Nintendo is home to a ton of amazing evergreen franchises, though it’s safe to say that it’s often relied heavily on Super Mario, Zeldaand Pokémon for those big sales numbers.
According to the latest company data financial briefinghowever, some of its more niche franchises have reportedly seen “dramatic sales growth” on the Nintendo Switch. Specifically, the four highlighted IP addresses are Metroid, Xenoblade Chronicles, Kirbyand Pikmin.
The accompanying chart shows sales figures for each franchise on Wii U / 3DS (blue) and Nintendo Switch (red), highlighting the drastic increase over the current generation of Nintendo consoles.
Now, there are a few things to consider with this. First, download-only titles are not included in the sales figures. So among other titles, games like Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii U and Kirby’s Dream Buffet on Switch are conspicuously missing. So while it’s safe to assume that those particular titles probably wouldn’t drastically change the bottom line, it’s still not the full picture.
It also seems somewhat obvious, in a way. When you look at Xenoblade Chronicles, for example, Nintendo launched Xenoblade Chronicles 3D on the New 3DS (one of the very few exclusives for the new model) and Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U, the latter of which launched on a console base that maxed out at just 13.56 million units. The Switch, meanwhile, has sold nearly 150 million units and is home to Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Of course, it does better, right?
The same can be said for Metroid. Nintendo launched Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS, but Not retail titles on the Wii U. Meanwhile, the Switch saw the release of both Metroid Prime Remastered and Metroid Dread, the former arguably one of the best games in the entire franchise, the latter the result of literally years of fan anticipation.
We don’t mean to diminish Nintendo’s achievement here, just to provide some context around the otherwise rather murky details from the financial report. Still, it’s fantastic to see these franchises grow and we hope that continues in the future with ‘Switch 2’.
