Nintendo\u2019s Switch 2 was the best-selling console in the U.S. in March, riding a wave of popularity triggered by the release of surprise hit Pokemon Pokopia.<\/p>\n
Americans spent $500 million on gaming\u00a0hardware last month, a 69% annual increase, according to market researcher Circana. The Switch 2 led the way, topping hardware sales in both unit and dollar terms, and Pokopia was the primary driver, Circana\u2019s Mat Piscatella said.<\/p>\n
Since its debut in June, Nintendo\u2019s new gaming platform has traded places with Sony Group\u2019s PlayStation 5 atop U.S. sales charts. The American market is critical for both Japanese entertainment giants, and Sony\u2019s resurgence in recent months has cast doubt over Nintendo\u2019s ability to sustain the post-launch excitement for the new Switch. The smaller company from Kyoto has kept that momentum going with well-reviewed new titles.<\/p>\n
Pokopia, an entry in a budding genre of what are known as cozy games that eschew leaderboards and time pressure \u2014 such as Nintendo\u2019s Animal Crossing \u2014 swept to global success with little expectation ahead of its release.<\/p>\n
The game powered Nintendo\u2019s shares to a $14 billion rally in early March, after they had taken a beating due to concern around surging component costs.<\/p>\n
Beyond games, Nintendo also enjoyed this year\u2019s biggest cinematic opening with “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” a sequel to its 2023 feature-length Mario adventure. Over the long Easter weekend, it helped set a new all-time revenue record for century-old AMC Entertainment Holdings\u00a0and fueled merchandise sales for the timeless Nintendo character.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nintendo\u2019s Switch 2 was the best-selling console in the U.S. in March, riding a wave of popularity triggered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,4410,40571,181155,88315,80,425,14799],"class_list":{"0":"post-412908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-nintendo","11":"tag-pokemon","12":"tag-pokemon-pokopia","13":"tag-switch-2","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-u-s","16":"tag-video-games"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}