Before we move ahead, do keep in mind that calling a game AA or AAA isn’t a measure of its popularity or quality so much as it is a measure of the scope of its production and its development budget, which means we might also talk about AA experiences made by companies that usually operate in the AAA sphere. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

DISCO ELYSIUM

You could call Disco Elysium a CRPG, and on paper, technically, you would be correct, but that would also be an incredibly reductive way to describe this masterpiece. From its surreal setting to its heavily flavoured and thematically dense writing, from its complete lack of combat to how bizarrely yet ingeniously it uses its RPG mechanics in conjunction with its storytelling, Disco Elysium is a singular game that’s unlike anything else out there.

Following Pikmin 4‘s sales in Japan is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, followed by Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, which sold 39,845 copies on the PS5 for the month of September. The rest of the top 10 list is largely populated by Nintendo’s titles, with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet taking up fourth place, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom taking up seventh place.

Pikmin 1 + 2 is also present in the monthly sales figures for September, sitting at sixth place. Armored Core 6 itself is also impressive, with the game’s PS4 release taking up the ninth spot on the list, followed by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Check out the top ten best selling games for the period between August 28 to September 24, according to Famitsu, below.

1. Pikmin 4
2. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
3. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon (PS5)
4. Pocket Monsters Scarlet and Violet
5. Minecraft: Switch Edition
6. Pikmin 1 + 2
7. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
8. Ring Fit Adventure
9. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon (PS4)
10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Unsurprisingly, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to lead the way, with over 48.41 million units. It saw healthy sales during the latest three-month period, likely thanks to its DLC, with the game selling 1.59 million units during the period. Counting its Wii U sales (8.46 million units), Mario Kart 8’s total lifetime sales stand at 56.87 million units. Meanwhile, Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to plug along as well, standing at 40.17 million units sold, up from 39.38 million units as of the end of June.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has hit 29.53 million units sold, while The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sits at 27.79 million units. A number of Pokemon titles also see continued sales, with Pokemon Sword and Shield hitting the 25.37 million mark, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl hitting 14.92 million units, and Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! sitting at 14.81 million units. 

Finally, there’s Super Mario Odyssey at 24.4 million units sold, Super Mario Party at 18.35 million units, and Ring Fit Adventure at 14.87 million units. You can check out the full list below.

*Adjusted to reflect a revision of sales units in previous years.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in second place with 39.38 million units sold, followed by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at 28.82 million sales. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is currently at 27.14 million units sold; Pokemon Sword and Shield have hit 24.50 million sales; Super Mario Odyssey is at 23.93 million units sold.

The final four of the list include Super Mario Party in seventh with 18.06 million sales. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are at 14.79 million sales, followed by Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! at 14.66 million sales. Finally, Ring Fit Adventure rounds out the top 10 at 14.54 million units sold.

Unsurprisingly, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still top, with 45.33 million units sold, which is up from the end of December by 1.78 million units. Combining its sales on the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch, its lifetime sales now stand at 53.79 million units, up from 51.81 million.

Meanwhile, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is also maintaining its solid sales momentum. It sold 1.02 million units in Q4 (January-March) of FY 2021-22, and its lifetime sales currently stand at 38.64 million units. Meanwhile, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has now hit 28.17 million units sold, while The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild stands at 26.55 million. 

You can check out the full top 10 below.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in second place with 37.62 million sales, up from 34.85 million, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is in third with 27.40 million sales, up from 25.71 million. A note about Pokemon Sword and Shield – it’s currently at 23.90 million sales, surpassing Pokemon Gold and Silver which has 23.70 million sales. This makes it the second highest selling Pokemon title of all time, just behind Pokemon Red and Blue (31.38 million sales).

Of course, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl also deserve a mention, having sold 13.97 million copies since launching on November 19th 2021. Check out the full top ten best selling Nintendo Switch games below. The figures include titles bundled with hardware along with digital downloads worldwide.

While the placements of the ten games haven’t changed from the data Nintendo provided for the previous quarter, each of the ten has seen an impressive jump in sales, with some seeing particularly significant boosts. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for instance, remains the best-selling Switch game with its sales refusing to slow down. Having sold over 1.6 million units over the last three months, its lifetime sales currently stand at 34.85 million. In fact, it has now surpassed the lifetime sales of Mario Kart Wii, thus becoming the highest-selling game in the series.

Meanwhile, Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ sales have certainly slowed down as compared to the ridiculous pace the game was selling at last year, but even so, it managed to sell nearly a million units over the previous quarter, with cumulative sales currently at 34.85 million. Other games that have seen similar increases include Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Pokemon Sword and Shield, among others. 

Interestingly enough, Ring Fit Adventure saw quite a jump as well, selling nearly a million units, with lifetime sales currently standing at 12.21 million units. That’s just a little over 400,000 units short of Splatoon 2’s total, which feels like a mighty impressive for a game as uniquely niche as Ring Fit Adventure.

You can check out the list of the ten best-selling first party Nintendo Switch games below:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold 33.89 million units while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is at 24.77 million thus far. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has 23.20 million sales to its name followed Pokemon Sword and Shield at 21.85 million, Super Mario Odyssey at 21.40 million and Super Mario Party at 15.72 million.

Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! are at 13.57 million while Splatoon 2 at 12.45 million and Ring Fit Adventure at 11.26 million round out the list. It should be interesting to see where titles like Shin Megami Tensei 5, Metroid Dread, Mario Party Superstars and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl rank in the coming months. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

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

The latest retail charts for weekly game sales in the UK are in (via GamesIndustry), and it’s been a pretty quite week. Nintendo and Switch games have largely dominated the top 10, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was on top of the charts last week, is on top once again. In, fact, the entire top 3 is unchanged, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in second and third place respectively.

One of the few notable new releases of this week was Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, but the game failed to break into the top 10, coming in at No. 36. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla at No. 10 did manage to break back into the top 10 of the charts, while Hitman 3 falls out of the top 10 following its successful launch.

Meanwhile, the likes of Ring Fit Adventure, Minecraft, FIFA 21, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars are also around the top places, where they generally tend to be in these weekly charts.

You can check out the full top 10 for the week ending February 7 below.

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
4. Ring Fit Adventure
5. Minecraft (Switch)
6. Grand Theft Auto 5
7. Just Dance 2021
8. FIFA 21
9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
10. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla