Third-party Switch 2 game sales have started off slow, with one publisher selling ‘below our lowest estimates’
Cyberpunk 2077 has enjoyed some success on Switch 2, however
Third-party games have reportedly struggled to sell on Nintendo Switch 2 at launch, with one publisher claiming that its game has sold “below our lowest estimates”.
While the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware has enjoyed record-breaking launch sales, some third-party publishers have reportedly found that the console’s success hasn’t translated to a thriving third-party market yet.
In a new report from The Game Business, it’s claimed that, other than CD Projekt Red‘s Cyberpunk 2077, most third-party games have struggled to sell on Switch 2.
“Most third-party Switch 2 games posted very low numbers,” the report reads. “One third-party publisher characterised the numbers as ‘below our lowest estimates’, despite strong hardware sales.”
According to the report, 62% of Switch 2 physical game sales in the US during the console’s launch week came from first-party titles. This excludes the Mario Kart World bundle, which accounted for the vast majority of console sales in the region.
According to Circana data, the three best-selling physical games in the US during the Switch 2’s launch week were Mario Kart World, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
NielsenIQ data shows that, in the UK, 86% of Switch 2 physical games sold in the UK during launch week were first-party games, if the Mario Kart World bundle is included (if it’s excluded, the figure is 48%). Cyberpunk 2077 was the best-selling third-party game in the UK during the system’s launch week.
There are numerous potential reasons for the relatively slow start for third-party games on Switch 2. The high attach rate for Mario Kart World implies that a lot of players are happy enough to play that for now, and explore the rest of the line-up once they’re done with Mario Kart.
Switch 2’s backwards compatibility also means players have a number of other games they can play at launch, most notably the 12 first-party Switch games that were given free updates improving them on Switch 2.
The lack of media reviews of third-party Switch 2 games, and the resistance by some players to accept the Game-Key Card format, could have also contributed to low third-party launch sales.
The majority of third-party Switch 2 launch titles were also ports of games that had been released earlier on other consoles, meaning it’s likely that players who wanted those games had already found a way to buy them by now.
It remains to be seen, then, how third-party games will fare on Switch 2 once the launch window is behind it, particularly when it comes to multi-format games that release on Switch 2 on the same day as on other systems.
In general terms, launch line-ups aside, third-party titles have often struggled to find huge success on Nintendo platforms in recent years. This is due to several factors, including the fact that many ‘core’ players will own other, often more powerful hardware as well as a Nintendo console.
Despite the third-party sales issues, Nintendo Switch 2 is off to an extremely strong start. In the US, the system has enjoyed the biggest launch ever for a video game console, beating out the PlayStation 4.
The success story of the Nintendo Switch 2 is much the same in Japan, where it has enjoyed a huge launch. Famitsu‘s sales data shows that Switch 2 sold 947,931 consoles in its first four days in Japan.
Last week, Nintendo announced that Switch 2 had sold 3.5 million units globally in its first four days on sale, making it the fastest-selling Nintendo system ever, and likely the biggest ever console launch.
In comparison, PlayStation 5 shipped (not sold) 3.4 million units in its first four weeks on sale, and 4.5 million in its first seven weeks, though Sony’s console suffered from significant stock shortages.
