Top 20 Most Played Games on Switch in 2020

Taken from the Switch news channel:

1) Fortnite
2) Animal Crossing: New Horizons
3) Pokemon Sword
4) Pokemon Shield
5) Minecraft
6) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
7) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
8) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
9) Super Mario Odyssey
10) FIFA 20 Legacy Edition
11) New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
12) Super Mario Maker 2
13) Rocket League
14) Luigi's Mansion 3
15) Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu
16) Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee
17) Splatoon 2
18) Super Mario Party
19) Asphalt 9: Legends
20) Fire Emblem: Three Houses

The rankings are based on time played on all Switch consoles with an EU Nintendo account which data sharing enabled. That means none of my playtime contributed, so this is clearly nonsense

Surprised by any entries or omissions?

Nothing too surprising there. Fortnite was always a cert to be top, although it would be interesting to know how far behind AC was.

Thought Rocket League might have been higher as well but perhaps it has fallen in popularity a bit over time?

I can't play RL on Switch, I don't know why it feels wrong, and I press the wrong buttons and gooseberry fool like that :lol:

Jenuall wrote:Thought Rocket League might have been higher as well but perhaps it has fallen in popularity a bit over time?

It only went F2P in September. I wonder if many people were in a similar situation to me before that, liking and playing rocket league on another platform but unwilling to buy the same game again just to play it on Switch.

OrangeRKN wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Thought Rocket League might have been higher as well but perhaps it has fallen in popularity a bit over time?

It only went F2P in September. I wonder if many people were in a similar situation to me before that, liking and playing rocket league on another platform but unwilling to buy the same game again just to play it on Switch.

Yeah I didn't think about the F2P aspect of it in all honesty, I wonder if that will see it raise its profile this year?

Pedz wrote:I can't play RL on Switch, I don't know why it feels wrong, and I press the wrong buttons and gooseberry fool like that

I only play it on Switch (and only when we are doing GR games) so I can't really compare the controls, but this is going to be my new excuse for why I am gooseberry fool now! :lol:

~~Reheated FIFA 18~~ FIFA 20 smh. Shows how desperate people are for a football game on the Switch. When you're ready Konami.

Spindash wrote:~~Reheated FIFA 18~~ FIFA 20 smh. Shows how desperate people are for a football game on the Switch. When you're ready Konami.

Hard to judge this one, most of those will be people buying it as their first FIFA on the system I would imagine. We bought it for the kids last Christmas and they've played loads of it, if you haven't played 18 or 19 then it makes sense that people would buy and enjoy the newest version.

Needs to combine Pokemon games.

Tomous wrote:Needs to combine Pokemon games.

Yeah I wish they did this, without numbers there is no way of knowing how much higher up they'd be

I'm surprised by how popular Fortnite is on Switch; I didn't think it would be above Animal Crossing.

A couple of folk have recommended the free-to-start Asphalt 9 to me. Apparently it runs and plays well on Switch.

jawa2 wrote:I'm surprised by how popular Fortnite is on Switch; I didn't think it would be above Animal Crossing.

A couple of folk have recommended the free-to-start Asphalt 9 to me. Apparently it runs and plays well on Switch.

Fortnite being free helps.

I know a couple of people at work who mainly play Fortnite. As for myself I’ve certainly boosted the play time for Animal Crossing, Pokémon Shield and Pokémon Sword over the course of the year. I’m quite surprised to still see Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee in there as while its really good I didn’t expect it to have the longevity of Shield/Sword!

Also a little surprised to see no Mario 3D All Stars in there, although it wouldn't have had much time to make an impact so that’ll probably make 2021’s list.

I'm impressed by Mario Maker 2, that's done well to keep itself at a respectable place on the list in its second year

Yeah Mario Maker 2 is probably the biggest surprise for me to see there, but I'm happy about it! Hopefully it means Nintendo are more likely to continue with the concept (still holding out for Zelda maker following Link's Awakening remake's chamber dungeons)

YouTube

Bitter sweet to see my 900+ hours of Fortnite contributing to its place above Animal Crossing there. The reason I play the Switch version most (unless I want the enhanced visuals on PS5 for recording purposes) is purely because I prefer the controls for building.

OrangeRKN wrote:Yeah Mario Maker 2 is probably the biggest surprise for me to see there, but I'm happy about it! Hopefully it means Nintendo are more likely to continue with the concept (still holding out for Zelda maker following Link's Awakening remake's chamber dungeons)

I suppose Mario Maker 2 fans pour hundreds of hours into it which helps.

Yeah I dumped a lot of hours into Mario Maker for AYAMMM last year but I don't think I'm included on the stats as I've got sharing data turned off

No surprises about Fortnite, AC and Minecraft being at top, but Fifa 20? Come on people!

Top 20 Most Played Games on Switch in 2020

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