Since its release last month, Fire Emblem: Three Houses has been dominating the Japanese and UK charts. So, how has it been performing in the US? According to NPD Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella, it's doing quite well.
The Switch title was not only the second best-selling game of July 2019 (behind EA's Madden NFL 20), but it was also the largest launch for a Fire Emblem game in US history. Launch month sales tripled – yes, tripled – the previous best-selling Fire Emblem launch, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
Piscatella further explained how this makes Three Houses the second best-selling entry in the series in terms of lifetime sales, right behind Fire Emblem: Awakening on the 3DS. To top it off, the Switch was once again the best-selling platform in July and was the only system to experience sales gains year-to-date. It also had six games in the top ten during this month and remains the hardware sales leader for 2019.
Did you purchase Fire Emblem: Three Houses or a new Switch during the month of July? Leave a comment below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 83
I'm sure that's surprising to nobody.
It's a very well made game. The school is a more cohesive way of allowing interactions between fights and the fights themselves have been large and enjoyable. I haven't enjoyed a fire emblem this much since Radiant Dawn. Just an opinion but to me it is a great game to play
@BenAV - Honestly, it surprised me that it beat out Awakening at least. Heard nothing much passed its release like I usually do post launch. That and I didn't find the first huge chunk of the game is school simulator 2019, and it seems I wasn't the only one.
Fully deserved, an amazing game, my only concern is that I need to have completed it before Astral Chains.
@Paraka I expected nothing less than for it to become the best selling game in the series quite easily, just purely due to how well software seems to sell on the Switch. Every series seems to break records. I also think it's a much better game than Awakening anyway but I don't necessarily think that has a really big impact on sales (as long as it's not a train wreck), especially at launch, either way.
This game is so good, I can't stop playing it. There are so many possible outcomes and I desperately want to reach every one. I'm curious what this game is like to non Fire Emblem fans though.
@BenAV - I was thinking Fates' reputation would have slogged the excitement down, not a personal opinion overall would have served that catalyst. And as I said before, heard nothing passed its release save for the usual review. I heard more of Crash's port post launch than I have of FE.
The House always wins...unless you work with Yesman, the Legion, or the NCR. Then he loses...
Wait, wrong game, sorry.
I want to play Three Houses, but I don't have time to teach virtual school right now because I'm getting ready to teach real school.
@Paraka I've heard a fair bit, both in news and discussions. Most people online on my friend list seem to always be playing it too, haha. It'd also help that it's released in a pretty empty part of the release schedule, with not a lot of other major physical releases on the Switch in July/August. Unlike the million games releasing in September which might be competing with each other for people's money and time a bit.
@JamesJose7 Non-FE fan here! I've only played through one route, but I loved it. It was really fun thinking of strategies that made the best use of my units, and learning about the characters through their support conversations, lost items, and other interactions made me care about them a lot. Some people on the Fire Emblem subreddit compared the game to Persona 5, but in my opinion, it was more like Trails of Cold Steel.
No surprise. Anything on Switch is a massive seller.
This also explains why the secondary market kind of died. I made my money back on the collectors edition, but I was surprised to see them not really selling well.
Good for Three Houses. I’m currently going back and forth between this and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. Trying to squeeze in Smash Bros as well.
Three Houses just makes me so happy. It's selling well so it'll keep the series alive, it's a good evolution of the series, and it has the emotional impact that Fates really lacked. I was more attached to Annette (best girl, fight me lil' hat lovers) than every pairing in Fates.
I just hope this doesn't lead Nintendo to think it's okay to release unstable 30fps graphics games on Switch! I bought 3 Houses, but hate the frame rate!
Not surprised. This seems to have way more ongoing attention and discussion than any other game in the series. Add in that it’s a Switch game, and Switch games sell and it was clear sales were strong.
@60frames-please Well if even the few people who are complaining about these things are still giving them money then I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that they probably think it's okay.
Never been a fire emblem guy at all but the three houses concept sold me. I am hooked 70 hours in. For the empire!
I'm digging the game so far. It draws a lot of inspiration from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, it seems--you're a mercenary, there's an enigmatic knight who reminds me quite a bit of the Black Knight, certain events parallel those of PoR, and quite a few other elements. I prefer PoR (and RD to some extent), but it's quite cool seeing the homage.
I haven't picked up the game yet myself, but I'm really glad it's doing so well. Overall, I'm glad that the Switch and its big games always do so well here in the U.S. A shame that we don't get weekly charts for the U.S. or at least NA.
