3rd party publisher is counted and Nintendo is considered
a distributor.
- Nintendo had only published 54 games at the
two year mark and is in first place among publishers, not including
Hamster (140).
- The gap between Nintendo and the highest
third party publisher (Plug-In Digital/Playdius/Dear Villagers (yeah,
they changed their name twice!) at 33 games released) is 21 (mostly
due to the On-Line NES Classic Service).
- The most games
published on any Nintendo platform by one publisher is Nintendo for
Nintendo 3DS with 248.
- If Hamster's plan for Switch comes to
fruition, Hamster will absolutely destroy it becoming the first
publisher in Nintendo platform history to surpass 500 and maybe the
first to surpass 250 games depending of if Nintendo gets to 250 with
Nintendo 3DS after Hamster!
- Forever Entertainment (29) and
Digerati (27) round out the top five.
- Nintendo had only
developed 36 games this year and is in second place among developers,
not including SNK Corporation (82).
- The gap between the
first party developer and third party developer is 14.
-
G-Mode is in third with 22, Ubi Soft is fourth with 16, and 10tons
rounds out the top five with 13.
(f) By Genre:
Side Note: Now here's
where things get really messy. In order to keep these stats from
getting out of control, I base the games on the majority genre that
each game has since many games on Switch have more than one genre.
Also; I try to keep the genres down to ten genres (Sports and Other
are the exception as they can be unlimited in their respective
sub-genres). Strategy, Tower Defense and Action RPG's fit in the RPG
category. Action/Adventure games are usually Adventure unless there
is ample evidence that Action overwhelms Adventure. Beat'em Ups are
Action games. I ignore Arcade as a genre completely since it's a
platform and Arcade games have many genres. Some action games I have
noticed are not action games, but clearly shooters. Twin Stick
shooters are shooters. Hunting games are considered shooters for the
purpose of compiling. Fishing simulations are considered Sports
games, unless the majority genre is another genre. This applies to
Golf Story in that sense, that it's RPG rather than Sports/Golf.
Mini-Games are Other/Party, Dancing/Rhythm games are Other/Music.
-
Action games on Switch make up 378 games or
21% of the video game library. This means
Switch is the seventh Nintendo platform where Action games are the
number one genre on their respective platforms. Action games on
Switch set a record for most action games on Nintendo platforms,
beating GBA (313 games); but also set the record for most games in a
single genre, edging out Nintendo DS Other category (360 games).
-
Adventure games on Switch make up 369 games or
20.6% of the video game library. While ranked
second, Switch has the record for most Adventure games on Nintendo
platforms edging DS with 349.
- Role
Playing Games on Switch make up 219 games or 12.2% of the video game
library. RPG's are ranked third, which is
their highest ranking on Nintendo platforms in history. Switch also
has the record for most RPG's on a Nintendo platforms, edging out
Nintendo DS, which has 218 games.
- Puzzle
Games on Switch make up 167 games of the video game library.
This put them in third place overall behind 3DS with 214
titles (making it one of two genres where a previous generation
platform still has more games then the current platform) and DS with
267 titles. Despite that; at the current pace of Switch, Switch could
be the number one platform for Puzzles in the future.
-
Shooters on Switch make up 156 games of the
video game library and rounding out the top five genres on Switch.
Only Wii has more shooters with 174 titles and one of
only two platforms with more than 100 games in the genre.
-
Others on Switch make up 152 games of the
video game library, this puts them in third place behind Wii with 321
titles and Nintendo DS with 360. While the
current pace of the Switch makes it unlikely for Others to surpass
either one of them, the pace could increase rapidly depending on what
Nintendo's marketing towards the expanded audience goes with. If they
stay the course, then Others is likely one of two genres to go beyond
third place. If they go expanded audience, then they might have a
shot at second. The top five Others are: Party with 37, Music with
21, Board Games with 20, Card Games with 14 and a tie between Pinball
Games and Edutainment Games with 10.
- Simulation
on Switch makes up 103 games of the video game library and is in
third place only to 3DS with 115 (making it the second genre where
the previous generation has more games in the genre than the current
generation) and DS with 294 games. Unlike
Puzzles though; it's likely to be one of the few genres to not
surpass the leader of the genre, at the current pace. It is expected
to beat 3DS by a mile when all is said and done.
- Fighting
on Switch makes up 92 games of the video game library.
Fighting is the only genre currently to never have a
Nintendo platform surpass 100 games. That will change next year,
given the current pace. Wii is second with 78 games, but on that
platform, it was also tied for last overall with RPG's.
-
Racing on Switch makes up 81 games of the
video game library and is in third place only to DS with 88 games and
Wii with 120 games. Switch is going to be the
second Nintendo platform with more than 100 racing games and likely
be #1 in the future.
- Finally; Sports
on Switch makes up 74 games of the video game library and has the
worst ranking placement for Switch at seventh place overall, with Wii
having the most games at 190. While this
seems bad; Switch destroys Wii U and 3DS in number of games, along
with Virtual Boy, Gameboy, Gameboy Color and N64. It's really in the
middle of the road at this point. While it's unlikely to surpass
Wii's huge total, it might surpass SNES level at 143 if it keeps
going at the current pace. Like Others, the pace might accelerate
depending on Nintendo's direction as well. As for Top 5: Soccer is #1
at 16 games (#5 among all Nintendo platforms and only three games
short of the mark set by the SNES), Golf has 8 games (Wii has the
most with 17), Basketball and Tennis are tied for third at 6 and
there is a four way tie for fifth place at 5 (Baseball, Fishing,
Football, Olympics).
(g) Monthly Breakdown
The second year was truly Ultimate:
Year
One: March 2017- 29; April- 13; May- 12; June- 12; July- 21;
August- 27; September- 43; October- 51; November- 62; December- 70 ;
January 2018- 47; February- 67.
Minimum: 12 - Maximum:
70 - Average Per Month: 39.
Year Two: March
2018- 79, April- 80, May- 102, June- 80, July 2018 - 97, August- 106,
September- 127 , October- 128, November- 139 , December - 108,
January 2019- 151, February- 128.
Minimum: 79 -
Maximum: 151 - Average Per Month: 110.
- No
Nintendo platform other than Switch has broken 100 games in a single
month ever, let alone six times in the same calendar year, let alone
doing it for seven months in a row!
Side Note: To give
an idea of how insane Year 2 was: Since the game lists I compile is a
text file, each full screen is approx 70-72 lines depending on the
monitor size. Most previous Nintendo platform game lists; I can see
multiple months even at their peak. Nintendo DS and Wii were the lone
exceptions and even then, there are only one or two months where I
couldn't see a full month. Now imagine with Switch since March of
2018 this happening every month since then. Some of them fill almost
two screens worth of text for one month's worth of games. January
2019 legit made me angry because they broke the monthly record (at
151 games) in the dead of winter and I declared: The charm is gone,
the novelty has worn off, it's no longer funny; now Nintendo is
allowing developer to release game after game for the sake of it.
-
While Year One set the previous record of 470 games, and it still
makes it the largest first year aligned total in Nintendo platform's
history; Year Two simply smashed it into less than atoms. In 2018
alone from January 1st to December 31st, 2018, the Nintendo Switch
released 1160 games surpassing Wii U's Life to Date Game Library and
was only around 100 games less than the entire 3DS lineup.
-
That in itself is massive as no Nintendo platform before it could
even break 430 games calendar nor aligned at any point of their
lifetimes. The signs were there pretty much there, the moment the
Summer of Switch #1 arrived in July 2017 when Switch broke the record
for the most titles in their first July month of their existence.
-
Furthermore; during the aligned year from March 3rd, 2018 to March
2nd, 2019; Nintendo Switch had 1320 games released! That shatters
3DS's life to date game library. In a vacuum, this is awesome. It's
scary when you consider that 3DS took EIGHT years to get that game
library and Switch surpasses it in 1/8 the time in that one aligned
year. That is impossible without massive policy changes from
Nintendo. Think about it, in Year 2; an average of 110 games were
released. That's almost 30 games a week and four games a day. Can you
imagine how much pressure that puts on game reviewers and
lot-checkers?! Can you feel their pain now?!
(h) Publisher & Developer Breakdown By Milestone
- Switch has also shattered the publisher record
of number of publishers with two or more games at 236.
-
Switch is second for number of publishers with ten or more games at
38, only 15 publishers behind Nintendo DS. Currently, there aren't
enough 7/8/9 games publishers to make it past DS at the moment, but
considering the torrid pace of the Switch so far, that might
accelerate in Year 3.
- Switch is second for number of
publishers with five or more games at 71, only requiring 6 more
publishers to topple Nintendo DS for first place. There are more than
enough 3/4 games publishers to topple that mark easily.
- As
for the publishers with 25+ games, Switch is tied for sixth with 6
publishers compared to 20 for Nintendo DS. I don't expect this record
to be broken in the near future.
- Switch is third in total
number of developers with two or more games at 250, behind Wii with
264 and Nintendo DS with 283. I expect this record to be broken,
although it's a tough one since the debuts far exceed the multiples
at the pace we are going.
- Sadly; the number of 5+ developers
puts Switch in eighth spot at the moment, although they do have
enough 3/4 developers to put them in a higher position. This is also
one spot where 3DS (69) and Wii U (39) surpass them. As for 10+
developers, Switch is third to last with just 6 developers, with at
least as many stuck at eight games. If they all reach 10 games or
more, Switch would be tied for seventh with Gameboy. As for 25+
developers, they are tied for sixth with 2 developers. G-Mode is the
closest one and even that would make them tied for fourth.
-
In terms of publisher rankings: Nintendo 3DS is #1 with 248 games
from one publisher (Nintendo). Switch has Hamster at #6 (140) behind
Wii (Nintendo 153), DS (Ubi Soft 157 and Nintendo 176) and Wii U
(Nintendo 195). In terms of 3rd party ranking Nintendo Switch is #2
with 140 games (Hamster), only Ubi Soft on DS has more with 157. In
terms of developer rankings: Nintendo is #1 with Wii U at 91 games,
Switch is second with SNK Corporation with 85 games. In terms of 3rd
party ranking, Switch is #1 with SNK Corporation at 85 games. Funny
unrelated stat: SNES is the only platform where Nintendo is not even
in the Top 10 in terms of developing games.
