Another game that’s continuing to do well for itself is Mario Party Superstars, which stands at 6.88 million units sold worldwide. That’s up from 5.43 million units as of the end of the previous quarter, which ended December 31. Then there’s Metroid Dread, sales for which have certainly slowed down, currently standing at 2.9 million units, up from 2.74 million. Even so, that makes it the highest selling Metroid game to date, surpassing Metroid Prime.

Other notable sales number updates include The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD currently standing at 3.91 million units, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury at 9.43 million units, Splatoon 2 at 13.3 million units, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 at 11.43 million units.

Nintendo has also revealed updated sales figures for the Switch’s top 10 best-selling first party-published titles. Read more on that through here.

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.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD launched in July, and as of September 30, it has sold 3.6 million units. Incredibly enough, that means it has already almost outsold the original Wii release, which stands at 3.67 million units. Meanwhile, New Pokemon Snap’s sales have hit 2.19 million units, while Mario Golf: Super Rush currently stands at 1.94 million units sold worldwide. At last count, the two games had sold 2.07 million units and 1.34 million units respectively.

Meanwhile, Nintendo has also provided updated sales figures for the Nintendo Switch itself, which has sold 92.97 million units worldwide as of September 30. You can read more on that through here.

Meanwhile, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin has debuted in third place. In its launch month, the game already sold thrice as much as the first Monster Hunter Stories has done to date since its 3DS launch in 2017. Square Enix’s NEO: The World Ends with You released around the same time, but has fared much worse, coming in at No.16. The game saw disappointing debut sales in the UK and Japan as well. It’s worth noting, however, that the game was only out for two days in the tracking period for the NPD July charts.

Meanwhile, MLB The Show 21 continues to enjoy strong sales, and has now surpassed Resident Evil Village as the second best selling game of the year. Its year-to-date sales are also the highest ever for an MLB The Show game to date(at last count, it had over 4 million players). That makes sense, seeing as its the first game in the series to not be exclusive to PlayStation.

You can get the full software NPD charts for July 2021 below.

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Version 1.0.1 of the game has gone live, and it’s got some of the briefest patch notes you’ll ever see. “Fixed several issues to improve the gameplay experience,” the patch notes say. And that’s pretty much it. Nintendo hasn’t even specified exactly what issues have been addressed or exactly how the gameplay has been improved, so you’re just going to have to play the game yourself to figure that out, I guess.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is available on Nintendo Switch. In our review of the game, we said, “Skyward Sword’s HD remaster helps sand out some of the game’s rough edges, but this is still probably the most flawed mainline Zelda game to date.” You can read our full review through here.

The only other noteworthy title was Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game. It saw sales increase by 43 percent, no doubt due to the buzz of the real-life Olympics, putting it in third place. Sadly, the buzz didn’t help Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 which saw sales drop by 13 percent.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD saw a major dip, going from second to fifth place after sales dropped by 46 percent. NEO: The World Ends with You debuted last week in tenth place but sadly fell out of the top ten this week. Check out the Gfk top ten for the week ending August 7th 2021 below.

Destiny 2’s Armor Synthesis

Bungie is no stranger to cash-grab attempts with its Destiny franchise, utilizing FOMO and other tactics to push its seasonal content and microtransactions. Armor Synthesis aka transmog is the most recent example. Since it allows for having the cosmetic appearance of different armor while maintaining one’s stats, transmog is an oft-sought feature in looters and action RPGs. Fans clamored for a long time to see it in Destiny and Bungie finally delivered. See, Armor Synthesis doesn’t simply let you equip any armor piece’s appearance like, say, an ornament. No, you needed to earn Synthstrand first, which is acquired by killing enemies (and was actually revealed to be influenced more by time – regardless of whether you killed one foe or a dozen, you’d earn the same amount each minute). This is then turned into Ada-1 to purchase bounties, which must then be completed to earn Synthchord. When you get Synthchord, you’re permitted transmog currency for ONE armor piece with a cap of 10 pieces or two full armor sets every season. Of course, you could break that cap…by spending real money.

It’s fairly obvious that the Armor Synthesis grind is a means to inflate playtime and turn a quality of life feature into a chore. But capping the amount of Synthchord, simply for the purpose of selling more to earn a quick buck, is just a cash grab, plain and simple. Bungie is removing the Synthstrand requirement when the next season launches in August so it’s somewhat less awful at least.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD takes place from the very beginning of the timeline and sees Link embarking on a journey to save his childhood friend Zelda. Residing in floating islands in the skies, players must make their way to the world below and with the help of Fi, the Goddess Sword, defeat the forces of darkness. Along with improved visuals, the HD remaster also offers a number of quality of life features.

