NPD February 2021: 3D World + Bowser's Fury #1, Persona 5S #3, Little Nightmares II #6 ; Switch #1 HW in both units and revenue

[Mbolibombo]

Wow, Persona 5 being #3 and not even hitting on the Nintendo Top 10 is something. I mean, it's not that weird I guess with how wonky they treat the series with its spinoffs and stuff, but makes me doubt they'll do more Persona 5 related stuff for Switch when/if they do more spin-offs.

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With separate lists like this it's hard to make these assumptions, Switch top 10 list is really hard to enter, #10 is a million seller worldwide almost every quarter for instance. Clearly it sold better on PS which was always going to be the case I think, In Japan 2:1 ratio in favor for the PS4 version, if it was the same in the US - it probably wouldnt hit the top 10 on Switch, but still selling well.

Example:

Minecraft PS4 verison is #6 on Sony and #17 overall. With Strikers being #3 on both overall and on PS4, one could safely assume that Switch still did a significant help to have it stay high on the list without hitting the top 10 Switch list.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Why? 3DS struggled too and was a pretty big step back compared to the DS. Compare sold units Wii+DS and Wii U+3DS. 3DS had pretty incredible legs, though, I'll give it that, and I wouldn't call it a failure like the Wii U was.

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It struggled and still managed to sell 75m copies - only the PS4 was able to sell more last decade/gen with a perfect lifecycle and full 3rd Party support.
It was obv. that Nintendo would always have a strong market if they didnt fuck things up and focused on a single plattform.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

They're not though. Gyms have been open in most states for months.

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Not anywhere near me. While some gym chains have modified for social distancing, I would say a majority of gym patrons are probably working out at home for the last year.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Not anywhere near me. While some gym chains have modified for social distancing, I would say a majority of gym patrons are probably working out at home for the last year.

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I'm speaking across the country, as a whole. I'm sure there are a few states where restrictions are tighter but the majority of chain gyms (Planet Fitness, Anytime Fitness, Orangetheory, etc) have been open for months.

 

[Aostia82]

Switch is a beast

 

[Zedark]

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[Skittzo]

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Yeah I bought it digital, though I think I bought it outside of the tracking period anyway.

Interesting that he thinks it's well ahead of the first, that's a very good sign.

 

[Ridley327]

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Yeah, the performance of the game on the eShop since launch suggests that it has a pretty substantial digital share, especially as it seems like it's a bit hard to find physical copies of the game at retail. It's certainly not unreasonable to think that if BD1 shipped more physical copies overall that it would still wind up losing out to BD2 with how much digital has taken over, especially since there's nothing like a CE to push this time around.

 

[Aostia82]

Good
Despite not sure, this clearly is a good sign

 

[Advance.Wars.Sgt.]

It struggled and still managed to sell 75m copies - only the PS4 was able to sell more last decade/gen with a perfect lifecycle and full 3rd Party support.
It was obv. that Nintendo would always have a strong market if they didnt fuck things up and focused on a single plattform.

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Yep. The analysis of the Switch even to this day is colored by home console oriented gamer bias, specifically Nintendo's historical market performance in the home console space.

We still have people shocked to learn the GBA *wasn't* a regression from the GB/GBC and instead was a massive success from Day 1 and easily would've sold more of not for its shortened life-span.

 

[Arex]

Well we'll find out if BD2 makes it to the Switch's next month's physical chart, although with the competition from Nintendo's own heavyweight evergreen titles maybe it'll be a bit hard to chart. Doesn't necessarily mean it sells bad I suppose.

 

[Ridley327]

Well we'll find out if BD2 makes it to the Switch's next month's physical chart, although with the competition from Nintendo's own heavyweight evergreen titles maybe it'll be a bit hard to chart. Doesn't necessarily mean it sells bad I suppose.

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Not to mention that a certain third party title will assuredly be number 1 on Switch for March, and a rather good shot at being number 1 overall.