(i) Other Assorted Silliness
- Switch since August of 2017 has released more
games per month than their own launch month (29 games) and even more
than the largest lineup ever (Wii U with 39 games) in the same
period. This means 19/24 months had more than 29-39 games released in
a month. And that is all for the game library stats; but you expect
more, so it's time for the Nintendo Switch sales.
(3) Nintendo Switch Sales
Nintendo Switch Hardware Sales (as of December
31st, 2018): 32.27 million units.
Nintendo
Switch Software Sales (as of December 31st, 2018):
163.61 million units.
Tie Ratio:
5.07
- In terms of hardware, launched aligned;
Switch is the second highest selling system, with only Wii selling
2.5 million units more and beating 3DS by 2.4 million units. That's
excellent for Nintendo in terms of selling a console/portable all
things considered. Although I do not have complete sales for the
final quarter and there's still 28 days to go after this writing, it
is expected that Switch will surpass N64 in LTD hardware sales and
make a run towards surpassing XBOX One. The software number well
surpass Wii U at this point and are making a serious run towards
Nintendo 3DS and should surpass N64 and Gamecube soon. One more note:
The software sales only include games that are sold either retail
only or both retail and digital downloads. Digital download only
numbers are not available in the total numbers. Digital download
sales are increasing fast, although it will still take a lot of time
before making a run on Sony's platforms.
(a) Switch's Million Unit Sellers
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe:
15.02 million units; outselling Mario Kart 8 by almost a 2-1 margin.
Currently it's only a little over three million units away from
outselling Mario Kart 7. It's still a long way from surpassing Wii
and Nintendo DS though.
Super Mario
Odyssey: 13.76 million units; outselling both
2D and 3D Mario games on Wii U combined and is only three million
units from adding Super Mario Maker to that list. It also surpassed
Super Mario 3D Land and New Super Mario Brothers 2 on Nintendo 3DS!
Still a long ways away from New Super Mario Brothers Wii and DS; but
is currently the best selling 3D Mario game ever.
Super
Smash Brothers Ultimate: 12.08 million units
(in only 24 days no less!); outselling every version except for Smash
Brothers Brawl.
The Legend of Zelda:
Breath Of The Wild: 11.68 million units;
making it the best selling Zelda game ever on one platform no
less!
Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu/Let's
Go Eevee: 10.00 million units. Despite being
a remake and having the lowest sales in Japan, the game still outsold
Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and is only 3 million short of
surpassing Heart Gold/Soul Silver on Nintendo DS.
Splatoon
2: 8.27 million units. I think it will just
get over 10 million units overall and that's a big improvement over
the original.
Super Mario Party:
5.30 million units. It's a vast improvement over Mario
Party 10 and even beats Nintendoland for Wii U. Only Mario Party 8,
Mario Party DS and Wii Party have better sales than Super Mario Party
in this genre.
Mario Tennis Aces:
2.53 million units. Best selling Mario Tennis game ever.
Donkey
Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: 2.08 million
units. Beats Wii U version, 360,000 units short of surpassing Donkey
Kong Country Returns on 3DS.
Kirby
Star Allies: 2.42 million units. Only Kirby's
Dreamland and Kirby's Super Star Ultra have better sales at this
point.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker:
1.05 million units. Still needs 300,000 units to surpass the WiiU
version.
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con #1:
Variety Kit: 1.06 million units. Probably the only true failure in
the entire lot, considering how much stock Nintendo put into these
games.
Other
Notables:
1-2 Switch:
2.86 million units.
Mario+ Rabbids Kingdom
Battle: 2.59 million units; better than any
Rabbids game in the past.
ARMS:
2.10 million units.
Minecraft:
1.89 million units.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2:
1.53 million units.
Octopath
Traveler: 1.50 million units+.
Pokken
Tournament: 1.16 million units+.
The
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: 1.15 million
units.
Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy:
1.11 million units.
FIFA Soccer 18:
1.10 million units.
Total Number of one
million unit sellers: 22.
Total
Number of half million unit sellers: 19.
Top
50 Minimum: 430,000 units.
[4.] Final Thoughts
The evidence has
spoken and it says this about Year 2: Regardless, it's safe to say
that Year 2 of Nintendo Switch's run was without question the most
amazing, awesome, brutal, cheerful, depressing, deranged, exciting,
flowering, graceful, hardening, idiotic, jamming, killing, laughable,
monsterous, nasty, nice, over the top, pouring like a flood, quite
redonkulous, righteous, silly, tantalizing, underrated, varied,
wonderful, xtreme, yay inducing, zen of a game line I have ever seen
in the history of Nintendo. And I shudder to think what Year 3
brings. I'm officially out of the predicting game on this one. My
predication for Year 2 and 2018 was so underestimated that my
predication license has been revoked and I cannot reapply. Now; in
terms of specific games, I still have a separate license for that.
So, bring on Year 3, I guess.