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Nintendo France: Zelda was the best-selling game of 2023, record year for Mario and more...

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Lelouch0612

Lelouch0612

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Nintendo France's President, Philippe Lavoué, took part to the tradition January interview with French media and shared several tibdits on Nintendo's excellent year:

  • Super Mario Bros. Movie was #1 in the French BO in 2023 with 7,3M admissions.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had a launch many thought was impossible to have nowadays at retail (500.000 units)
  • >1M units in France for Zelda with digital sales
  • Wonder had the best start for a Mario game in France.
  • The game managed to attract a wider audience that initially planned.
  • 2.7M units of Mario games have been sold last year in France
  • 855.000 Switch sold in 2023 (down from 987.000 last year)
  • 8M milestone will be crossed by the Switch in Late January
  • 55% of retail games sold last year were on Switch
  • Zelda #1 the best-selling chart, Mario #2 by SKU but #3 in All formats, overall 5 Switch games are in the top 10.
He also shared the top 10 Switch games at retail in 2023:
  1. Zelda : Tears of the Kindgom : 968.000 units sold
  2. Super Mario Bros Wonder : 747.500 units sold
  3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe : 383.500 units sold
  4. Minecraft : 230.900 units sold
  5. EA Sports FC 24 : 167.500 units sold
  6. Nintendo Switch Sports : 154.600 units sold
  7. Mario Party Superstars : 153.800 units sold
  8. Hogwarts Legacy : 153.300 units sold
  9. Animal Crossing New Horizons : 153.100 units sold
  10. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe : 132.500 units sold
www.lefigaro.fr

Zelda et Super Mario, le duo gagnant de Nintendo France en 2023

Super Mario Wonder, Kart, Party, Deluxe... Les jeux vidéo mettant en scène la mascotte se sont écoulés à 2,7 millions d’exemplaires l’an passé. Et avec Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo France revendique la meilleure vente de l’année.
www.lefigaro.fr www.lefigaro.fr
www.bfmtv.com

"Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" est le jeu vidéo le plus vendu en France en 2023

Numéro 1 des ventes avec près d'un million d'exemplaires, Zelda surpasse notamment l'édition annuelle de la simulation de football d'Electronic Arts "EA Sports FC" sur PlayStation 5.
www.bfmtv.com www.bfmtv.com
 
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Zelda and Mario Wonder were both massive hits in France, good to see.

Switch hardware number seems very impressive, only a small drop from previous year and still a high number.
 
Time to upgrade my mario wonder prediction
HL 150k with just physical, just wow
NSMBUDX...
 
Great data and great HW hold for Switch in 2023. But just to be clear: I thought TotK already passed 1 Mio. units retail by the end of october? So why is it 'only' at 968k für the entire year now?
 
Tialo said:
Great data and great HW hold for Switch in 2023. But just to be clear: I thought TotK already passed 1 Mio. units retail by the end of october? So why is it 'only' at 968k für the entire year now?
Click to expand...
The 1M milestone (which was announced through a commercial that aired at the time) was in fact with digital, contrary to what was initially believed.
 
Thanks for info @Lelouch0612

Switch Hardware was at 7.09M units by the end of 2022 according to Nintendo France. Adding 855k from 2023 leads to ~7.95M LTD until the end of 2023. So the 8 Mio. bar should indeed be crossed at at the end of January ;)

Switch was -14%YoY in 2023, this is a pretty good hold. Maybe Switch can even cross 9M bar LTD in the end
 
Impressive numbers all around, I wish other branches of other countries would do the same...


Anyway, do we have the LTD chart for the best selling consoles of all time in France?
 
Switch has had an impressive run in France last year. Very pleased by the Zelda success, it really reasonated with French tastes.

Also, Hogwarts Legacy on Switch sold amazingly well.
 
Necroxid said:
Impressive numbers all around, I wish other branches of other countries would do the same...


Anyway, do we have the LTD chart for the best selling consoles of all time in France?
Click to expand...