These include an autosave system, free camera control, support for button controls and an option to fast forward dialogue or skip cutscenes. Item information is also streamlined, preventing the same details on the same items from continuously showing up. For more details, check out our official review here.

First, let’s look at Ancient Flowers. These can be found mostly in Lanayru Desert by hitting Timeshift Stones. You can find one by going to the Bird Statue in the South and traveling further south until you find the stone. Hit it and climb the vines to reach the Ancient Flower. You can also head to the caves in the southern region and use bombs in the quicksand passage. This will activate a Timeshift Zone and allows for reaching the Ancient Flower in the quicksand pool in the South (and which can be farmed).

Finally, when outside of the Temple of Time, look for a TimeShift Stone on a spire – hit it and two Ancient Flowers will appear, which can be obtained with the Beetle.

Next are Monster Claws. Along with earning them from mini-games and treasure chests, they also drop from Keese (and sometimes from Gossip Stones when interacting with them). Keese can be found in a number of locations including Skyview Temple, Eldin Volcano, Lanayru Desert, Earth Temple and Faron Woods. For an easy farming route, head to Skyview Temple and venture through the halls, eliminating any Keese along the way en route to the Bird Statue. Once you reach it, teleport outside and repeat the process.

Tumbleweeds are another Treasure used for upgrading items but they don’t drop from enemies, chests, stones, etc. Instead, you need to head to the Southern part of Lanayru Desert. Look for three small circles on the map – Tumbleweeds tend to drift back and forth in this section. Take out the Bug Net to collect them but be quick. Hitting walls makes them disappear.

Bird Feathers can be found by capturing Chirris in Faron Woods. You’ll need the Bug Net to capture them so pick that up beforehand. You can also obtain Blue Bird Feathers from Blue Chirris in Faron Woods, though these are somewhat rarer. Other places they can be found include Treasure Chests, from the Moonlight Merchant, the Pumpkin Pull mini-game in Skyloft, and the Clean Cut mini-game on Bamboo Island.

Evil Crystals are perhaps the rarest Treasure in terms of drop rate – they can be obtained from Cursed Bokoblins, Dark Keese and Dark Lizalfos. You can also sometimes obtain them from Gossip Stones when using the Goddess Harp and from Treasure Chests. The Clean Cut mini-game on Bamboo Island also provides it as a prize if you have over 20 slices.

The first is using the Goddess Sword’s Dowsing ability. This will reveal any Rupees hidden in the environment and can open Goddess Cubes which can contain more. You can also use the Digging Mitts on various spots to dig up some Rupees. One nice method in the beginning is to catch bugs and sell them to Strich.

The most valuable insects to look out for include the Woodland Rhino Beetle, Sky Stag Battle, Lanayru Ant and Volcanic Ladybug which provide 20 Rupees each; the Gerudo Dragonfly and Starry Firefly which pay out 30 Rupees each; the Eldin Roller and Faron Grasshopper which net 20 Rupees each; and the Sand Cicada, which is worth a whopping 50 Rupees. It’s also possible to catch birds and sell Bird Feathers for 20 Rupees in the Bazaar at Rupin’s shop (with a chance of catching blue birds worth 100 Rupees).

Later on, you’ll want to partake in mini-games for greater payouts. The Thunder Dragon’s Lightning Round, located in Lanayru Gorge, is great since defeating more bosses can provide thousands of Rupees in prizes (along with earning the Hylian Shield). There are also the Silent Realm challenges which provide Rupees based on Link’s performance along with materials like the Golden Skull, Goddess Plume and Blue Bird Feather.

There’s also the Thrill Digger mini-game in the Eldin Volcano which functions a lot like Minesweeper. Since you have to pay an entry fee, which increases with the difficulty and there’s no guarantee of making a profit, it can be rather hit or miss. Nevertheless, those with enough luck may find it worth trying especially since you can dig up red Rupees at the highest difficulty. Also worth trying is the Clean Cut mini-game on Bamboo Island. Though it pays out 30 Rupees, you can still earn Treasures like Evil Crystals, Blue Bird Feathers, Goddess Plumes and Golden Skulls which can be used for crafting or sold for additional money.