Pokémon Legends: Arceus is Nintendo’s best-selling Switch game ever, based on average daily sales, a new study has discovered.
The study, conducted by gaming site solitaired.com, analysed all the games released by Nintendo for its Switch console in the five years since its release , and calculated the average daily rate of how many copies each game has sold.
Released on 28 January 2022, Nintendo’s newest Pokémon game, Pokémon Legends: Arceus has already taken the world by storm, selling 6.5 million copies in 46 days, which corresponds to an average of 141,304 copies per day, making it one of Nintendo’s faster selling games.
Second on the list is Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, another new release, as it was put on the market on November 19, 2021. After 116 days, the game has sold almost 14 million copies, which amounts to 120,431 copies per day.
Released on March 20, 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes in third, and remains one of Nintendo’s most popular games ever, as sales for it kept going strong, totalling almost 38 million copies in 725 days, which translates to almost 52,000 copies per day, in the span of almost two years.
Mario Party Superstars, another 2021 release, makes fourth place. The game became available for purchase on October 29, 2021, and since has sold 5,430,000 copies, which divided by 137 days means almost 40,000 copies sold each day.
The top five closes with Pokémon Sword and Shield, released on November 15, 2019, which sold 23.9 million copies over the span of 851 days, which corresponds to an average of 28,084 copies per day.
Just after the top five, the list includes Nintendo’s bestselling game based on overall sells alone, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which was released on April 28, 2017, and is the oldest release on the list. Because of its overwhelming popularity, the game still makes sixth position, selling 43,350,000 copies since its release 1,782 days ago – average of 28,084 copies sold per day.
| Top 10 bestselling Nintendo Switch games based on daily sells | |||||
| Title | Copies sold | Release date | Days since release | Average sells per day | |
| 1 | Pokémon Legends: Arceus | 6,500,000 | 28-Jan-22 | 46 | 141,304 |
| 2 | Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl | 13,970,000 | 19-Nov-21 | 116 | 120,431 |
| 3 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons | 37,620,000 | 20-Mar-20 | 725 | 51,889 |
| 4 | Mario Party Superstars | 5,430,000 | 29-Oct-21 | 137 | 39,635 |
| 5 | Pokémon Sword and Shield | 23,900,000 | 15-Nov-19 | 851 | 28,084 |
| 6 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | 43,350,000 | 28-Apr-17 | 1,782 | 24,326 |
| 7 | Super Smash Bros Ultimate | 27,400,000 | 7-Dec-18 | 1,194 | 22,948 |
| 8 | Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury | 8,850,000 | 12-Feb-21 | 396 | 22,348 |
| 9 | Monster Hunter Rise | 7,700,000 | 26-Mar-21 | 354 | 21,751 |
| 10 | Metroid Dread | 2,740,000 | 8-Oct-21 | 158 | 17,341 |
A spokesperson from solitaired.com commented on the findings: “Nintendo games are often highly anticipated, with the company always aiming to improve and releasing better game experiences for its players.
“It is fascinating to see how, based off daily sales, the top game on the list has been able to attract so much attention in less than 50 days, driving up sales numbers massively in such a short period of time in the gaming world.
“The data showed in this study is a testament to Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ popularity, and the early data indicates it could be one of Nintendo’s best and fast selling games, if not the most popular overall”.
This research was conducted by solitaired.com, a free, browser-based card game platform with more than 500 games available to play.
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