Surprise! Nintendo Has Added A 'Most Played' Section To The Switch eShop

That is quite a surprise

Hmm, I wonder how this will effect what I buy.

That’s cool. Surprised Minecraft and Super Mario Oddysey aren’t on the list though.

Hey, that's a pretty cool feature!

@minecraftemery It's playtime "over the last two weeks" so I'm not surprised Odyssey isn't on it. But who knows what will be on it after Christmas? (It will be Mario Kart #1)

@neufel Yeah that’s for sure.

@minecraftemery I can imagine the console has to be online to ramp up how much time it was played.

I bet allot of consoles that kids have are not connected to the net. Could be a reason or I am just wrong and people just buy Minecraft and don’t play it. 🤷‍♂️

It’s also odd that Mario Kart isn’t on the list.
Is this information what is okayed with the two weeks?

Can't see this in Europe eshop or im just blind? Wanted to check this also but can't find it..

@iaLgan It's on the Dutch eShop, it's the last block on the default page of the eShop.

@sanderev Still can't see where the hell is it All i can see is Discover/Recent releases/Current offers/Charts/Coming soon/Nintendo switch online/Redeem code.

Ah never mind found it in discover last section. Thanks.

@BenAV Yeah found it thanks

Strange that i have pretty decent amount of those top games listed in there that i have bought but never had the time to play Will check it out maybe will start with YSVIII :/

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!

A tiny shuffle in the right direction! I would like Nintendo to pump a wee bit of money back into the eshop - I enjoy the tunes and layout of the Wii U eshop, it's a nice place to be. Just copy that.

Any new discovery options are good options.

Cool, I’m sure it will help some titles gain some much needed visibility, and then potentially sales, and that’s a good thing.

If they use playtime there, could they give us back our logbook...

@romanista yas! They should definitely bring back the log book.

Too little too late to be honest - and with AAA Clock listed, clearly not very useful either. The eShop is embarrassing. I've said for years that Nintendo need to hire some dedicated resource to manage it, develop it, optimise it. They should be making 2 times the amount they currently make on eShop. I know I am not the only person who has seen their Switch eShop downloads go from high volume year one to virtually non existent in year 5. It's because the eShop is packed to the rafters with utter, utter rubbish and I am not prepared to waste any more of my time filtering through all that utter, utter rubbish and I am not getting stung again by taking a punt on what turns out to be, you guessed it, an utter, utter rubbish game.

Nintendo need to do that work, but they choose not to. It shows just how disturbingly unaware Nintendo are on the state of their own marketplace.

They have the data too! They can see there is a huge audience that are buying the AAA releases when they come out and these same people used to buy lots of eShop games inbetween. But now not so much? Do Nintendo think that's just an honest trend? Utterly stupid on their part. If they sorted out the eShop a d surfaced the great games, they would sell twice as many.

Adding a filter to the discount section to hide already bought titles would be good

I wish Nintendo would release that Japanese-only phone app over here that shows all your cumulative play time for each game across Switch, Wii U, and 3DS using your Nintendo Account. I love keeping record of that stuff. The Activity Log on 3DS was great, but the Switch equivalent is really lacking. It only tracks like the last 20 games you've played, and play time is only counted in 5-hour increments. I have my Switch software ordered from most- to least-played, but even that has stopped being accurate for some reason and it drives me up the wall.

I'm probably the only person who really cares about this sort of thing, but having an accurate log of my play time gives me incentive to keep going. I love seeing games surpass each other as they climb through the ranks of my most played titles. Pretty nerdy, I know, and probably doesn't do me any favors in overcoming my obsessive-compulsive disorder. But...it's fun to me.

@Zaelom They also need to make it so you can actually see the discount on games you've already bought. Instead, it just says "Purchased" in the place of the price tag. Very inconvenient if you see a game on sale that you know a friend has been wanting, but you're unable to tell them if it's a good deal or not. Pretty bad for business, honestly.

Last time I played Minecraft on NSW, I had to bury myself in a small hole because there was no way to pause or sleep the game. See you later, Minecraft. Bedrock ruined the experience on Switch unless they fixed it.

@Not_Soos Nope not the only one I like to keep track of this also kinda disappointed that some of my latest games disappier of play list while others are in And as you said nerdy as hell but yeah.

