During a special media presentation at GDC 2018, Nintendo shared a bit of information on the 3rd party support that the Nintendo Switch is receiving from users in the United States.
In the past, players in the United States have primary purchased physical copies of games and stayed clear of the digital offerings of the eShop. However, this could be due to the lack of 3rd party support on the Wii U as well as the large download sizes of games and storage capacity of the hardware.
Well, it seems these trends are changing as Nintendo targets a broader demographic to include a mature audience, but still have that family-friendly appeal that the company is known for. During the presentation, information was shared that for the first time in the United States 3rd party digital sales have exceeded physical sales. Which means more people are downloading games and using the eShop more than ever before.
These numbers reflect the indie developer support for the Nintendo Switch in the first year of the console's life. More and more indie developers are bringing their titles to the west and noticing that discoverability on the eShop has worked for them.
Furthermore, the company has shared the top 10 indie games released, a few of which launched in last few months:
- Steam World Dig 2
- Stardew Valley
- Kamiko
- Celeste
- Fast RMX
- Golf Story
- Enter the Gungeon
- Overcooked: Special Edition
- NBA Playground
- Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
Nintendo seems to have no plans to limit indie support for the Nintendo Switch as their most recent Nindies Direct shows. The company also is showing the console has a bright future as shown in their most recent Nintendo Direct.