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[electricmastro]

Nintendo systems are usually bought for Nintendo's first-party franchises, but ever since the increasing kinds of software coming out for the Switch and Switch 2, it made me wonder what franchises Nintendo hasn't published that have still been popular on their systems.

I'll start off by listing Mat Piscatella's list of the 10 best-selling third-party games on Nintendo systems in the US between 1995-2019: https://nintendoeverything.com/top-...l-time-in-the-us-best-selling-portable-games/

1. Guitar Hero World Tour – Activision
2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock – Activision
3. Just Dance 2 – Ubisoft
3. Just Dance 3 – Ubisoft
4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games – SEGA
6. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga – Warner Bros. Interactive
7. Rock Band – MTV/EA
8. Just Dance 4 – Ubisoft
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games – SEGA
10. Rock Band 2 – MTV/EA

All these titles are specifically for Wii, but there's also a list specifically for Switch games from 2017-2019: https://nintendoeverything.com/best-selling-third-party-games-for-switch/

1 – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
2 – Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
3 – Diablo III: Eternal Collection
4 – Just Dance 2019
5 – Just Dance 2018
6 – LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
7 – LEGO The Incredibles
8 – NBA 2K18
9 – Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
10 – FIFA 18

So while Guitar Hero and Rock Band have faded away, many Nintendo system owners are still buying Just Dance, as well as Lego. A Monster Hunter appeared on the Switch list as well, a franchise I understand is still pretty popular on Switch due to Monster Hunter Rise.

What other third-party franchises do you guys feel are still pretty popular on Nintendo systems in 2026?

 

[subzero83]

witcher 3 was probably the best selling third-party on switch 1.

 

[Bonfires Down]

witcher 3 was probably the best selling third-party on switch 1.

I' m gonna guess either Stardew Valley or Minecraft.

 

[Alexios]

Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, collabs like Mario & Rabbids/Mario & Sonic, SMT, other JRPG like Octopath, stuff like that.

 

[subzero83]

I' m gonna guess either Stardew Valley or Minecraft.

minecraft was the best selling for sure. i forgot about that one.

 

[electricmastro]

I' m gonna guess either Stardew Valley or Minecraft.

Minecraft is also massive, def. That said, it's interesting how it didn't make it onto the Switch list even though the Switch version was released in 2018, as if to say more Switch players had Diablo III than Minecraft at that point even though Diablo is a much smaller franchise.

 

[L*][*N*K]

3 – Diablo III: Eternal Collection

This makes me so happy, I have over 600+ hours on D3 on Switch alone and that port was an absolute god send, I still play it at the beginning of every season it is really awesome!

 

[electricmastro]

Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, collabs like Mario & Rabbids/Mario & Sonic, SMT, other JRPG like Octopath, stuff like that.

Is Resident Evil actually very popular on Nintendo systems? I guess with dark games like Diablo III, it would make sense.

 

[Alexios]

Is Resident Evil actually very popular on Nintendo systems? I guess with dark games like Diablo III, it would make sense.

The half decent ones are at least million sellers, Switch only got cloud version of Village but Revelations collection sold 1.5m+, and Re6 1m+, that's all more than Diablo 3 if that's the threshold (and nowhere near Minecraft of course). The top have monster numbers, lots of stuff way below are fine.

 

[electricmastro]

The half decent ones are at least million sellers, Switch only got cloud version of Village but Revelations collection sold 1.5m+, and Re6 1m+, that's all more than Diablo 3 if that's the threshold (and nowhere near Minecraft of course). The top have monster numbers, lots of stuff way below are fine.

Is it fair to say dark fantasy games are fairly popular on Switch? Diablo, Dark Souls, Witcher, etc.?

 

[IAmRei]

monster hunter, dragon quest, momotaro densetsu, minecraft, SMT, octopath, bunch of indie games, bunch of visual novels. that's as quick i could be
should be more. I'v been following gematsu famitsu sales, but i'm not tracking for real

i once talked with a publisher few years ago, even indies could got 100k - 200k copies in whole year in NSW, digitally, and still make tons of money.
the things that cannot be traced without got involved in publisher circle is digital copies sold.

 

[electricmastro]

monster hunter, dragon quest, momotaro densetsu, minecraft, SMT, octopath, bunch of indie games, bunch of visual novels. that's as quick i could be
should be more. I'v been following gematsu famitsu sales, but i'm not tracking for real

i once talked with a publisher few years ago, even indies could got 100k - 200k copies in whole year in NSW, digitally, and still make tons of money.
the things that cannot be traced without got involved in publisher circle is digital copies sold.

It is nice to hear about Dragon Quest being popular on Switch after being absent on N64 and GameCube.

 

[IAmRei]

It is nice to hear about Dragon Quest being popular on Switch after being absent on N64 and GameCube.

is far as i know, one launch week about usually more than 200k in japan only. it's still great i think.
in japan it's hard to got 200k in one week.

 

[dgproject]

Imo, in today's market, the most popular games will be popular multi-player games, just like in ps/ pc/ ios/ android.

The problem is, most of them did not come (yet) to switch or switch 2.
Genshin Impact - announced in 2020 for switch, still no real product
CoD - not yet available
Battlefield 6 - not yet available
Roblox - not yet available
Honkai - not yet available
Arc raiders - not yet available

Fortnite - available
Minecraft - available

and with those games, except for Minecraft, the data for physical sales is almost non existent since most users downloading them online. Minecraft physical version in Japan alone sold over 4 million copies. I will not surprise if digital + physical worldwide already surpass 10 millions.

 

[electricmastro]

Imo, in today's market, the most popular games will be popular multi-player games, just like in ps/ pc/ ios/ android.

The problem is, most of them did not come (yet) to switch or switch 2.
Genshin Impact - announced in 2020 for switch, still no real product
CoD - not yet available
Battlefield 6 - not yet available
Roblox - not yet available
Honkai - not yet available
Arc raiders - not yet available

Fortnite - available
Minecraft - available

and with those games, except for Minecraft, the data for physical sales is almost non existent since most users downloading them online. Minecraft physical version in Japan alone sold over 4 million copies. I will not surprise if digital + physical worldwide already surpass 10 millions.

Was Call of Duty ever popular on GameCube and Wii? Not sure how much the Switch 2 audience would take to it now.

 

[dgproject]

Was Call of Duty ever popular on GameCube and Wii? Not sure how much the Switch 2 audience would take to it now.

I am not sure cod on GameCube back then (without online multiplayer, as far as I remember) is comparable to todays COD,
but fortnite in switch is estimated to got downloaded over 10 millions few months after launched (over 2 millions in the first 24 hours); If microsoft launch CoD on switch 2, I am quite optimistic it will be a million sellers in the first week of launch.

Just a guess, of course.