Nintendo Sales Results: NPD October 2021

November 12, 2021

Despite losing a long-running NPD victory streak last month, Nintendo Switch is back on top thanks to the OLED revision.

For hardware, the month of October saw the Nintendo Switch as the best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars. This was definitely helped by the launch of the Nintendo Switch – OLED Model. Even though PlayStation 5 remains the best-selling hardware platform of 2021 year-to-date in dollars, Nintendo Switch still leads in unit sales. Matt Piscatella of NPD also reports that overall game hardware dollar sales increased 82% when compared to October 2020, to $472 million.

For software, Far Cry 6 took the #1 spot in the Top 20 best-sellers for the month; however, in terms of Nintendo-published software, Metroid Dread, the first new 2D Metroid in 19 years debuted at #3. Piscatella goes on to announce that Metroid: Dread achieved the highest launch month sales of any Metroid franchise release in tracked history. Its launch dollar sales nearly doubled those of the previous franchise best, Metroid Prime. It appears we know those sales numbers as during an interview, NOA President and COO, Doug Bowser announced that Metroid Dread sold 854,000 copies in the U.S. during its launch month. The rest of the Top 20 for Nintendo is as follows: Mario Party Superstars (which also debuted in October) is at #8, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at #11, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at #14, Animal Crossing: New Horizons at #15, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at #20.

Third-party Switch software includes FIFA 22 at #6, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy at #7, NBA 2K22 at #10, Minecraft at #16, Diablo II: Resurrected at #18, and Mortal Kombat XI at #19.

Finally, the Top 10 best-sellers for Switch are as follows:

  1. Metroid Dread
  2. Mario Party Superstars
  3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  7. Pokemon Sword & Shield
  8. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
  9. Minecraft
  10. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe