The Nintendo Switch has had a pretty stellar year, with some stand-out titles reaching players' hands. The Switch has been selling so well in fact, that it outsold the PS5 during its launch month despite being a last-generation console.
To say that Nintendo is very pleased with the Switch’s sales figures this year would probably be an understatement, but fans have enjoyed the Switch this year, as well. Now, Nintendo has released a tool that lets Switch owners check out their various playtime statistics across all of 2020.
To gain full access to this tool, players have to sign into their Nintendo Account on Nintendo.com first. A Nintendo Account is basically a necessity to use many features of the Nintendo Switch, so most owners should already have their accounts set up. The first statistic players will see is what kind of player they were this year. For example, playing a lot of games for hundreds of hours total will probably put players into the “Core Gamer” category. Funnily enough, those players who played Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch exclusively or far more than other titles are labeled as “Getaway Travelers.”
Nintendo’s Year in Review tool for the Switch has a handful of other neat categories aside from the player type category. The tool can show players how many total hours they put in on the Switch for 2020 and 2019, how many different games they played in 2020 and 2019, and player's most played games by hour for 2020 and 2019. Nintendo also added a dedicated category for Super Mario titles to celebrate Super Mario’s 35 Anniversary. Finally, one of the more interesting categories tells players what day was their most active day on the Switch.
All in all, this Switch Year in Review tool is pretty neat. While some of the categories can be a bit broad, the tool does pull up some pretty interesting stats that can help remind players when certain games came out or how many different games they played on their Nintendo Switch throughout the year. Though the Switch has been out for over three years at this point, it seems Nintendo still has plans to extend its lifecycle further. Recently, the Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser mentioned that the Switch is in the middle of its lifecycle.
It’s certainly a bold statement, considering both Sony and Microsoft just released their powerful next generation consoles to very positive sales figures. Rumors of some sort of Switch Pro console have been circulating for quite some time, though it seems that Nintendo has no real interest in pursuing the idea at the moment. Still, despite the console lagging behind in terms of raw power, the Switch is still on course to have the most successful year for any console since 2010. Though 2020 may have been a rough year, it wasn’t a bad year to be a Switch owner by any means.
The Nintendo Switch is available now.
