Top 10 games in Australia and New Zealand – Jan 31, 2021

Australia saw a massive boost to Nintendo Switch game sales over the past week, while the chart in New Zealand seems to be pretty similar to how it was the previous week.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War topped the chart in New Zealand, as it did the week before. However, in Australia, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe managed to beat the popular shooter title and take the top spot.

This could be due to a couple of reasons. First, if there has been a heavy promotional discount on Nintendo titles in Australia, which the rest of the chart seems to indicate there has, then it’s purely a software sales boost. However, if Nintendo has offered a price discount on Nintendo Switch hardware, then this could show that more Switch consoles have been purchased over the past week, pushing up the sales of Switch software as well.

In total, there are seven Switch games in Australia’s chart. Including Mario Kart 8, Ring Fit Adventure comes in third, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in fifth, Minecraft Switch Edition is in seventh, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in eighth, Super Mario Party in ninth, and Super Mario Odyssey in tenth.

Conversely, there are no Switch games in New Zealand’s chart. Instead, Ubisoft seems to have had a great week thanks to some promotional pricing. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is in third, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in seventh, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in eighth, and Assassin’s Creed Origins in ninth.

Ubisoft has been offering heavy discounts on the Assassin’s Creed games over the past few months. This is most likely because the three most recent games have microtransactions. With the shift to an open-world RPG format, the games generate more income thanks to those microtransactions, particularly when the base cost of the game is dramatically reduced.

One staple in both charts that has barely budged is Grand Theft Auto 5. The game is in fourth in both charts and has only dropped one place this week in Australia. With the addition of a new online open-world for players to explore, the game is definitely seeing a resurgence in players.