 

[Deleted member 89665]

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Maybe this reminds again how hard it was to get into Nintendo's top 10

 

[Oregano]

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Music to my ears, much thanks for posing the question(and thanks to Mat for answering).

 

[Skittzo]

Not to mention that a certain third party title will assuredly be number 1 on Switch for March, and a rather good shot at being number 1 overall.

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That's a tall ask for Balan Wonderworld.

Spoiler

/s

 

[Deleted member 52190]

I would like to thank Mat Piscatella for the following answers, his presence here is sorely missed:

Switch forecast



Xbox Series performance



ASP current trend

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I can imagine that gaming is go down significant around the summer, possible time that most countrys will open for peopel to leave their homes(cant wait for the doom threads lol) so yah, understand their is a lot of unkonws at this point.

 

[Evoker]

Persona being in the top three in its debut month is insane. Definitely can't say it's a niche series anymore. Hopefully the popularity of Persona rubs off on SMT when Nocturne and V comes out later this year.

 

[Oregano]

Mat also commented on Persona Switch sales:

 

[Ridley327]

That's a tall ask for Balan Wonderworld.

Spoiler

/s

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Balan Wonderworld about to hit us with that Virtua Quest impact.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Damn... Matt made a bunch of concerned comments about BD2 and P5S Switch look quite funny.

Appreciate his comments and thanks for posting the tweets here.

 

[RailWays]

Mat also commented on Persona Switch sales:

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Kind of odd they didn't present eShop data. Is that a common occurrence on Atlus's part?

 

[Oregano]

Kind of odd they didn't present eShop data. Is that a common occurrence on Atlus's part?

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Sega and Atlus don't share eShop data altogether for some reason.

 

[Quinton]

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Appreciate the ask, Zedark.

 

[Zedark]

Nice to see P5S Switch version is doing well, too!

People need to keep in mind that Switch's Nintendo games are selling bonkers, failing to hit those numbers does not mean a failure for smaller titles like BD2 and P5S. MHR should most definitely chart high of course.

 

[Oregano]

Nice to see P5S Switch version is doing well, too!

People need to keep in mind that Switch's Nintendo games are selling bonkers, failing to hit those numbers does not mean a failure for smaller titles like BD2 and P5S. MHR should most definitely chart high of course.

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That's especially the case when Feb was also a massive month for hardware, meaning those mainstream evergreens are going to be even higher than normal.

 

[Aostia82]

Mat also commented on Persona Switch sales:

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Well well let's take a look here
Imagine a world where BDII is selling better than 1 and P5S is selling well on Switch
Imagine!

 

[Beth Cyra]

Well well let's take a look here
Imagine a world where BDII is selling better than 1 and P5S is selling well on Switch
Imagine!

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This is really awesome.

Healthy performance on both is a win.

 

[ItsOKAY]

I would like to thank Mat Piscatella for the following answers, his presence here is sorely missed:

Switch forecast



Xbox Series performance



ASP current trend

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May i ask you, why is he not posting here? Did something happen?

 

[fiendcode]

Mat's comments make me think digital was the majority of sales for P5S. Someone should ask him for LN2 splits.

Good news on BD2 though.

 

[Skittzo]

May i ask you, why is he not posting here? Did something happen?

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People on this site have a tendency to chase away industry insiders. With constant console warring and whatnot.

 

[SpaceBridge]

Great to see Persona 5 Strikers. But nowhere on Nintendo's chart. But bummed about that. Might make Atlus more hesitant to put future titles on it other than SMTV.

 

[wrowa]

Damn... Matt made a bunch of concerned comments about BD2 and P5S Switch look quite funny.

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Huh? He did the opposite of that.

 

[Nevermeltice]

Huh? He did the opposite of that.

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Matt made a bunch of concerned comments and P5S Switch [from Era members] look quite funny.

 

[fiendcode]

Great to see Persona 5 Strikers. But nowhere on Nintendo's chart. But bummed about that. Might make Atlus more hesitant to put future titles on it other than SMTV.

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It's doing well according Mat, chart placement doesn't tell the entire story as it's missing digital.

 

[ItsOKAY]

People on this site have a tendency to chase away industry insiders. With constant console warring and whatnot.

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Man, that's so sad to hear:(
That makes me so angry.
But i totally understand, that people decide that way.
Thx for answering:)

 

[Skittzo]

Great to see Persona 5 Strikers. But nowhere on Nintendo's chart. But bummed about that. Might make Atlus more hesitant to put future titles on it other than SMTV.

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Read several posts up from yours.

 

[Calamari41]

May i ask you, why is he not posting here? Did something happen?

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He specifically cited the next gen hardware speculation thread a couple of years ago as his breaking point with console warring. The sales threads weren't his problem.

 

[wrowa]

Matt made a bunch of concerned comments and P5S Switch [from Era members] look quite funny.

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Oh, duh. My reading comprehension failed.

 

[ItsOKAY]

He specifically cited the next gen hardware speculation thread a couple of years ago as his breaking point with console warring. The sales threads weren't his problem.

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So it's a long made decision. Thx for clarifying:)

 

[LostCauseUnite!]

Mat also commented on Persona Switch sales:

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From what I gather from these, BD2 is an unknown quantity right now but he projects that it will do better than BD1. Best to look at it from next month data.

And Persona 5S did well (physically) but it is difficult to say how good it did overall since it isn't tallied the same for all the platforms, ie one gave partial data the others gave full data for him to add to his numbers. Still though, with that said I'm surprised that Persona even got a "did good" comment for a game that is a sequel to a game that is on a different platform and the target platform seemed to do well regardless.

 

[Deleted member 63122]

That's good news for BD2. We will know exactly when it's time for Nintendo's FY reportings.

 

[Skittzo]

That's good news for BD2. We will know exactly when it's time for Nintendo's FY reportings.

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Only if it ships over a million outside of Japan (where they're publishing), which isn't guaranteed.

 

[Deleted member 63122]

Only if it ships over a million outside of Japan (where they're publishing), which isn't guaranteed.

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Yeah, if they mentioned it or don't we will know about its sales either way.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

Only if it ships over a million outside of Japan (where they're publishing), which isn't guaranteed.

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I have little doubt BD2 will pass 1m units shipped outside Japan in 1 year. It took Octopath Traveler 3 weeks for the to announce over 1m sales. BD2 will likely be a bit over 5 weeks but it will get there.

 

[Gay Bowser]

Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars in February. Unit and dollar sales of Nintendo Switch hardware in February were the highest for any hardware platform in a February month since the Nintendo Wii in Feburary 2009.

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Unbelievable.

And people think they're going to drop the price any day now? lol

 

[Nevermeltice]

I have little doubt BD2 will pass 1m units shipped outside Japan in 1 year.

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Thing is, the fiscal year ends in two weeks so all sales will automatically be reset come April.

 

[Deleted member 63122]

I have little doubt BD2 will pass 1m units shipped outside Japan in 1 year.

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Thing is, if that doesn't happens this quarter, we will never know cause the FY ends now.

 

[Skittzo]

I have little doubt BD2 will pass 1m units shipped outside Japan in 1 year.

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The time period isn't one year though, it's by the end of March. They don't share data on a title if it doesn't sell 1M within a single FY.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

The time period isn't one year though, it's by the end of March. They don't share data on a title if it doesn't sell 1M within a single FY.

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I always assumed it was rolling. I guess Nintendo normally sucks for Q4 releases in general but what they do launch never has any issues shipping 1m.

The BD twitter account will still likely tweet when it crosses 1m.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Only if it ships over a million outside of Japan (where they're publishing), which isn't guaranteed.

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Square Enix will mention if it hits 1M globally as they have done for the previous games and Octopath