Welcome to the Nintendo Digital Sales Charts Official Thread for March and April!
So, in order to avoid any kind of misunderstanding: what are these charts about? What do they mean?
1. Introduction
Digital stores are becoming more and more important as the time goes by. And this can be said for retail titles being sold on digital stores too. After a quite bad beginning in the digital space (DSiWare but, above all, WiiWare and all its restrictions both from development and economic points of view), Nintendo made lots of improvement through 3DS and Wii U, especially for developers (the most recent improvement has been removing office space restriction), even if there are many things that can and should be one for a much bigger improvement (one for all: accounts not linked to consoles). Still, both the eShops for 3DS and Wii U provide various sales charts too, costantly updated and these are the most important things for this thread. So, after this brief introduction, let's clarify how these charts work and
*look at SmokyDave's post in a random sales thread*
SmokyDave: Eh, looking at Persona's sales in UK, I don't doubt third party titles would sell more on Vita than they do on 3DS right now worldwide
...That's factually WRONG! I need to counterattack his trolling! Guys, you continue to explain what is this thread about while I'm away, ok? My God, why. *slams door*
Pit:...Is it just me, or did he remind Viridi in this occasion?
Palutena: That sudden change of feelings was pretty reminiscent of Viridi. He's also a bit annoying, like her. But well, since we're here, let's continue the explanation.
Pit: AND IT'S ON LIKE...
Palutena: No Pit, it's protected by copyright, you can't.
Pit: What...is a copyright?
Palutena: Let's just say that is something that can make you sad. Do you want to be like Bill?
Pit: Bill who?
Palutena: That poor localiser who said something bad and that now is in the basement in Japan forced to look carefully at fruits for the rest of its life. Do you want to end like him, Pit?
Pit:...IT'S ON!
Palutena: Good reasonable boy.
2. The charts on eShop
2.1 How charts are organised
Pit: *looking at the charts* Wow, so many titles! So many charts!
Palutena: These are the Charts. You can use a filter on 3DS in order to look at Current Releases charts and All-Time charts. The Current Releases charts represent how games are currently selling on eShop, while the All-Time charts rank the top 20 best selling titles since the launch of the services
Pit: Ehi, on 3DS there's another filter when I look at the charts! It seems I can filter both Current Releases and All-Time in order to see rankings with all the titles, or just 3DS only titles, or just DSiwares, or just Virtual Console titles!
Palutena: That's right, Pit.
2.2 Ratings
Pit: I've already seen charts posted in the "Nintendo Download" thread, but I don't understand what are those numbers next to each game. Are those...the sales? Damn, my 3D Classics sold next to nothing, less than 12.000 units! People don't want me, why! I'm a good guy always respecting everyone!
Palutena: Don't worry Pit. Those aren't sales: the numbers you see next to games when charts are posted are the amounts of ratings given by users who played at least one hour to the games.
Pit: That makes me feel a lot better! And now I understand the stars for every title in the charts: they're the average of all ratings! But why can't we know directly sales of every title? Those would make sales discussion much better.
Palutena: Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't allow it: publishers can't talk about sales publicly. Otherwise...you remember Bill, no? Well...worse.
Pit: Ugh. Such a big secrecy coming from someone that laughs so much when he interviews developers. That's the sign there's a dark side in everyone of us.
Pitoo: In fact, I don't exsist at all, indeed.
2.3 Different region, different charts
Pit: Pitoo, you here...too?!? ...Why no one's laughing, that was a good joke!
Pitoo: That was a disaster, not a joke. I'm here also to talk about charts too. Especially about the regions.
Palutena: Ah, you mean the fact that charts are different depending on the region.
Pitoo: Exactly. The eShop charts are not worldwide, but are tied to specific regions. And the number of ratings as well. The 12.000 rating for...err, our 3D Classics was just for US, as well as the charts. There are charts specific for US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan. And then the European charts: UK, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and some countries are counted together, like Greece + Scandinavia and Spain + Portugal.
Pit: The elencation would have been much better with some music! I remember seeing a cartoon many years ago teaching every nation in the world with a song, that was amazing. Oh, I still remember nations thanks to that song, do you want to hear it?
Palutena: Pit, I don't think it's the ca
Pit: *singing* United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru...
Pitoo: I should have stayed at home definitely, it's embarassing.
Palutena: And that's nothing compared to its love for its obsession for Hot Springs. Think that months ago, he...
*slams door* I'M BACK! That SmokyDave, blergh!
Palutena: Oh, you're back. We have quite explained the charts, we can go now.
Pitoo: Thank God.
Pit: Ok, but I'd like to continue singing while we go
Pitoo: FOR THE LOVE OF GODS, PLEASE N
Pit: *singing again* Republic Dominican, Cuba, Caribbean, Greenland, El Salvador too!
Pitoo:...Why
...Well, they've explained the charts, I've seen. Even singing, but still. Now, I'll explain how threads will be organised.
3. Organization of the threads
Nintendo eShop Charts Threads will be bi-monthly. For example, this one will be for March and April, the next for May and June, the other for July and August, and so on. The idea is that everyday these thread will collect Current Titles Charts coming from the various regions. So far, we have two user that will alternate in posting US Charts (Colonel Mustard and lunchwithyuzo), but any contribution from anyone is well accepted, especially for countries like Canada, Mexico, and the European nations.
Major rules to follow:
Current Releases charts will be posted three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Posts with 3DS Current Releases charts can consist of just the overall 3DS Current Releases chart or it can contain the 3DS Only (retail + 3DS dd exclusives, so no DSiWare, no VC titles) Current Releases too. The same for Wii U when Wii U eShop will be updated with this filter.
If you've posted charts for one console, but you want to post them for the other console too, just update your previous post, so there aren't two links referring to charts for the same country.
And that should be enough. So, let me make other two posts as future archives and...let's lit off!
Additional notes:
1)I repeat: Ratings don't represent strictly sales. They're posted to give additional information about titles and (if possible) discussing about trends of ratings
2)The charts do represent what's selling right now...and don't. In fact, "Recent Releases" charts list the best selling software during the last two weeks. Stated in the eShop digital manual itself (thanks serplux XD ). There's also beril's experience testifying this.
