Despite being almost three years old when it hit the platform, Yacht Club Game’s popular retro 2D side-scrolling platformer, Shovel Knight, sold best out of the gate on the Nintendo Switch.
As you may know, Shovel Knight first released back in June 2014 for PC, Wii U, and 3DS. Mac and Linux ports followed later that year, before the game came to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PlayStation Vita in 2015. It was then, only quite sometime later, that it hit Nintendo’s new hybrid console in March 2017, but apparently that didn’t stop it from gathering more momentum than it ever had, and selling best on the platform “out of the gate.”
What specifically, “out of the gate” means, isn’t exactly clear, but it is likely simply referring to the game’s launch period on each respective platform. What this doesn’t mean is that the game has sold best on Switch, but rather that it just saw the highest launch-period yield on the platform.
And Shovel Knight isn’t alone in this regard: independent games finding success and selling best on Nintendo’s new console is becoming increasingly common, with both Oceanhorn and Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap both being recently highlighted for selling best on Switch.
Shovel Knight, which is now actually referred to as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, is available for $24.99 USD.
In other recent and related news, the game’s third and final expansion, King of Cards, is scheduled to release sometime early next year.