Nintendo has revealed that digital sales outsold physical ones for the first time in its history during Q2 of 2020.
The pandemic brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak has changed the world in many ways. While a lot of those changes are bad, there are a few silver linings. A lot of people have turned to video games during their time of need. Whether they are trying to survive lockdown alone, or with family and friends. We’ve all needed something to pass the time over the course of the past four months.
The only tricky thing will have been getting a hold of the games they want to play for some people. Unlike the movie and music industries, gaming hasn’t moved away from physical copies almost entirely. In fact, for most developers and companies, digital sales are still outweighed by physical.
That was the case for Nintendo, until now. For the first time ever, Nintendo has sold more digital software than physical software over the course of a single quarter. In Q2 2020, 55.6% of Nintendo’s software sales were digital. In Q1, they made up 48.5%, and during the final quarter of 2019 a lowly 22.3%. In fact, Q1 and Q2 2020 are the first quarters in Nintendo’s history where digital sales have topped 40% of its total over a three-month period.
The good news continues to roll in for Nintendo when it comes to the digital side of things. Digital sales are up a whopping 229.9% year-on-year. Plus, more than half of the copies sold of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics have been digital ones. In fact, ACNH sold five million digital copies in March alone, more than any other game in console history.
Source: Video Games Chronicle
