Mario+Rabbids becomes best-selling third-party Switch game

Nintendo is to publish Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle in both Japan and Korea next year, Ubisoft has announced. The game, whichhas now become the best-selling third party game on the Nintendo Switch,will release in both territories on January 18th 2018.

Developed by Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was the surprise hit of this year’s E3, where Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto appeared on stage at Ubisoft’s press conference alongside Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot to announce the turn-based strategy crossover title.

It saw a decent amount of success in the UK, too, where it debuted at No.2 in the UK weekly charts after launching on August 29th. Ubisoft also reports that the game has helped grow the popularity of the Rabbids brand worldwide as well, with the Rabbids TV show now being broadcast in 110 countries. The show also recently passed one billion views in China alone, based on an aggregate of views from Tencent, LeEco, iQiyi, Sahu, MangoTV and Youku.

We were very happy to see that players across Europe enjoyed the unexpected combination of Mario, Rabbids and strategy in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle for Nintendo Switch,” said Satoru Shibata, president of Nintendo of Europe.

We hope that players in Japan and Korea will also enjoy the game when it is released there in January next year.”

Alain Corre, EMEA executive director at Ubisoft added:Nintendo publishing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle in Japan and Korea shows that they appreciate the quality of the Rabbids brand and this game, and have high expectations for them in markets they know better than anyone else.

Nintendo have been an amazing partner throughout the game’s development, and now, thanks to them, Switch owners in Japan will join in on the fun with millions of other players around the world.”