So, it's the Best Sellers section only under a different name. Gotcha

The shop is almost unbearable, this new feature won’t change that. No ratings, reviews, recommendations on top of the ..s..l..o...o..o..o...o..o..o...w.... speed. I keep track of sales, my wish-list and purchases on DekuDeals, read reviews online, and buy from the browser on nintendo’s website. I would love to have the option to hide the icons for the shop. And for NSO and news. The unused space could be used with an icon for the full game list, it is ridiculous that it needs 2+ clicks to get there.

after 5 years it got a completely useless function lol

@romanista I want the logbook back so bad!

@SeantheDon29 Why so? Best sells doesn't mean people are playing it all the time. Metroid had a good sell point but after the game is done and finished that's it And Pokemon for example can be played hours and hours.

...It's too bad the eShop is still crappy...

@Not_Soos , you can see that if you go on the shop from a browser

So not really "Most Played" then. Back to Deku Deals I go.

Whoopee ding.. can you feel the FoMO? Lol

A clock being the most played, goes to show how many games we buy, have a go, then hardly touch.

@Not_Soos Have a look at dekudeals.com. Nintendo should seriously hire the guy who made it, Michael Fairley. It is what the eShop should be … minus the option to buy of course.

@FishyS @Moistnado Yeah probably people use it as a screensaver. I thought about getting it myself to use when my phone is charging as I don't really have any proper clocks in my house.

The eshop is perfect now

lol they actually did something. still full of assett flips tho.

I must admit I don't browse the eShop, I find about stuff I'm interested in from Nintendolife and other places, search for it and add it to my wish list. I then check back each week to see if anything is on sale where I think its worth buying.

Admittedly it's been a while since anything I've been interested in has hit a price I'd be willing to buy it at.

Not entirely sure if how long you play a game necessarily points to it's quality, especially on just a weekly view.

This will mostly feature new games that are long and hurt short games.
eShop is in dire need of a review system. If Nintendo is scared of cursing in the presence of little kids they could apply a filter that keeps users from posting profanity. At the very least a star system, that could be overall or broken down into categories.
But I guess is too much work for them, just like folders in UI and themes.
Sigh

I've just looked at the Most Played section (aka RPG Section) and it's pretty suspicious that Animal Crossing is nowhere to be seen? Also Skyrim is there but not BotW? Sorry, but this is clearly a nonsense list/ clearly isn't working properly.

This is about what I thought, RPGs usually require longer play sessions to make any progress so they'd be very high up on the most played list if the list was by average play session length.

The Eshop is still by far the WORST online storefront I can think of. The fact that in 2021, almost 2022 it's so far behind the industry standards out there is embarrassing. It's ridiculously slow, no reviews, no recommendations, the genres need far more selection. I could go on and on. Get better Nintendo, you make record profits, you're worth billions of dollars. This is what they come up with?

Average playing time over two weeks isn't a particularly good measure of how worthwhile a game is, as demonstrated by AAA Clock

@nocdaes It's only over the last two weeks, so it's mostly going to feature new games.

@Dragonstar epic is way worse

@Dragonstar As I said earlier it's embarrassing. There's no other way to describe it at this point.

Switch has been an enormous success for them because it's engaged with that core older gamer group of 30-40. It would still be successful without this group - but this is the group that wasn't as big on 3DS and Wii U for example. It's a group that has three key characteristics - high digital adoption, high disposable income and next to no free time.

I cannot understand why the eShop hasn't been a priority to serve this group. Nintendo are leaving a lot of money on the table because this group WILL buy a lot of games, but they will not trawl through all the rubbish to find them. Nintendo know this... they have the data... they just don't care! It's up to them obviously, but I think it's pretty stupid.

You make hay while the sun shines after all.

@Dragonstar And games menu still doesn't have basic things like folders. It does feel sometimes like Nintendo fired all their User Interface designers between the Wii U and Switch.

I agree the eShop could do better, but I'd argue it doesn't have to, it's a shop, not a review site, if the shop selling a game told you it was crap I would imagine they'd be liable for damages to the developer. Personally I use NL's highlights to filter my eShop titles.

I've been wanting an update like this for a while, it's one thing to see what others are buying but seeing what they're playing the most is more helpful when looking for new games

Came to the comments to say that this is a pretty cool little addition but now I'm just missing the logbook

There is no "Most played" section on EU eshop, please mention it in the article.

@chardir Yes, I thought that, but it really doesn't... it has all sorts in there. And my point stands - Skyrim featuring but no BotW or Animal Crossing simply doesn't ring true. It's clearly broken/distorted.

I was hoping for an overall playtime counter... that would be more interesting.

My top game is Breath of the Wild, and has been for the whole time I've had my Switch.

