The past year has been massive for Nintendo, with the games industry giant seeing a massive boost in sales for its hardware and software fueled by quarantine and isolation periods.Animal Crossing: New Horizons,one ofNintendo’s most successful titles, has been a big driver of that success, and according to recent UK sales figures, that success won’t be stopping anytime soon.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonstopped the UK’s boxed sales charts for the week, the fourth time this year. Launched last year right as mandatory quarantine announcements rose to a crescendo,Animal Crossing: New Horizonshas offered players a respite from real-world issues, full of distractions from day to day troubles and isolation-induced anxiety. The game has played a major role in fuelingSwitch console sales.
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Luckily for Nintendo,Animal Crossing: New Horizonswasn’t the only first-party game to land on the UK boxed games sales chart. IncludingAnimal Crossing,four Nintendo first-party games managed to make it onto the list.Mario Kart, Ring Fit Adventure,andSuper Mario 3D All-Starsall landed on the chart, being the second, fourth, and ninth spots, respectively.Ring FitAdventurealmost grabbed the third best selling slot for the week, losing out toCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warby just 52 units.
So far, the only major triple-a release has beenHitman 3,which may explain the continued dominance of Nintendo properties. However, considering how well the Nintendo Switch has been selling recently, both in the UK and the rest of the world, there’s a good chance that even a packed release calendar would still boast some of Nintendo’s games on the top charts, with some differences. The week’s complete list was:
With a mostly clear release calendar throughout February 2021, there’s a good chance thatAnimal Crossing: New Horizonswill keep one of the top 10 spots. WithSuper Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Furyreleasing soon, there’s a good chance that it will also make its way to the sales charts, giving Nintendo an all-around impressive number of slots.Nintendo believes the Switch could outsell the Wii, and if it continues selling hardware and software at such massive volumes, that goal isn’t far-fetched.
For now, Nintendo fans can sit back and look forward to the new games coming to the Switch. With heavy-hitters likeNew Pokemon Snapcoming this year and more in the works, there are plenty of avenues for Nintendo to keep its games appearing on top sales charts throughout the year.