I will post updated graphs latter but Switch is #2 only behind Nintendo DS (10,6M).
Game Boy is #3 (6,5M), Wii #4 (6,3M) and PS4 #5 (>6M).

Including all Platforms Hogwarts Legacy IS somewhere between 650k and 750k at retail.
 
Zelda didn't beat Animal Crossing's 2020 after all
A bit disappointed we didn't get a new retail game selling 1M in it's launch year

3.4M+ for MK8D at retail now
 
Rouk' said:
Zelda didn't beat Animal Crossing's 2020 after all
A bit disappointed we didn't get a new retail game selling 1M in it's launch year

3.4M+ for MK8D at retail now
Click to expand...
What the actual fuck.

There is a 12 years gap between GTA V and GTA VI. You can bet the one between MK8D and its successor will be comparable.
 
Astral_lion02 said:
I will post updated graphs latter but Switch is #2 only behind Nintendo DS (10,6M).
Game Boy is #3 (6,5M), Wii #4 (6,3M) and PS4 #5 (>6M).

Including all Platforms Hogwarts Legacy IS somewhere between 650k and 750k at retail.
Click to expand...

So Switch sold far better in France than Wii did. Its the same pattern as in Germany. In UK, Wii is still ahead which is a clear different pattern
 
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France really is Nintendo land but this is part of a wider trend we are seeing across Europe. Stuff like this will really help sell third parties on supporting Switch 2 from launch.
 
Nintendo Switch sales were down by 13,4% in France YoY VS 10% in Europe (excluding UK).

The console have a very small YoY decrease elsewhere in Europe.
 
Very impressive numbers across the board. I love seeing France become more and more Nintendoland 2.0. Thanks for sharing!!
 
Could hover around 9M by the end.
The number one is NDS at 10.6M, then NSW and a bit behind WII at 6.4M in third spot.
 
Astral_lion02 said:
I will post updated graphs latter but Switch is #2 only behind Nintendo DS (10,6M).
Game Boy is #3 (6,5M), Wii #4 (6,3M) and PS4 #5 (>6M).

Including all Platforms Hogwarts Legacy IS somewhere between 650k and 750k at retail.
Click to expand...
Switch SKU being 153k out of 750k, or over 20%, at retail is really great as a late conversion with some technical challenges. Do we have an idea about digital? France has rather small digital overall, but do we have a ballpark digital share for different skus (and PC sales)?
 
Switch 2 will massacre all past records in France.

My feeling is that the current situation is very similar to the one preceeding the PS2 arrival. Nintendo could sell a cardboard box with "Switch 2" on it and it would fly off the shelves.
 
Pretty darn good for Hogwarts and FC24. Goes back to the core point that if you need to choose things to port or put effort in, the big sellers are the ones with the most latent potential.
 
Kenka said:
Switch 2 will massacre all past records in France.

My feeling is that the current situation is very similar to the one preceeding the PS2 arrival. Nintendo could sell a cardboard box with "Switch 2" on it and it would fly off the shelves.
Click to expand...

I think that Switch 2 should generally be able to break some new launch records worldwide - considering that Nintendo can deliver enough quantity
 
Zedark said:
Switch SKU being 153k out of 750k, or over 20%, at retail is really great as a late conversion with some technical challenges. Do we have an idea about digital? France has rather small digital overall, but do we have a ballpark digital share for different skus (and PC sales)?
Click to expand...

FIFA23 NSW digital share was about half of PS4-PS5 versions. So NSW digital share is likely 10-15% vs 20-30% for PS/XB in France.

