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Nintendo Has Its Best Month Ever Thanks To The Swich & 'Animal Crossing'

Source: Boston Globe / Getty

Being stuck at home means finding various ways to keep yourself entertained. Outside of binge-watching streaming network’s shows, video games are the next best option. So its no surprise there was a massive spike in sales in that form of entertainment.

It looks like the coronavirus is turning everyone into gamers.

Business Insider is reporting that Nintendo had its best month ever thanks to its hybrid console, the Switch outselling Sony’s Playstation 4, and Microsoft’s Xbox One. That news isn’t surprising, we reported back in late March that the Nintendo Switch was very hard to find like Lysol products and was sold out in retailers like Amazon, Target, GameStop, Walmart, and Best Buy.

Monday (Apr.20), Nintendo announced that it planned to ramp up production of the Switch and push out 22 million units to match the public demand for the console. One reason, in particular, there is such a high demand for the Switch is because of its exclusive title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was also the best-selling game for March. Hell, if you hop on social media, you can’t miss a post about the game popping up on your timeline.

Animal Crossing wasn’t the only game making noise, Activision announced that its free-to-play Call of Duty game, Warzone also experienced a massive number of sign-ups and now has over 50 million people playing the game.

Final Fantasy VII Remake, which shipped early due to COVID-19, was able to move a massive 3.5 million units in just three days despite the coronavirus epidemic affecting the world. If you’re worried about part two being delayed, the game’s producer, Yoshinori Kitase, ensured Hip-Hop Wired in an exclusive interview that the game will arrive on time.

Twitch has also seen a boom with more people logging on to watch other people play video games for more hours. With the sports world being put on ice, ESPN has decided to broadcast more e-Sports and gaming tournaments. Just recently, the no.1 basketball video game franchise, NBA 2K teamed up with the NBA and NBPA to host a Players Only NBA 2K tournament. It was pre-taped but, for the most part, very entertaining thanks to moments like DeMarcus Cousins catching a 52-point ass whooping on national television.

NASCAR also broadcasted its inaugural iRacing Pro Invitational Series which drew an astounding 903,000 viewers.

But like the movie industry, COVID-19 has taken its toll on the video game industry pushing big titles like The Last of Us: Part II had its wig pushed back indefinitely. Still, the video game industry isn’t suffering; in fact, it is doing just fine for the most part.

Photo: Boston Globe / Getty