Fortnite has been massive on just about every platform and you can add the Switch to the list as nearly half of all Switch consoles have downloaded the battle royale title worldwide.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa discussed performance of third party titles and more in the latest financial results briefing:
Distribution of the Nintendo Switch version of Fortnite Battle Royale from Epic Games began during E3 this past June, and since then it has shown up everywhere, not just in the US and Europe but also in Japan. It has gained so much momentum that it has been downloaded to nearly half of all Nintendo Switch systems worldwide. Many people continue to play the game, boosting the overall utilization ratio of Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch is unique in that people can bring their consoles with them so they can communicate while playing at a friend’s house or elsewhere.
The next title I want to talk about is Octopath Traveler, released in July of this year by Square Enix. This is an RPG featuring a special kind of graphics known as “HD-2D,” which is a fusion of 2D sprites and 3D graphics. This completely original title for Nintendo Switch earned high marks from game media reviewers and also has been well received by actual playing consumers. Despite this being a completely original title, Square Enix announced that global shipments and download sales reached 1 million units within three weeks of release. According to them, both shipments and sell-through continued to climb after that, and sellthrough has now surpassed 1 million units.
A wide variety of publishers from regions around the globe, and of all sizes including indie developers, have been on board since the release of Nintendo Switch, thanks to the early availability of a development environment. The number of publishers has further grown since then, and new titles are being released at a quickening pace, giving our consumers a continually widening selection of titles to choose from. We are also seeing increased interest via multiple media from developers in Nintendo Switch development and software sales.
A hit title is naturally high-quality software in and of itself, but I also consider it to be a title that consumers and developers all appreciate to be a good fit with the “play anytime, anywhere, with anyone” concept and the quick-to-start, quick-to suspend functionality of Nintendo Switch. At the Financial Results Briefing in April 2018, we explained that more than 600 titles were available for purchase on Nintendo eShop.
As of October, there were over 500 software publishers selling software for Nintendo Switch, and worldwide more than 1,300 titles from these publishers available for purchase on Nintendo eShop. We plan to release a variety of titles from an increasing number of publishers going forward.
Note: This is the total number of titles available for purchase from the Nintendo eShop sites in the various regions of the world. The same title is not counted multiple times when it is distributed by Nintendo eShop in more than one country.
We as a company are deepening our ties with the developer community and beginning new activities in each country focused on game titles that would be difficult to introduce through conventional media channels. While widening the number of titles and genres from software publishers, we will work to create opportunities for our consumers to encounter new games.