Top 20 best selling console games:

RANK./LAST YEAR'S RANK. [SYSTEM] TITLE (PUBLISHER) {RELEASE DATE} (AVERAGE PRICE) - YEAR-TO-DATE SALES / LIFETIME-TO-DATE SALES (YEAR OVER YEAR DIFFERENCE) <DIGITAL SHARE>

01./00. [PS4] FIFA 23 (Electronic Arts) {2022.09.30} (58€) - 736.265 / NEW <25,93%>
02./00. [NSW] Pokemon Legends: Arceus (Nintendo) {2022.01.28} (49€) - 589.375 / NEW
03./02. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} (48€) - 451.254 / 3.069.360 (-10%)
04./00. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo) {2022.04.29} (39€) - 432.685 / NEW
05./00. [NSW] Pokemon Violet (Nintendo) {2022.11.18} (48€) - 416.537 / NEW
06./00. [PS5] FIFA 23 (Electronic Arts) {2022.09.30} (65€) - 303.685 / NEW <30,02%>
07./00. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet (Nintendo) {2022.11.18} (48€) - 300.489 / NEW
08./00. [NSW] FIFA 23: Legacy Edition (Electronic Arts) {2022.09.30} (34€) - 271.983 / NEW <13,38%>
09./00. [NSW] Mario Strikers: Battle League (Nintendo) {2022.06.10} (48€) - 270.772 / NEW
10./00. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo) {2022.09.09} (48€) - 257.309 / NEW
11./04. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) {2020.03.20} (47€) - 256.557 / 1.769.133 (-41%)
12./06. [NSW] Minecraft (Xbox Game Studios) {2018.06.21} (28€) - 252.994 / 1.278.327 (-16%)
13./07. [NSW] Mario Party Superstars (Nintendo) {2021.10.29} (48€) - 246.328 / 522.960 (-11%)
14./00. [PS5] FIFA 23 - Ultimate Edition (Electronic Arts) {2022.09.30} (92€) - 226.754 / NEW
15./00. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) {2022.03.25} (50€) - 218.473 / NEW
16./00. [PS5] God of War: Ragnarok (Sony Interactive Entertainment) {2022.11.09} (71€) - 213.922 / NEW <20,55%>
17./00. [PS5] Horizon Forbidden West (Sony Interactive Entertainment) {2022.02.18} (71€) - 201.132 / NEW <10,48%>
18./00. [PS5] Gran Turismo 7 (Sony Interactive Entertainment) {2022.03.04} (69€) - 200.277 / NEW <20,58%>
19./00. [PS4] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - Cross-Gen Bundle (Activision Blizzard) {2022.10.28} (66€) - 181.175 / NEW
20./01. [PS4] FIFA 22 (Electronic Arts) {2021.10.01} (36€) - 179.871 / 945.397 (-77%)
 
Kenka said:
Switch 2 will massacre all past records in France.

My feeling is that the current situation is very similar to the one preceeding the PS2 arrival. Nintendo could sell a cardboard box with "Switch 2" on it and it would fly off the shelves.
Click to expand...
I’m expecting a giga launch of around 200-250k and over 1.25M sold in first year compared to 1M of Switch which is still the fastest selling console of all time in the country.
 
Kenka said:
Switch 2 will massacre all past records in France.

My feeling is that the current situation is very similar to the one preceeding the PS2 arrival. Nintendo could sell a cardboard box with "Switch 2" on it and it would fly off the shelves.
Click to expand...
Picturing a new Labo kit that says Switch 2.

I'm almost terrified thinking about Switch 2 potential.
 
Some Hardware data i looked up.
Calendar Year Switch sales in France

2017: 911K total: 911K
2018: 1130K total: 2041K
2019: 1250K total: 3291k
2020: 1445K total: 4736K
2021: 1231K total: 5967K
2022: 987K total: 6954K
2023: 855K total: 7809K

PS4 total: 6070K
XBO total: 1799K
3DS total: 5500K
 
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Other Lifetime sales in France that i found.

3DS: 5.50M (as of Dec 31, 2018)
PS3: 5.23M
PSP: 3.58M
X360: 3.37M
NES: 2.40M
Master: 1.60M
Wii U: 0.83M

Does Anyone know how much PS1 and PS2 sold?
 
