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For several months already we are used to seeing the Switch at the top of the sales, whether at Japan or in North America. April 2020 is no exception to the rule and NPD (via Michael Pachter’s analyzes) shows us again la Switch largely triumph in console sales, reaching a total of around 800,000 consoles sold in 30 days. It’s slightly less than the month of March (helped by the release of the Animal Crossing phenomenon), but this is more than correct. To make this figure even more incredible, remember that during the same period, the Xbox One and the PS4 (both at end of life) failed to reach that number together. The Switch continues to dominate the American charts, aided without a doubt by the Covid-19 pandemic and the containment measures that took place United States, pushing consumers to buy a console to pass the time (and keep the kids busy too).
The Switch even exceeds analyst forecasts: Michael Pachter, widely known in the industry, predicted that the hybrid console Nintendo would sell 400,000 copies during the month of April when it finally sold … double! Same observation on the side of other machines: the PS4 sold to 415,000 players, exceeding the expected 235,000, while the Xbox One exceeded expectations (175,000 sales) by finding 329,000 new takers. Nothing very surprising when you know that the pandemic has paralyzed stores, pushing players to buy from online affiliates. As for the best sales of video games, we know that Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Final Fantasy VII Remake are the best performances of the month according to NPD in North America : nothing new under the sun, justified by the absence of significant outings in April.
The real challenge for Nintendo will stay at the top of the charts when the PS5 of Sony and the Xbox Series X of Microsoft will arrive at the end of the year with a host of new games. The console Nintendo Will it manage to stay the course despite the next-gen consoles and the almost total absence of announcements for the second half of 2020? We still have a few months before the verdict comes down…
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