Half of All Nintendo Switch Owners Bought Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8, and Super Mario Odyssey

Authored by ign.com and submitted by AdamCannon
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Share. One out of every two players owns Nintendo's biggest games. One out of every two players owns Nintendo's biggest games.

Half of all Switch owners purchased Nintendo’s three biggest games, according to Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime.

Speaking to IGN about Switch’s success following The Game Awards last week, Fils-Aime said the attach rate for Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe represents a record in the United States.

“Those three games continue to attach to hardware at better than 50 percent,” Fils-Aime told IGN. “Just think about that. For everyone who owns a system, more than one out of every two have bought Zelda, more than one out of every two have bought Kart, more than one out of every two have bought Odyssey. That's never happened in U.S. video game history.”

Fils-Aime said Nintendo aims to continue a solid cadence of big releases in order to keep up the momentum Switch has seen so far, which included a new record over Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend.

“We've launched many systems, we've seen what works in driving a system forward,” he said. “We've seen where we've lost momentum, and a critical component is having a great cadence of launches, and as you highlight, we have a number of key franchises teed up for next year.

“ That's never happened in U.S. video game history.

“But the other element is making sure that we also surprise with something that is completely unexpected, but brings new consumers into the platform. And that's what Nintendo Labo was all about. And we're going to be continuing to drive Nintendo Labo. The announcement we made in partnering with the Institute of Play, and leveraging the STEAM elements of those experiences, these are all part of the grand plan to continue making Nintendo Switch a very effective platform.”

With the massive success of Wii and a relative stumble for Wii U, I asked Fils-Aime how Nintendo measures success. Given the Switch’s March launch timing compared to the holiday window of previous systems, that comparison isn’t quite apples to apples.

“Nintendo looks at historical performance of past systems. Not only our own, but also competitive platforms. As you note, because of a March 3rd launch, lining it up in terms of number of months on the market, the number of holidays really is a key element to seeing how you're stacking up.

“So from my perspective, the right time to look at our performance against history is going to be as we come out of that holiday time frame. That way we'll be able to say after roughly 21 months, how do we stack up against all of the systems that have launched here in the U.S. and what the sell-through looks like. And that'll be a nice moment for us to consider where we are, and also to think about how do we continue driving momentum. As you stated, we've already outsold the GameCube, we've already outsold the Wii U. How we continue to track against past systems will be something that we look at.”

Looking ahead, Fils-Aime says the recent momentum for Switch is something Nintendo expects to continue through the holidays, and he’s optimistic about 2019.

“We're exceptionally thrilled with the momentum that we have with the Nintendo Switch. How we see the holidays shaping up, certainly from the Americas standpoint, it really is going to be a strong holiday for us. With the games that we've announced for the first calendar quarter, we think that momentum will power through. Certainly whether it's when Mr. Furokawa speaks to the analyst community in January or when we share our full fiscal year information in April, we'll be sharing even more of what our calendar looks like to continue driving the momentum.

“But we feel really good about where we are. We feel good about how we're tracking against...let me call it ‘historical norms.’ In the end, as long as we continue to have this really strong cadence of software, as well as strong support from the third-party community, big or small, we're thinking we're going to be really well positioned.”

For more from our interview with Fils-Aime, read why some big multi-platform games aren’t on Switch, how Joker is emblematic of Smash Bros. Ultimate’s DLC approach, and why E3 is still important to Nintendo.

Andrew is IGN’s executive editor of news and has put many hours into all three of these games. You can find him rambling about Persona and cute animals on Twitter.

lambro101 on December 13rd, 2018 at 23:54 UTC »

These are the only 3 games I own. I'm working on 100% for Odyssey currently, but what I should do next? I think I'm done with Zelda for now (after beating it) and Mario Kart is just fun to play every now and then.

I like how I can pick up and put down Odyssey so easily. I always feel like I needed to know I had a solid hour when I wanted to play Zelda, but still had a blast playing it.

Edit*: I'm a PC gamer mostly. I play Switch to and from work on my 20 minute train ride, so that's why it's better for me to pick up and put down Odyssey. I want a game I can play 20 minutes at a time, and thanks for all the suggestions thus far!

axel360 on December 13rd, 2018 at 23:51 UTC »

To be clear, all 3 games individually have an attach rate of more than 50%.

This isn't saying over half of all Switch owners have all three. Still impressive, but an important distinction.

M3TADATA on December 13rd, 2018 at 22:56 UTC »

I'd be interested in seeing the numbers for people that have all 3. I know I'm one of em.