Nintendo has revealed the top twenty most played games of 2020 in Europe, which includes games like Fortnite, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Pokémon Sword & Shield. The Switch had an incredible year in terms of sales, which doesn't even take the 2020 holiday period into account.
The success of the Switch was bolstered by the popularity of New Horizons. It took less than a year for New Horizons to become the second best-selling game on the Switch, thanks to an incredible amount of exposure on social media during the lockdown. The Switch itself saw a surge of interest in 2020, even with the release of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S dominating the headlines. Nintendo reached a point where it was struggling to keep Switch units in stock, but these were released before the holiday season.
Nintendo has revealed the top twenty most played games in Europe, through a post on the official Nintendo Switch news channel. The number one game is Fortnite, which is no surprise, considering the incredible number of concurrent players the game receives during huge events. New Horizons is number two, which is still impressive, as people actually need to pay for it, unlike Fortnite, whose popularity is tied to the fact that it's free.
The third and fourth best-selling games are Pokémon Sword & Shield, the fifth game is Minecraft, the sixth game is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the seventh game is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is currently the best-selling game on the Switch. The eighth game is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the ninth game is Super Mario Odyssey, the tenth game is FIFA 20 Nintendo Switch Legacy Edition, the eleventh game is New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, the twelfth game is Super Mario Maker 2, the thirteenth game is Rocket League, the fourteenth game is Luigi's Mansion 3, the fifteenth and sixteenth games are the Pokémon: Let's Go! games, the seventeenth game is Splatoon 2, the eighteenth game is Super Mario Party, the nineteenth game is Asphalt 9: Legends, and the twentieth game is Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
The games in the top twenty aren't too surprising, with Nintendo's major franchises dominating the list. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe placing seventh might be the biggest shocker, considering how popular it is in terms of sales. 2021 might finally see the game knocked from the top spot by New Horizons. The Switch's first-party schedule for 2021 is currently extremely dry, so the 2021 most played schedule likely isn't going to look different, unless Nintendo starts announcing some new games soon.
Source: Nintendo (via Nintendo Everything)