Annual (estimated) 3DS downloadable games figures are in!

Yes, the analysts have been at it again. This time, we look at eShop download figures provided by the research & analysis division of analyst firm Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC. Otherwise known as FADE.

Still awake, you there at the back? Alright! Here are 2011′s most downloaded eShop games, followed by revenue generated in US dollars:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Nintendo) – 338,700 Units / $2.3 Million USD
2. Excitebike (Nintendo) – 481,100 Units / $1.3 Million USD
3. Super Mario Land (Nintendo) – 230,500 Units / $1.1 Million USD
4. Freakyforms: Your Creations, Alive! (Nintendo) – 112,700 Units / $969,000 USD
5. Pushmo (Nintendo) – 93,300 Units / $634,000 USD
6. Kirby’s Dream Land (Nintendo) – 84,500 Units / $384,000 USD
7. Let’s Golf 3D (Gameloft) – 43,200 Units / $356,000 USD
8. Donkey Kong (Nintendo) – 82,800 Units / $348,000 USD
9. Xevious (Nintendo) – 47,900 Units / $301,000 USD
10. Hyu Stone (Poisoft) – 50,300 Units / $293,000 USD

As you can probably see, there’s a lot of Nintendo love in that list. Ninty apparently scooped a whopping 81% of gross revenue for downloadable titles in 2011. The highest grossing third-party title in the list coming in seventh place, being Let’s Golf 3D. We must admit that we’re a little surprised to see Zelda of all games topping that list ahead of something with ‘Mario’ in the title; but having said that, Zelda is easily the most substantial game out of the ten on that list, so we’d say it’s earned it.

We’ll stop stating the bleedin’ obvious now and move onto the stuff that matters, or more appropriately: the aspect of this news that every other gaming website on the net has been having a good old moan over for a few days now.

“The third parties aren’t getting a look in!”

The third party bestsellers, or rather the lack of. We’re not going to ramble on for too long, but we see the lack of third-party content in the charts as more of a reflection of last year’s release schedule than anything else. eShop got off to a very late start thanks to the delays, and when it did materialise we had a few cannily released Nintendo classics to download. Link’s Awakening was released within 24 hours’ notice at E3 last year, when everyone was hooting and hollering about Zelda’s 25th anniversary and the (then) upcoming Skyward Sword. Excitebike was offered free to punters for several months by way of apology for the botched online side of things, accounting for (according to FADE) half of that game’s total sales.

On the third-party front, we’ve had a few classic VC releases like Avenging Spirit and Gargoyle’s Quest, but those are pretty niche games to begin with, and are much less likely to have been experienced by aged Game Boy gamers the first time round. Many preferring to get their fill of nostalgia from Super Mario Land and Kirby’s Dream Land first.

To add further perspective still: stuff like WayForward’s Mighty Switch Force only scraped onto last year’s worldwide release schedule by just over a week, and VVVVVV didn’t make the US eShop until December 29th. The latter title isn’t even with the rest of the world yet, and Mutant Mudds didn’t hit the US while this year, again not even having  a confirmed release date for either Europe or Japan. What third-party content actually hit eShop in good enough time to make a dent in last year’s overall charts? Not much, from what we recall; outside of Virtual Console, at least. There’s only really Let’s Golf 3D that did so, and that’s up there on the chart.

We suspect (and hope) that after 2012 is done and dusted, and games like VVVVVV and Mutant Mudds have had a year’s airing on eShop (alongside all the other undoubtedly great games we’ve yet to get our hands on) we’ll be looking at a much more realistic chart this time next year. If the quality isn’t there, though, it’s a bit of a no-brainer that Nintendo classics past and present will continue to dominate the charts for the forseeable future.

Lastly, these are (appropriately) third-party sales figures – and estimated ones at that – so it’s probably wise to absorb them as a rough guide. We don’t think it’s time to be fretting about the state of third-party sales just yet, and as it stands, the eShop is a much better vehicle for promoting desired titles than the DSiWare store ever was.

Related posts:

1. Shedding light on Nintendo’s 3DS system sales figures – why they are units shipped, not sold
2. 3DS overtakes lifetime GameCube sales in Japan
3. Are the worldwide sales of the 3DS enough to silence the system’s doubters?
4. First batch of 3DS Ambassador games announced
5. The 3DS Japanese launch – the sales figures, the system, the software