It'll outsell Awakening before long. Love that this game did well worldwide, even in historically Nintendo-unfriendly U.K.
It's currently my favorite Fire Emblem game. There are many I've yet to play, but I'm not expecting that opinion to change any time soon, honestly. The expanded scope, huge replayability, and life sim/social elements really make it feel like a substantial release.
FE:TH is my favorite game of 2019 so far (though there probably are some contenders coming out in the next couple of months). I've put it aside at the moment because I feel I must beat Final Fantasy X first (damn you, Lady Yunalesca!!), but will go right back to it when I'm done. Love almost everything about it.
I've got a copy coming to me at some point. I have really enjoyed the Fire Emblem games I have played over the years but I think I have only played a handful. Awakening was the last on I played and that one was excellent.
@Yumiez awesome. Support conversations have always made me deeply connect with Fire Emblem characters. That translates to doing everything in my power to protect every single one of them. The character development of three houses took it to another level. Specially the time skip.
I've heard that comparison. Makes want to play Persona even more. I've also had my eyes on Trails of Cold Steel for a while. Guess I'll enjoy that game a lot too.
It’s an alright Fire Emblem. Personally I think the class system is boring. There’s not enough variety for the master classes.
Also maps are pretty bad. Nothing remotely interesting
I’ve always felt like FE:Fates would have been pretty big if they just kept it as one game instead of two. I still remember the FE hype after Awakening hit the scene and got a bunch of new people into it, me included. I was keen for the next one but I was just left confused with the choice and differing content, so much so that I opted to just not get it at all, and a lot of my friends were the same.
I’m glad to hear this is doing well and hopefully we can see some Advance Wars next? Maybe? Please?
Very good show, IS. I haven't played Three Houses yet, but the feedback I've read so far has been phenomenal.
Awesome for it! Well deserved, but one thing. Every list I've found has Fates selling more units than Awakening whereas this obviously says Awakening sold more, anybody got a more accurate list of this?
@60frames-please
You have to consider the fact that the last home console Fire Emblem that Intelligent Systems made was Radiant Dawn for Wii in 2007. Everything since then has been on 3DS, so they have almost no experience working with a beefy HD system like the Switch, with Color Splash being their only attempt, and it wasn't very demanding. This is why they needed Koei Tecmo's help, since they made FE Warriors, they knew how to program HD models for the engine.
Yeah some things look murky, I won't deny that. But it's certainly not a PS2 game, and gets the job done. It may not be the best looking game on Switch, but it's certainly the best looking Fire Emblem game. Comparing it to the likes of Mario Odyssey, BOTW, or Xenoblade 2 is completely unfair since those developers have always made console games for the last few years. Intelligent hasn't, so if you think about it, it's actually kind of impressive.
Besides, the game itself is super fun, engaging, and shows the real horrors of war with lots of cool characters. I'd take a muddy game that plays amazing over a super shiny game that's a bore to play. (Anthem for instance.)
Absolutely we'll deserved! I'm 55 hours in my first play through and loving every minute. Petra best girl. Should have time to finish up before Astral Chain drops.
Don't worry, pretty soon some helpful idiot will come by to explain how this means the game is doing terribly.
Here come the classic triggered FE fans who will say you aren't a true FE fan until you play insert title here .
I for one, am happy to see this title do so well. It's an amazing game, and much better than Fates, and even Awakening imo.
(Although Awakening will always deserve the most respect out of the series, since it was the title that saved the series.)
NPD doesn't know about my purchase because I bought it digitally while I was physically in Taiwan for a work trip. However, 15 hours in I'm very much loving this game!
@Paraka Fates did tarnish the reputation, but I think Echoes of Valentia helped to remedy that.
Loving both. FE on my commute, and Madden with my old college friends at home. Good times.
Hardware sales down 22% - PS5/Scarlett cant come soon enough. Bleeding for 4 months now
Stellar game. But I think it's launch success is in part due to how much more well known Fire Emblem is now. Back when Awakening came out, it was such a niche title that when I talked about it, most people had no idea what I was talking about until I pointed out it's the series that Roy, Marth and Ike come from in Smash.
And bluntly, I like Fire Emblem a LOT more than Smash.
Between Mario Maker 2, Fire Emblem, Astral Chains, Link’s Awakening, Luigi’s Mansion, Pokémon, a slew of third party gems, and the release of the Switch Mini, the console is going to level Sony and Microsoft this holiday season!
Three Houses might be the first Nintendo game with a shot at a 50% digital attach rate due to the NSO vouchers and some pretty bad retail shortages at launch, which makes this NPD physical report even more impressive.
