Nintendo Switch Featured More Games Than PS4, Xbox One Combined
Mat Piscatella, an analyst with the market research company the NPD Group, announced over Twitter that in the year 2019, the Nintendo Switch saw more new releases than both Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One combined. In 2019, Nintendo Switch featured 1,480 games, over 400 more than the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One received in the same year.
The information, collected from GamePulse, an online gaming industry data analysis tool, indicates several possible trends for the Switch. The first, and perhaps most apparent, is that this massive amount of releases seems to vouch for a vast amount of success attained by the Switch.
For example, when compared by Piscatella to statistics he also collected on Nintendo's most successful home console, the Wii, the Switch goes above and beyond its predecessor, releasing well over two times the amount of games when comparing each of the first three calendar years of each console's respective lifespan. This influx of games shows a great willingness among developers to release their games on the Switch. This is especially important, considering that Nintendo's last console the Wii U, largely suffered from a lack of developer support for the system. This time around, that definitely doesn't seem to be an issue.
However, these statistics have the potential to be misleading. The Switch has a much more comprehensive online store for digital purchases than the Wii ever had, inflating its numbers of released products by a massive margin. In addition, the indie gaming scene, which contributes many games to Nintendo's online services, has grown exponentially since the Wii's release in 2006, allowing for many more developers to enter the console market.
In addition, this rapid release of so many games for one system doesn't come without its drawbacks, mainly finding worthwhile games among a sea of releases. Other digital stores like Steam on PC, which receives many more releases than the Switch, have been forced to experiment on ways to sift through their massive catalog.
Overall, though, Switch fans should be able to rejoice, knowing that their console is healthy, and they have a vast array of games to choose from. Hopefully, with necessity will come Nintendo's own solution for sorting through their sizable and ever-expanding library.
Sources: Matt Piscatella/Twitter
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