REPORT: Nintendo Switch 2 Third Party Games Sales Appear Sluggish After Launch

The Nintendo Switch 2 console took the world by surprise with its strong initial sales numbers (3.5 million after its first week). It can be speculated that Mario Kart World being a launch title played a great part in its initial success. The Nintendo racer sold 782k in the first three days of its release in japan, and as of this writing has sold nearly 900,000 copies in the United States.

First party support for the Switch 2 is naturally encouraging. But what of the third party partners? During the April Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, many major third party companies were on board (2K, Konami, Capcom, Sega, CD Projeckt Red, Square Enix, to name a few) with bringing games over the more powerful Switch 2. But according to a report from The Game Business, the third party lineup is not performing as well as expected.

Based on their data, and excluding Mario Kart World, 62% of launch week physical sales for Switch 2 games in the US were first party titles (sales figures data comes from Circana). In the UK, first party Nintendo games made up 48% physical sales. When the numbers from Mario Kart World are added to the United Kingdom totals, that shoots up to 89% of physical copies sold. The top selling third party game on the Nintendo Switch 2 is CD Projeckt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, with Sega coming in at third place, according to data released form the publishers, as they launched Sonic X Shadow Generations, Yakuza 0, and Puyo Puyo Tetris S2.

While this paints a bleak picture for the third party support on the Nintendo Switch 2 in its launch month, it's probably something that should not be all too surprising. The statistics are up, compared to the third party support seen on the original Switch's launch. That could be attributed to many of the eventual partners not too clear on the Switch 1's sales prospects, as it was an unknown entity that at the time. And there may be cause for concern, it all hasn't been doom and gloom thus far. The launch of Street Fighter 6 on the Switch 2 aided in pushing Capcom's flagship fighting game to selling 5 million copies.

Fans do flock to Nintendo for the first party titles, as the foundation for the brand has been built on the success of the Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and the Mario name. As the brand has made stronger efforts to broaden the appeal to bolster that library, how much of a concern should it be that third party games are underperforming to a degree? When the Wii U launched, we saw support diminish rather quickly when the hardware failed to connect with an audience, following the success of the Wii. Do matters like the game key cards play a heavy factor, or with many of these games being available on other platforms, does that limit the appeal?

It's still fairly early in the Nintendo Switch 2's lifespan, perhaps those numbers could turn around. time will tell.

SOURCE: The Game Business