Luminoth 4545 said:
Some Hardware data i looked up.
Calendar Year Switch sales in France

2017: 911K total: 911K
2018: 1130K total: 2041K
2019: 1250K total: 3291k
2020: 1445K total: 4736K
2021: 1231K total: 5967K
2022: 987K total: 6954K
2023: 855K total: 7809K

PS4 total: 6070K
XBO total: 1799K
3DS total: 5500K
Click to expand...

Your Switch numbers are a bit to low somehow. Nintendo mentioned that they sold 7.09M units until the end of 2022 (it was in last years interview). So you 'lost' 136k somewhere
 
Here are some rough estimates I put together for how much other Mario games sold at retail in their first CY:

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: 748k
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 502k
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: 430k
Super Mario Odyssey: 400k
Luigi's Mansion 3: 395k
Super Mario Party: 380k
Super Mario 3D All-Stars: 324k
Super Mario Maker 2: 255k
 
Tialo said:
Your Switch numbers are a bit to low somehow. Nintendo mentioned that they sold 7.09M units until the end of 2022 (it was in last years interview). So you 'lost' 136k somewhere
Click to expand...
I'm using GSD data which had Switch at 5967K at the end of 2021, i think the 7.09M figure at the end of 2022 is from Le Figaro.

www.installbaseforum.com

French Hardware Sales in 2021 (Update with new data)

GSD/GFK Sales [Physical] (France): CY 2021 01./00. FIFA 22 (Electronic Arts) {2021.09.27} 02./00. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl (Nintendo) {2021.11.19} - 700.000 / NEW 03./03. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} 04./00. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Nintendo)...
www.installbaseforum.com www.installbaseforum.com
 
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Luminoth 4545 said:
I'm using GSD data which had Switch at 5967K at the end of 2021, i think the 7.09M figure at the end of 2022 is from La Figaro.

www.installbaseforum.com

French Hardware Sales in 2021 (Update with new data)

GSD/GFK Sales [Physical] (France): CY 2021 01./00. FIFA 22 (Electronic Arts) {2021.09.27} 02./00. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl (Nintendo) {2021.11.19} - 700.000 / NEW 03./03. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} 04./00. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Nintendo)...
www.installbaseforum.com www.installbaseforum.com
Click to expand...

Yes 7.09M was from la figaro interview. So Nintendo has tracked a bit higher numbers as GSD
 
AK World said:
Here are some rough estimates I put together for how much other Mario games sold at retail in their first CY:

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: 748k
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 502k
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: 430k
Super Mario Odyssey: 400k
Luigi's Mansion 3: 395k
Super Mario Party: 380k
Super Mario 3D All-Stars: 324k
Super Mario Maker 2: 255k
Click to expand...
That's a huge jump from U Deluxe to Wonder. Curious if that will be reflected in other markets.
 
I am so glad that we're getting so many detailed numbers from at least one European market. Fantastic huge numbers too. I'm really impressed by NSMBUD's legs.
 
Graphs
  • Index
    • GEesefPXEAAXTvV

    Graph by @pierre485

    GRPALFR.jpg



    GRPALFR2.jpg

    *FIFA 21 is just my own estimate.

    GRPALFR3.jpg

    *Super Mario Maker include bundles and that number miss the last weeks of december.
    No data for NSMBU on Wii U.
     
  • Index
    • So much interesting data. First thing I noticed was minecraft, it’s selling an insane amount at retail for a game that likely skews digital heavy. Wish we could get some actual data on how much it has sold on switch WW. IMO it may well be up there with some of Nintendos big guns but we’ll never know.

    MK8D is ridiculous. Makes you wonder how MK9 will be received, it’s going to be the follow up to a game that sells like 70+ million copies.

    I know Zelda was the headline number but I kinda find wonder more impressive. On its current trajectory it seems like it will go past TOTK which was one of nintendos most hyped releases ever. 2D Mario still got some sting in its tail.
     
