Switch and 'Zelda' were Nintendo's biggest U.S. launches ever
Your non-gamer relatives might have lined up to snag a Wii on day one, but Nintendo's Switch is apparently an even bigger deal.
The new console and its marquee launch title -- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild -- both broke launch records for Nintendo in the Americas. We're just missing one thing: actual numbers.
Nintendo hasn't officially shared its launch weekend sales data for Switch or Zelda, but the "Best. Launch. Ever." assertion still comes from a reliable source: Nintendo of America boss, Reggie Fils-Aime. He spoke to Nick Wingfield of the New York Times, who shared the details from his forthcoming write-up on Twitter.
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Let's unpack.
Note that Fils-Aime's sales comparison -- via Wingfield -- highlights the first two days of each console's retail life. Switch launched on a Friday, but the Wii launched on a Sunday. So it's a case of Friday/Saturday sales versus Sunday/Monday sales.
That said, the Wii also launched at a much more favorable time of year: the 2006 holiday shopping season. Though even then, it faced competition in the PlayStation 3, which arrived roughly a week earlier.
In contrast, the Switch launched on March 3, 2017 without the competition of another new game console, but also without the holiday season sales advantage. The differing release timeframes and circumstances prevent an apples-to-apples comparison here.
It's fair to say the Switch is off to a strong start, but it's important to keep in mind the context of the Wii's launch when you're looking at this new "record" for Nintendo.
The situation is similar with Zelda, which is now Nintendo's best-selling standalone launch title -- meaning, not a pack-in game like Wii Sports was -- over that same two-day post-launch period.
There's little doubt that sales are good. If you're buying a Switch, it's probably for just one game. It's fair to speculate that Nintendo is seeing somewhere around -- or even higher than -- a 90 percent attach rate for Switch buyers that also pick up Zelda.
The game's success is likely propelled in part by all the rave reviews, but that's not the most important factor here. The biggest driver of early Zelda sales? There's very little else for Switch owners to choose from.
As of March 7, there are only nine games listed for sale in the Switch eShop. Three of those come from Nintendo -- Zelda, 1-2-Switch and Snipperclips -- two of them are Shovel Knight, and one (Fast RMX) is an indie racing game. The other two are re-releases of games that already existed elsewhere: I Am Setsuna and Just Dance 2017.
Zelda's record-setting launch sales toppled Super Mario 64, one of the two games that launched alongside the Nintendo 64 in 1996. Yes, that's fewer games than the Switch has at launch. But Nintendo sales are driven, primarily, by Nintendo fans.
Think about the length of time that record stood. Mario 64 has been Nintendo's top-selling launch title for more than 20 years. The Nintendo consoles released since then -- the GameCube, Wii, and Wii U -- all launched with many more games to choose from.
In many ways, Switch reverts to the N64 strategy of delivering quality over quantity. And Zelda gets a major sales boost for being the only marquee Nintendo title in the Switch launch line-up. If a Nintendo fan is picking up a Switch on March 3 or 4, they're almost certainly getting Zelda with it.
There's one other factor that may have boosted Zelda's sales win: it's not a Switch exclusive. Breath of the Wild launched for Switch and Wii U on March 3. Fils-Aime might have been referring only to Switch Zelda sales in his reference to the Mario record... but it's not clear.
Which leads us to one, important caveat on all of this: without Nintendo's actual sales figures, we can only speculate. Nintendo has only confirmed that Wingfield's characterization of Fils-Aime's comments is accurate, with the added promise that "detailed numbers will be shared in the future."
Here's what a Nintendo spokesperson had to say:
Nintendo of America confirms that Friday-Saturday sales in the America's for Nintendo Switch were the highest for the first two days of sales for any system in Nintendo’s history. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild also enjoyed a positive response with amazing review scores, and is the best-selling launch title in Nintendo’s history in that same two-day initial time period.
Topics Gaming Nintendo Nintendo Switch
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
