The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

It’s safe to say that Nintendo knocked it out of the park with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, knitting together a complex web of intertwining systems with mechanics that let you express your creativity to the fullest resulting in an experience like no other. It takes everything that worked in the original, and amps it up to eleven – be it Link’s powers, the size of the open world, or the many options for tackling a dungeon or boss fight. Despite a few technical hiccups owing to the hardware limitations, Tears of the Kingdom is easily one of the best games that you can experience on Nintendo’s hybrid handheld.

It still has some way to go before catching up with Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which is currently at 6.46 million units sold. Bayonetta 3 has sold 1.07 million since launching in October 2022, while Splatoon 3 is at 10.67 million in sales. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has sold 1.86 million and Pokemon Legends: Arceus has sold 14.83 million.

Mario titles have done very well, with Luigi’s Mansion 3 at 12.82 million, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury selling 11.38 million units, and Mario Party Superstars hitting 10.17 million sold. Mario Strikers: Battle League is the only exception, with 2.54 million sold thus far. Overall, Nintendo has sold a whopping 1,036.15 million Switch titles to date.

Splatoon 3 launched in September for the Nintendo Switch and continues to be a major success, with 10.13 million units sold. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is at 1.81 million units sold, while Nintendo Switch Sports has sold 8.61 million. Pokemon Legends: Arceus may not have hit the same heights as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, but it’s still at an incredible 14.63 million units sold.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe has sold 14.75 million units since coming to the Switch, while Luigi’s Mansion 3 is at 12.44 million and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is at 10.82 million. Mario Party Superstars sold 9.38 million, while Mario Strikers: Battle League managed to hit 2.47 million units sold. Finally, Kirby and the Forgotten Land has sold a respectable 6.12 million units sold.

Mario Party Superstars performed very well, as expected, with 5.43 million sales since its October 29th launch. The other new title released in the quarter was Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain with 1.28 million sales since launching on December 3rd. Game Builder Garage managed to sell 1.01 million units while WarioWare: Get It Together!, which launched in September 2021, hit 1.24 million sales.

Other noteworthy numbers include Luigi’s Mansion 3 at 11.04 million sales; Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury selling 8.85 million units; The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD at 3.85 million sales; New Pokemon Snap at 2.36 million sales; Mario Golf: Super Rush at 2.26 million units sold; and Miitopia at 1.63 million sales. For more details on the top-selling Nintendo Switch titles of all time, head here.

2020 was something of a crazy year all around. The gaming industry saw a massive boom, in no small part due to many lockdown situations stemming from the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was something every region benefited from, including France, which saw a record year.

As reported by GamesIndustry, trade body SELL says that France saw 11.3% growth for the games market year over year, with 2.3 million consoles and over 27 million games sold. It also pulled in a overall record €5.3 Billion in revenue. FIFA 21 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons were the top sellers with FIFA 21 selling 1.3 million copies and Animal Crossing selling 1.1 million copies. Do keep in mind, however, that does not include digital for Animal Crossing as Nintendo does not share that information. New Horizons topped the physical chart and if digital were included, most likely would have been on top of the physical + digital one as well.

Nintendo largely dominated the charts in 2020 for France with 11 of the top 20 physical games belonging to Nintendo. Even without reporting digital, many of their titles charted on the combined physical and digital chart as well, which you can see below.

Physical only chart as provided by GSD

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons 
2. FIFA 21
3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 
4. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 
5. The Last of Us Part 2 
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War 
7. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
8. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition 
9. Ring Fit Adventure
10. 51 Worldwide Games 
11. Luigi’s Mansion 3
12. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe 
13. Super Mario Party 
14. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 
15. Grand Theft Auto 5 
16. FIFA 20 
17. Cyberpunk 2077 
18. Ghost of Tsushima 
19. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity 
20. Pokémon Sword 

Physical + Digital chart as provided by GSD.

1. FIFA 21
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War 
4. Grand Theft Auto 5
5. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 
6. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
7. FIFA 20 
8. The Last of Us Part 2 
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 
10. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
11. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition*
12. NBA 2K20
13. Ring Fit Adventure*
14. 51 Worldwide Games*
15. Luigi’s Mansion 3*
16. Ghost of Tsushima
17. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe*
18. Super Mario Party*
19. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

*Digital Sales are not included

Along with sales figures for the Switch, Nintendo also updated its list of top-selling titles. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons continue to reign supreme but several other titles have also achieved some significant milestones. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has sold 21.45 million while Pokemon Sword and Shield has sold 20.35 million.

