Nintendo says that evergreen titles may be losing luster as the Switch ages

‘Going forward, it will be important to offer…a variety of hardware’

Nintendo evergreen titles are trending down, according to a new Q&A session from Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa.

The gist? From a financial perspective, as hardware gets older, evergreen sales decrease. Furukawa explains the trend himself, noting:

“Regarding sales trends for evergreen titles, consumers who newly purchase Nintendo Switch hardware often choose to buy an evergreen title as their second or third game. In addition, as Nintendo Switch enters its sixth year, we believe there will be a decrease in the percentage of first-time purchases in terms of future demand for hardware, compared to what we have seen so far.

We expect to see more purchases of multiple systems within the same household, as well as consumers replacing a previous Nintendo Switch system with Nintendo Switch – OLED Model.”

The way to combat this, he explains, is twofold. First, try and push major first-time hardware purchases: something the Switch OLED was able to help with in 2021. The second prong is offering a “variety of hardware…and strengthen sales of both evergreen and new titles.” In other words, the Switch is still going to have a very strong next few years.

Back in 2021, Nintendo spoke about what games actually constitute “evergreen” status, which typically involves a lot of first-party games based on major IP. Surprisingly, there was at least one up and comer listed (Ring Fit Adventure), and one unlikely second banana (Luigi’s Mansion 3).