Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the first Switch-exclusive game without Mario to reach No.1 in the UK sales charts

In what is one hell of a busy period for the Nintendo Switch currently – Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Super Mario Maker 2 and Ultimate Alliance 3 all released recently – the bets were off as to what game would top this week’s UK physical sales charts. That game, however, turned out to be none other than the turn-based fantasy battler Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which has claimed a new record as the first chart-topping Switch exclusive game to not feature Mario.

While that might not seem like a bold claim to some, it’s a significant milestone worth highlighting if only for what it says about the popularity of the Fire Emblem brand here in the west. The strategy series has been suffering from a bit of an identity crisis as of late, but Three Houses has quite clearly put an end to this. This is no doubt thanks to Three Houses being the first entry to release on a home console in 10 years, which combined with stellar reviews can only spell success.

Until now, the only Nintendo Switch exclusive titles to reach the UK sales charts has been the likes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Maker 2. Notice a theme? Fire Emblem: Three Houses obviously didn’t need the power of the plumber to gain this victory, achieving something even The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  (which was beaten by Horizon: Zero Dawn) and Splatoon 2 failed to do. Remember, though, this is just accounting for physical boxed game sales.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses almost doubled the launch sales of 2013’s Fire Emblem Awakening (previously the most popular entry) and more than doubled the combined sales of the first two Fire Emblem Fates games released in 2016. It released the same day as Wolfenstein: Youngblood, but even being on multiple platforms couldn’t help Bethesda’s 80s-set Nazi slay-a-thon beat out the new Fire Emblem.

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