Super Mario Odyssey is also part of the 20 million sales club with 20.23 million units sold while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sales are at 22.85 million units. Other noteworthy sales figures, as revealed in the company’s earnings release, are Luigi’s Mansion 3 at 9.13 million units sold and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics selling 2.62 million. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is also interesting because it sold 2.84 million units without accounting for sales in Japan.

Nintendo is responsible for selling the title outside of Japan so only the sell-through for North America and Europe are accounted for in its report. Koei Tecmo is responsible for sales in Japan and reported that shipments had passed 3.5 million in its last fiscal report. Stay tuned for more details and concrete sales figures in the coming days.

Vancouver-based developer Next Level Games has been acquired by Nintendo. The deal will be closed on March 1st, after which Next Level Games will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Switch manufacturer. Nintendo will purchase 100 percent of outstanding shares in the process.

In a press release, Nintendo stated that the acquisition is a result of the owner-directors looking to sell their shares. “Completion of the acquisition will serve to secure the availability of Next Level Games development resources for Nintendo, including development expertise, as well as facilitate an anticipated improvement in development speed and quality by enabling closer communication and exchange of staff with the Nintendo development team.”

Though it’s worked on a number of titles for Nintendo in the past, including Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Metroid Prime: Federation Force for the 3DS, it’s perhaps best known for Luigi’s Mansion 3. The Switch title launched in October 2019 and received a strong amount of critical acclaim. It sold a whopping 5.37 million copies within just two months of release.

You can check out our review for Luigi’s Mansion 3 here. What could Next Level Games be working on next for Nintendo? We’ll likely found out in the coming months, so stay tuned.

With the Switch selling 68.3 million units worldwide and first-party titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons continuing to soar, one has to wonder how Nintendo’s other titles are faring. As it turns out, pretty well. In Nintendo’s 2nd quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 2021, it announced that Super Mario 3D All-Stars had sold 5.21 million units as of September 30th.

This is fairly impressive because the game managed these sales numbers in just 13 days (having launched on September 18th). Paper Mario: The Origami King has also done well, selling 2.82 million units. Ring Fit Adventure dominated above both with 5.84 million units sold while Luigi’s Mansion 3 has sold 7.83 million thus far.

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics managed to sell 1.81 million units while Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition sold 1.40 million. Overall, more than 456.49 million titles have been sold on the Switch worldwide till date. With Nintendo forecasting 24 million Switch units sold by March 2021, it should be interesting to see how the current crop of titles fares.

We still have quite a ways to go before virtual reality is refined enough to trickle into the mainstream, but there is still a lot of fun to bee had here. Probably one of the biggest pushes of the format has been coming through Sony with their PS VR headset, especially in the console space. They’ve done their best this generation to continue on with it with some interesting games. One of those is another collaboration with Marvel, with Marvel’s Iron Man VR, and it seems to have done pretty well.

As reported via GamesIndustry, the game managed to find a pretty strong debut on the UK charts in the week ending July 4th. The game wasn’t quite flying high enough to dethrone The Last of Us Part 2 at the top spot, but number 2 to probably the most anticipated game in years isn’t too shabby for the new VR release.

Marvel’s Iron Man VR is available now on PlayStation 4, exclusively for PlayStation VR. For everything you need to know about the game, we’ve got you covered through here.

1. The Last of Us Part 2 
2. Marvel’s Iron Man VR
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
4. Bravely Second: End Layer
5. Grand Theft Auto 5
6. Minecraft (Switch)
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
8. FIFA 20
9. Luigi’s Mansion 3
10. Ring Fit Adventure

Luigi’s Mansion 3 might not have gotten the single player expansions developer Next Level Games may have initially wanted to make, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been supported since its launch for those who’ve stuck with the game and kept going back two it. The first of its two planned multiplayer DLC packs released in March, and now, the second pack is out as well.

The second DLC pack adds new minigames and costumes to Luigi’s Mansion 2 multiplayer component. ScreamPark mode gets three new minigames- the hockey-style PuckStravanganza, a watery obstacle course called Floaty Frenzy, and Desperate Measures, which sees you balancing scales with sand using your Poltergust.

Three new costumes have been added to the ScareScraper mode- the magician-themed the Amazing Luigi; the pirate, Cap’n Weegee; and treasure hunter and researcher Paleontoluigist. There are also three new floor themes, as well as some new themed ghosts. Remember, though, that neither of the two DLC packs is available individually- the two must be purchased together for $9.99.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is available on the Nintendo Switch. Read our review through here.