@JamesJose7 Not a Fire Emblem fan and I think this is the most enjoyable so far! Great story, and the TRPG that I usually can't get into is finally something that isn't too bad. (Before I always see the trpg part of it is something that is always just tiring to do, but this one felt good)
....Can we have a new Advance Wars game now, IS? I miss that series. T.T
@NerdyBoutKirby @KryptoniteKrunch that was not enough of a spoiler warning!
@neogyo Don't worry about it too much--it happens pretty early on, and you don't know the context. It's not a hugely important plot point.
@JamesJose7 I can answer your question in one word buddy. It's my GOTY without a doubt. I dipped my toe in to awakening for an hour or so but then didnt go back to it for some reason or another. I've just clocked 45 hours on this one!
@JR150 I appreciate your points. I'm mostly frustrated because practically everything Intelligent Systems has done runs at 60fps, and now this doesn't. Fire Emblem Warriors looks absolutely perfect in performance mode when docked. I just wish 3 Houses had that option. What's irksome is that they keep releasing high resolution games at 30fps (or less at times, which is horrible) when they could scale back, lower the resolution, and get 60fps.
Also, kind of a tangent, but the awesome Pushmo games on 3DS and Wii U all run at 60fps, were developed by Intelligent Systems, and should be ported to Switch.
So happy FE3H has sold so well. It's a game that has lurked in the shadows for far too long and defenately deserves some attention and to be recognised as an amazing series of games. I'm having an absolute blast on it and havnt put it down since release. I find myself pandering to students likes just so I can recruit them. Petra and Mercedes for the win.
The Switch is doing great! I adore Fire Emblem 3 Houses. That's one of the best games I've ever played. Bring on Astral Chain.
@JamesJose7 Fire emblem 3h is my first FE game. Took some getting used to in terms of understanding what the game was about. Still in part 1 and about 10 hours in and went the golden deer route (normal/classic). A mage died early in my squad leaving me with a member down for now. Was devastated when she died. I quickly learned that a wrong move can have dire consequences. I think it's a amazing how a game can get you attached to the fictional characters and how your initial judgement couldn't be further from the truth!
@JR150 I'm sorry but no. You are being way too kind here. How many console games they've developed is irrelevant, if IS couldn't hack it they should have hired another developer.
Look at waterfall above the fishing pond. Look at the buildings, the lack of textures, look at the clouds ffs. The game looks like absolute garbage and runs like it too. I don't think I've seen a worse looking 1st party game in recent years. In parts it looks like a late N64 game (those goddamn clouds..) and no single element looks better than a GC game. For the game to run as badly as it does when looking as bad as it does is simply inexcusable.
I love the game, but god did it need another year or two in development.
@NerdyBoutKirby there is literally no need for your spoilers. Your comment contributes nothing. And what you stated is a hugely relevant plot point in the game, you're just an a-hole.
@westman98 @JasmineDragon yep i’m sure we have a regular who’s been playing down FE regularly, wonder where he is?
I've never played a FE game but I am really really enjoying this. It's the sort of game I can just keep playing and playing and have to force myself to go to bed at night.
@WiltonRoots Do you mean Cobalt? It seems he got banned again.
No wonder. I've never played a Fire Emblem game, but now I'm on my second house and can definitely say that there's going to be a third playthrough afterwards (summer break is such a blessing!)
@Quarth Oh no, what a shame.
/s
Great to see... Unfortunately not my type of game. One of the first big hitters I've passed on in a while. Yet glad to see its been received so well!!
As an outside looking in... the school mechanic seems like an unlicensed Harry Potter sim.
One of the best video games I've played in years.
Even better than Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and I'd say it's even up there with Zelda Breath of the Wild as one of the best games I've ever played. I love me some Fire Emblem.
I am SO glad it is doing well!! I have been worried about FE after the story that Awakening was going to be the last game. Thank goodness the sales numbers have jumped since Awakening! I am just glad I have all the other FE games for GBA GCN etc. I feel like they will start going for a lot more now. Plus they are all so good!
@JaxonH That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life!
@Bosstoneman
😁
The hard part was getting every game sealed. The GBA games cost quite a bit, as did Path of Radiance. Thankfully I grabbed them years ago before prices got too far out of control.
@JaxonH I know what you mean my original Path of Radiance Went shot and I got a replacement about 10 years ago before it got to much harder to find. I know I don't have the original boxes from the Blazing Blade or Sacred Stones.
@JR150 I just wanted to say that Color Splash was an insanely beautiful game, probably the best graphics I've seen on the U
This is my favorite Fire Emblem game to date!