@nocdaes I don't disagree the eshop app is a mess and a disappointment. However, I'm not sure how you can come to the conclusion that no one is buying games through it. Especially considering there are other avenues in discovering and purchasing games on it

@nocdaes I would guess that a mean average would naturally be distorted. For example maybe both Skyrim and Animal crossing have a few players that have spent hundreds of hours over two weeks, but Animal Crossing has thousands more players that have spent less than 30 minutes, while Skyrim has only a few. That gives Skyrim a much higher average. Likewise for AAA Clock, which will have a very small number of "players" who've just left it on permanently for two weeks.

Great to see Disgaea 6 at number 1, assuming the list is ordered from top left. Dragon Quest Builders 2 also really high. Stardew Valley surprisingly low considering how ever-present it is in the sales charts.

@gcunit I played Stardew for hours when I bought it. Then I sold my Switch and bought Stardew on PC and now that I have a Switch again I find Stardew to be a better experience on the PC.

The Nintendo eShop is sad. Like getting excited b/c they added the barest minimum of convenience. Normally I'm pretty chill about stuff but Nintendo is so lacking when it comes to how they setup their online shop. No themes, no folders, a very basic search function. They really need to invest in their eShop. It's so dated.

@Meteoroid The revenue will be on an upward trajectory due to install base growth and software growth - you're exactly right. My point is that the trajectory is lower than it could or should be as a direct result of the cream not being allowed to rise to the top.

I look at the top sellers - I see a ton of games I already own.

I look at recent releases - I see a ton of nonsense games.

If the decent games were surfaced correctly, sales and revenue would significantly increase. That's not some crazy opinion... it's proven ecommerce.

@Meteoroid Yep, I think you could be right. I mean, it's obviously not a priority for them... whatever their reason. Much like the overall Switch user interface - its not just the eShop.

In the grand scheme of Nintendo success its a mute point really. Switch is a huge success. I personally find it disappointing that they haven't, to date, thrown some of that success into making things even better.

@Meteoroid Yes, that's deliberate from Amazon! I also do not believe Nintendo are doing that, but it does raise the point that I think we do generally live in a time where it can be a bit frustrating at times when searching/discovering things - and some of that is just the way it is and I don't hold Nintendo accountable for that!

All links into the whole echo chamber on social media thing too, but I digress...!

I guess if I had to summarise, I'd just like to see them be more confident and start to throw their weight around the right and best way of doing things. They could do some really amazing stuff with their online services, NSO subscription and the eShop - they just need to get on it!

Has anybody noticed improvements to Joy Con drift recently? I had a right Joy Con drifting pretty poorly, but ever since the system update it's been stable.

They should have a game rating system so you can see the top rated games if you want

@Scrubicius Not odd at all actually. This list seems to be by average play time per person over the last two weeks, so it's going to heavily skew towards RPGs and simulators where people tend to have very lengthy play sessions. With games like Mario Kart or Smash most people will play it for just a few rounds at a time.

@Pigeon Well for me it was, when I got it. It will probably be top 5 come Christmas, though.

@nocdaes I don't think too many people are as disenchanted with the eshop as you seem to be. Nintendo are clearly raking in plenty of sales - for sure the shop could be better (performance is woeful for what is basically just a simplistic browser) but you don't get publishers releasing hundreds of titles per month unless people are buying healthily.
I can only truly talk for myself, but I buy dozens of Switch games per year and almost none of them are AAA / retail. For starters, the Switch is always the worst place to play multiplatform AAA, and Nintendo haven't released a new Zelda or Mario since 2017. It's the cornucopia of mid-to-low priced indies and B-tier games which makes the Switch an exciting platform at the moment. And with those, part of the fun is digging around im the new releases or current specials to find something funky. I tend to spend 10 minutes or so on the eshop as the first thing I do, almost every time I turn the thing on.

I'm probably alone in this, but I wish they would add a filter/etc. for demos that lets you sort by when the demo was released. This might seem trivial, but devs sometimes have a habit of releasing a demo for a game that has already released on the eShop, and said game is buried down in the demos, so you would never know a game you were interested in received a demo. I'm not sifting through the entire demo section when it could be anywhere in there. At the very least, give me a notification that a game on my wishlist now has a demo-- Simple!

My highest playtime are between Aokana and If My Heart Had Wings. I put over 90 hours into both of them. Visual novels take more time than RPG'S.

@Jeff2sayshi I've never experienced drift before

@Not_Soos if you go on the eshop with a browser you can see the price even if you have bought it but obviously not on switch’s native shop