Amazon has released its list of top-selling video games for 2019, and the list is full of Nintendo Switch titles. In the Amazon 2019 top-selling games list, only two of the 13 games in the top 30 items (which also include controllers, gift cards, and accessories) were non-Switch games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare came in at number 15, while Kingdom Hearts 3 came in at number 24.
Several PlayStation and Xbox gift cards found their way into Amazon’s top 30 video game items, including $10 PSN and Xbox gift cards in the number one and number two spots, respectively. Actual games themselves, however, were predominantly Nintendo games. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate claimed the number five spot, beating out every other game on the list. The other Nintendo games in the top 30 were Pokemon Sword and Shield, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Breath of the Wild, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Minecraft, Super Mario Maker 2, and Just Dance 2020. The Switch itself was also the only console to make the top 50 list, and the Switch Pro Controller was the best-selling of any accessory.
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There are several possible reasons for Nintendo’s dominance of the list. The abundance of Xbox and PlayStation gift cards (as well as PS Plus and Xbox Live Gold membership cards) suggests players on those platforms may be buying more games digitally or playing games through those systems’ free game download programs rather than buying games off Amazon. Additionally, PlayStation and Xbox users likely skew older than Nintendo users, so there’s a greater possibility of them having access to credit card information to buy games directly on the consoles’ built-in storefronts.
There’s also the matter of storage space. Without a large SD card, the Switch’s on-board storage space is also much smaller than the other consoles’, meaning users may prefer purchasing physical games instead of constantly freeing up storage space for new downloadable ones. Perhaps a Switch Pro model in 2020 could change that.
