In January to March of 2019, 26% of consumers who bought a new Nintendo Switch console played “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” on the first day of using the system, according to a report released Friday from Nintendo.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa covered the current state of Nintendo Switch business during the company’s financial results briefing.
“After the start of the calendar year, the title driving the most hardware sales is ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,'” Furukawa said.
Furukawa added that ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ was the first game most commonly played by those after buying a new Nintendo Switch, at 26%, between between January and March 2019.
The next most commonly played titles for the first quarter of 2019 are “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” at 16% of users, and both “Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu!” and “Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee!” at 13% (combined).
The breakdown for the top seven most played first day games for the Switch is below:
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In addition, Nintendo observed a shift in the audience reached for the popular “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.” As the months passed since its release in December 2018, the game has reached a wider range of demographics.
“When ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ was first released, it was played by people within a wide age range, and particularly by men in their 20s to early 30s,” Furukawa said. “As time has passed, however, the range of consumers playing this game has widened even further. Our data shows that the range of consumers showing interest in this game is also increasing, which means the title draws such a broad range of people.”
Earlier this month, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” got two exciting updates: Joker from “Persona 5” joined the roster of fighters, and the game got a Stage Builder mode. Perhaps these updates will increase the appeal of the game even further.