If you could ask Nintendo to give you any information you wanted about Switch and owner trends, we imagine this probably wouldn’t be the first statistic you’d think up: Which games do Switch buyers most commonly play on their first day with the console?
Nevertheless, Nintendo has provided this exact nugget of info in its March 2019 Financial Results Briefing, and it actually reveals more information than you might initially think. As Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa points out in the briefing, these titles can give a great indication as to which games are driving hardware sales. Naturally, if you pick up a Switch purely because of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, for example, it’s pretty likely that you’d then throw Smash into the cartridge slot at the first opportunity.
Below is a list of titles played by consumers on their first day after purchasing a Switch between January and March 2019.
As you can see, Smash Ultimate does appear to be the clear favourite for that time period, but all the usual suspects are there despite some of them – Zelda and Super Mario Odyssey, for example – being released considerably earlier than the time frame covered.
As an interesting side note, Furukawa also discussed consumer trends relating to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in a little more detail, revealing that the diversity of owners appears to be widening over time.
When Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was first released, it was played by people within a wide age range, and particularly by men in their 20s to early 30s. As time has passed, however, the range of consumers playing this game has widened even further. Our data shows that the range of consumers showing interest in this game is also increasing, which means the title draws such a broad range of people.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has reached 13.81 million worldwide sales in just four months.
Which game(s) did you play on your first day with a Switch? Were there any games in particular which made you want the console? Let us know in the comments.
