Posted in: Games, Nintendo, Video Games | Tagged: nintendo, nintendo switch, switch, wii, wii u

The Nintendo Switch's Library is Already Three Times as Large as the Wii U's

Published Tue, 06 Feb 2018 18:20:09 -0600

A report reveals the Switch already has sold three times the number of games the Wii U did at this same point in its lifecycle.

Kotaku UK reports at the end of December, or the Switch's 279th day on the market, they downloaded data from more than 18,000 games and 250,000 reviews from Metacritic. According to Metacritic's data, the Switch had 191 games available, whereas on the 279th day the Wii U and Wii had about 60 and 65 games, respectively. The Wii U didn't reach 191 games until 856 days after launch. On the other hand, PlayStation 4 had about 100 games, while Xbox One fell slightly behind it. Which actually means the Switch has had more games released in its first year than any other current-gen console. That's pretty damn impressive.

The data also shows how well games were reviewed among Switch, Wii U, and Wii in that timeframe. Games on Metacritic that score at least 80 or higher and reviewed by at least 40 different outlets were looked at. Around 45 Switch games met those credentials within its first 279 days, while the Wii U and Wii each had about 50 games like that in both console's entire life span.

While many factors contributed to the downfall of the Wii U, this data does suggest that having a large slate of third party games on a console is a large contributing factor to the success of the hardware. The PS4 was the best-selling console every year prior to last, in part because of its larger library including many well-loved indie titles (the PS4 also has a much better Ui than the Xbox One which likely also contirubted to its sales).

The Switch has made Nintendo a competitor on the console market again, despite both Sony and Microsoft's refusal to see it as such. And that momentum should carry to the Switch's second year sales.

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