I can understand some fans disappointment in this installment considering it's so diffefrent and so full of things to do besides battles. I mean it's like Fire Emblem had a love-child with Persona.
Personally I enjoy the social school-life and the fact that ALL DIALOGUE IS VOICE-ACTED. EVEN THE NO-NAME NPC's ARE VOICE-ACTED.
And for those of you complaining it's too easy;
1. you don't have to use Divine Pulse if you don't want to. It's optinal.
2. We are getting two harder difficulties for free later in the year.
People often like to look at things like the launch and take this one tiny little piece of information and extrapolate from that success vs. failure.
Wrong.
What matters more is the retention. Fire Emblem: 3H was barely at the top a couple of weeks and was unceremoniously dethroned almost immediately by Crash Racers or whatever.
THAT is what matters here and it's a dark signal that this game was not a success and will very likely go down as a dumpster fire failure of Epic proportions.
I will again express my concern: I just hope this utter failure isn't so great that it drags Nintendo down with it. Nintendo has managed to eek by in the past with failures, like the WiiU, but I don't know about this one.
110 hours in. On my 3rd house play through. I haven't been hooked on a game like this in a very long time. Might be my favorite switch title to date.
@Patron Nintendo has their own sales projections pre-launch of a game. If FE:3H is meeting or surpassing that figure then it should be considered a success. It also only dropped one spot to Crash, meaning that it still sold well. But, hate away, I guess.
EDIT: It also hasn't even been a month since release. Is selling better than expected in the US. There are a lot of positives to look at.
Very well deserved. Keep em coming IS.
@BenAV - Yeah, not saying it doesn't deserve success, just that I am surprised how big it has been. Had 30+ friends on my list, only seen one consistently play that wasn't a personal friend of mine. Others were in Mario Maker, Smash, Fortnite and Splatoon. It was simply didn't see it beating Awakening in that regard.
@Morrow Surprisingly, this game has United the fanbase mostly.
@Patron I admire your optimism. 😄
@JR150
Honestly the only area for complaint is the monastery as it is a little sluggish when under load.....still try to remember the Citidel in ME series and that chugged way worse than anything FE has done. Actually the SRPG 4x4 graphics are incredible. I mean what can you really do with grafx of that nature? They are detailed, the combat anims are good, the characters display changes based on class and weapon...I really like it and when you think on the 3DS the character were likely 5x5 pixel sprites this is a huge improvement. SRPGs have never been about grafx but this new FE definitely takes the series to new heights.
I just hope all the DLC is relesed here too. (if they plan to make that type of DLCs)
I remember fates had unreleased DLC on the west...
Barring the fan service nature of them, you could get multiple of the same items that were previously only available 1 time.
@NIN10DOXD I hope it stays that way. Communities are divided enough, we don't need a single community separating between old and new.
@Mogster I'm sorry. My previous comment was pretty tactless. I hope my previous statements didn't hurt your experience with the game--in fact, I've edited the original post to remove the spoilers.
Please refrain from personal attacks in the future.
Sooo... EA/Activision support when? 🙄😒😋
@Patron it's literally the second best selling game in the entire series (in the US) with 5 days of sales. It's second now only to Awakening, which was considered a phenomenal success, and is projected to surpass that. The game is already a success and has probably surpassed Nintendo's own sales projections but sure, let's try and hold it to the same standards as a Nintendo AAA title instead of the standards set by it's own series. Because that makes sense?!
@Patron Keep on trolling. 🤣
@NerdyBoutKirby Glad you removed the spoiler, actually got a little pissed off when I saw it.
>Launch month sales tripled – yes, tripled – the previous best-selling Fire Emblem launch, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
SoV sold very badly, far worse than Awakening and Fates. I find it very hard to believe it was the previous best-selling FE launch, though it is the previous FE in general.
@JaxonH impressive collection.
Most overlooked character is the gate guard.
@LUIGITORNADO Yes, I agree. This is my first FE game, so I don't really have a huge swath of comparisons, but the maps all feel repetitive to me.
As for the classes — everyone but Gremory on a horse makes for pacing problems and feels uninspired.
I'm really, really enjoying the game, but I do think it's merits are more in how you get attached to the characters than in the mechanics.
I pretty much expected this. I mean have you seen the fanart? Have you seen the memes?
that is a surprise because everyone always say that FE Awakening is their favorite FE game. For real l always hear that.
Awesome news! Now please bring out a remastered version of POR and Radiant Dawn in one package!
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