    Adventureracing said:
    So much interesting data. First thing I noticed was minecraft, it’s selling an insane amount at retail for a game that likely skews digital heavy. Wish we could get some actual data on how much it has sold on switch WW. IMO it may well be up there with some of Nintendos big guns but we’ll never know.
    Click to expand...

    Minecraft sells a lot to kids and kids get physical present for Christmas. You can't imagine how many parents/adults go to the store and ask for a Switch game to kids and Minecraft is often a good choice, also thanks to its price.
     
    New Super Mario Bros Deluxe.
    2019 : 429 628
    2020 : 228 963
    2021 : 157 774
    2022 : 135 441
    2023 : 132 500

    Five full years because NSMUD was released on January 2019.
     
    Raguy said:
    New Super Mario Bros Deluxe.
    2019 : 429 628
    2020 : 228 963
    2021 : 157 774
    2022 : 135 441
    2023 : 132 500

    Five full years because NSMUD was released on January 2019.
    Click to expand...
    1.08M total at retail then. Passed 1M in 2023.
    How many retail games are above 1M on switch?
     
    So for the big European Markets France is number 1 for Switch. The numbers for Germany and Italy are from a year ago, today Germany will probably be close to 7 million and Italy close to 3 million.

    France: 7.81M
    UK: 6.79M
    Germany : 6.00M (as of Dec 2022)
    Spain: 3.04M
    Italy: 2.50M (as of Dec 2022)
     
    I didn't realize how big 3DS had been in France!? Definitely an overperformer versus other western markets.
     
    Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a huge performer in Europe but its sales in France are really impressive, it is even above last year Pokémon Scarlet / Violet. On the contrary EA Sports FC 24 suffered a big decline on Nintendo Switch compared to FIFA 23 Legacy Edition.
     
    Bruno MB said:
    On the contrary EA Sports FC 24 suffered a big decline on Nintendo Switch compared to FIFA 23 Legacy Edition.
    Click to expand...
    Which is interesting since UK numbers suggest that this year's non-legacy version is doing better than before. Not sure what to make of that.
     
    Luminoth 4545 said:
    So for the big European Markets France is number 1 for Switch. The numbers for Germany and Italy are from a year ago, today Germany will probably be close to 7 million and Italy close to 3 million.

    France: 7.81M
    UK: 6.79M
    Germany : 6.00M (as of Dec 2022)
    Spain: 3.04M
    Italy: 2.50M (as of Dec 2022)
    Click to expand...

    Thanks for the overview. If we assume that Germany is on par with UK numbers till end of 2023 and Italy maybe slighty under 3M, then these five countries would lead to ~27M units in total. Till the end of September 2023, Nintendo shipped 34.15M units for the whole EU. These numbers will be higher for sure in next quarter meeting (~36M shipped numbers till the end of 2023 most probably). Sell-through for the whole EU will be a bit lower of course, maybe something around 34.5M. According to this, we can assume that France + UK + Germany + Italy + Spain represents roundabout 80% of the EU Switch market. By using this indicator, we can also extrapolate sales of specific game titles to whole EU numbers IF we know the specific numbers for the mentioned countries. According to this, I would predict Mario Wonder to have sold 3M units at retail till the end of 2023 in the EU. If digital share is close to 25%, this would lead to 4M sold units in general
     
    Zedark said:
    Which is interesting since UK numbers suggest that this year's non-legacy version is doing better than before. Not sure what to make of that.
    Click to expand...
    In Spain EA Sports FC 24 is above FIFA 23 Legacy Edition, perhaps French people don't like Haaland :p
     
    Bruno MB said:
    Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a huge performer in Europe but its sales in France are really impressive, it is even above last year Pokémon Scarlet / Violet. On the contrary EA Sports FC 24 suffered a big decline on Nintendo Switch compared to FIFA 23 Legacy Edition.
    Click to expand...
    I guess last year it got a huge boost due to World Cup where France reached the finals.
     
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