Gaming

Nintendo Switch sold more units in August than any console in US history


A hot summer for the Switch (pic: Nintendo)

The Switch has smashed August sales records, as Zelda: Breath Of The Wild becomes the 10th biggest Nintendo game ever in America.

The next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles may be almost upon us but it’s the Nintendo Switch that is currently the best-selling hardware, as new figures are released for the US.

This year, Nintendo had its best August ever in the US, with the peculiarities of the pandemic, and the success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, seeing Switch sales more than double compared to August 2019 – and it’s not as if it was doing badly then.

The previous record for the highest ever hardware sales during August was also set by Nintendo, with the Wii in 2008, but unfortunately chart-trackers NPD won’t release specific numbers for either year.

As if that wasn’t enough Nintendo games accounted for exactly half of the top 20 selling games of August, in the US.

One of these was Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, which NPD reveals has become the 10th best-selling Nintendo game in US history.

That’s more of a feat than it might at first seem as, despite the consistent critical acclaim, Zelda has never been a particularly big seller.

Current sales for Breath Of The Wild sit at just over 20 million worldwide, whereas the next most successful entry is Ocarina Of Time at 13.22 million.



U.S. all formats chart – August

1 (-) Madden NFL 21 (XO/PS4/PC)
2 (-) EA Sports UFC 4 (XO/PS4)
3 (2) Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (XO/PS4/PC)
4 (1) Ghost Of Tsushima (PS4)
5 (5) Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NS)*
6 (6) Ring Fit Adventure (NS)
7 (8) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS)*
8 (9) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NS)*
9 (3) Paper Mario: The Origami King (NS)*
10 (7) Mortal Kombat 11 (XO/PS4/NS/PC)

*does not include digital sales

Note: U.S. charts are organised by revenue, not unit sales

The NPD Group/NPD Funworld

Ironically, despite all this, there were no Nintendo games in the August top three, with EA dominating the top two spots with new releases Madden NFL 21 and EA Sports UFC 4.

Sports games (and Mortal Kombat) are one of the few areas where the US and UK charts tend to different, although there are no weekly US charts to make direct comparisons.

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