New data from The Game Business reveals that third-party games on the recently launched Switch 2 have experienced significantly lower sales compared to first-party titles at launch.
According to NielsenIQ, 86% of physical Switch 2 game sales were first-party, including the bundled Mario Kart World. Excluding the bundle, first-party sales accounted for 48%. In the US, Circana reports 68% of sales were first-party excluding bundles. By contrast, the original Switch launch saw first-party sales at 89% in the UK and 81% in the US. The larger number of launch titles for Switch 2, compared to Switch 1, partly explains this shift.
The top-selling third-party release was Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Sega emerged as the third-largest third-party publisher with launch games including Sonic X Shadow Generations, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S.
However, an anonymous publisher described initial sales as “below our lowest estimates” despite strong hardware demand.
Several factors may contribute to these sales trends:
- Switch buyers primarily seek Nintendo first-party games.
- Switch 2’s backward compatibility allows players to enjoy improved versions of Switch 1 titles, reducing the need to buy new games immediately.
- Many third-party releases are ports of older titles that players may already own.
- The majority of third-party games use Game-Key Cards, which have faced fan resistance; Cyberpunk notably included the full game on the cartridge, possibly boosting its sales.
- Nintendo’s late distribution of review units limited early consumer insights on third-party game quality, with some titles like Hitman World of Assassination suffering from performance issues.
With upcoming major first-party releases like Donkey Kong Bonanza and Pokémon Legends: Z-A planned this year, third-party developers may continue to face challenges in gaining traction on the Switch 2 platform.