 So if you are a Nintendo fan and you're used to hearing, Nintendo is for kids, Switch is for kids, Mario's for kids, everything Nintendo does is for children. I've been hearing this narrative almost my entire life. I am 36 years old. I am heading on to my 40s here eventually. I don't like to think about it, but it's true. And every time I enter a game store, since I could remember probably dating back to at least my teenage years, but really the first time I remember actually noticing it was when I was 20, whether I was in GameStop or another local little place where we had the gaming generations was when we had around here or even the Walmarts of the world and the best buys is that every time I would go in to buy a Nintendo system be it at launch or whenever, or if I go in to buy a Nintendo games, Zelda, Mario, Pikmin, it didn't really matter what it was. I would get funny looks. Even today, I was in to buy a game. Well, I'll put it a pre-order anyways in GameStop the other day. And they asked me if I was pre-ordering for my children. Now look, I do have children and they very well could be playing Switch, but I can tell you right now, whether you guys think this makes me a bad parent or not, it shouldn't really matter, but my children don't really care that much about Switch. They just don't. They care more about the Mario movie coming out than Switch. They'd rather play on tablets, on phones, and play games like Minecraft and Roblox. They have way more interest in that kind of stuff because that's what all their friends are playing than Switch. That's just the reality that I live in as a parent. It was my reality when I used to do after-school care with elementary school kids that they weren't really interested in Switch and Nintendo that much either. They were more talking about Roblox or Minecraft, even sometimes Call of Duty coming up. It wasn't very much that we heard about Switch and there's a narrative that exists because of Nintendo's admittedly family-friendly image. Obviously Mario is a very family-friendly mascot. Obviously Mario movie. A lot of games they release are rated E, sometimes PG. So this creates this narrative from many people that Nintendo is a family-friendly and family-first and kid-specific company. And while some of this is true, that Nintendo is definitely, I would say, a pretty family-friendly company. I mean, they won't even give us localized voice chat because they're worried about, you know, children getting abused because there was a situation that happened on Wii U and 3DS, last-generation factory with voice chat that happened in Japan that really scared Nintendo. The thing is other companies are buying into this too. The UK government, when talking about trying to block the Xbox acquisition of Activision and Blizzard, noted Nintendo is not considered an example of a company that's successful without Call of Duty because they are a children's system. They are a family system. Their games are intended for little kids. Call of Duty's not made for little kids. Here go of course Nintendo can survive without Call of Duty because they aren't competing in the same market as Xbox and PlayStation and PC for that matter. This is government bodies saying this. Sony has said this over the years as well that they value Nintendo as a company but don't view it as competition because Nintendo creates games for kids. This is a narrative that's existed both internally and externally for a long time. And this narrative couldn't be more wrong with Switch. It just couldn't. We can go into prior systems and maybe prove it. The Wii era as an example, that Blue Ocean strategy, very easy to prove it then. The DS even, very easy to prove it then. But the Switch is different and Nintendo reminded us again today. You see, they had their financial briefing and they released the public documents from that briefing today. And in there was an updated graph that we hadn't seen in nearly four years. Last time they showed us this graph was back in 2018 and it noted in that graph that a majority of people playing Switch were adults, okay? Over the age of 18, a lot of them in their early 20s to 30s, 20s to 30s seem to be the primary range of people playing it. And then obviously a good chunk of players playing in the 30s, 40s and 50s and then obviously you had some children but it really wasn't that big of a market. And Nintendo published that out so long ago that people feel like things have changed. That was back then, that was early adopters. Those were the hardcore faithful Nintendo fans early adopting the platform. It skewed the numbers. That is not what the Switch appeals to today in 2022 except Nintendo released the graph again and now it says the same thing. With 106 million reported active users, this is according to Nintendo, 106 million active people have played a Switch in the last year. I mean, the chart's right in front of you guys. It's almost 90% of those people are over the age of 18. The biggest group being around 22 and 23 by a significant margin. Not really surprising. College age or just graduating college maybe have a bunch of free time but then obviously that chunk between 20 and 30 is massive. Again, it's the biggest audience for Switch. Ages 20 to 30, that's not kids, that's adults. And then ages 30 to 40, the second biggest market. Again, that's not kids, that's adults. The ages of 35 to 45 have more people playing Switch than the entirety of ages zero to 17. This chart just destroys the narrative that Nintendo Switch in particular is for kids. Just because Nintendo makes E for Everyone in PG or T rated games doesn't mean that children are the ones primarily playing them. And I've talked about this before because the age rating of a game has nothing to do with the audience of said game. To give you an example, I do play on Xbox. I do play on PlayStation occasionally and I do play on PC. And every time I hop in something like say, let's consider it a bit more mature like Fortnite or Call of Duty. Every time in the voice chat, it's full of a bunch of teenagers. And notably you see in Switch's market for children, it peaks at age 10 and then dips in the teen years. I wonder why that is. I wonder why that is. Could it be that age ratings have nothing to do with who is actually playing the games? Could it be that most adults don't give a crap if Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was one, originally a Wii U game, and two, that it's rated E for Everyone? Maybe they don't care that Animal Crossing New Horizons is rated E for Everyone. Maybe adults stop caring in general about ratings, graphics, FPS and care about fun. Now look, this obviously isn't a representation of all adult gamers. That's just a fact. It's not a representation of all adult gamers. There are plenty that want really high frame rates and the best of this graphics and they spend their free money building epic gaming PCs and that's all cool. I'm actually really into that. I'm really enthusiastic about that market. It is something I really enjoy. I'm a tech enthusiast but I just had this hard time dealing as a Nintendo fan with the constant negativity around Switch. I mean, even as I've projected that I feel like new hardware will release next year, I don't think we need it. But I have a different video coming later explaining why we don't actually need a new Switch next year, even though I want one. And I feel like I have a very strong argument to make for not needing it just because of who the audience of Switch is. Folks, the Nintendo Switch is a platform that appeals to adults even after Steam Deck came out, even after PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X launched. The bigger adult audience is Nintendo. It turns out that you can make E for everyone games that's still primarily just appeal to adults because adults are the ones that stop caring what other people think about what they're playing. I remember being a kid. I remember playing my Game Boy and Game Boy Color and Nintendo and yes, PlayStation and Sega Genesis back in the day. And you know what was funny? Anytime I mentioned Nintendo as a kid, I get made fun of by other kids. Why? Oh, Nintendo, that's like a five-year-old thing. You're eight. You didn't even play something more grown up like I don't know. How about some Mortal Kombat? I mean, Mortal Kombat was on those platforms. No, no, no, I played it on PlayStation. Look, it was stupid. So I experienced this as a kid where kids get talked down on for playing Nintendo. So of course, what are they gonna lean towards? Tablets, phones, more grown up platforms that adults might own like PlayStation or Xbox or at least considered grown up. I find this interesting that I even need to defend this point but if you're ever been a Nintendo fan in real life or just on the internet, especially as an adult, you've seen this narrative. This is not something I'm making up. I'm not pulling this narrative out of my buttocks. We all know that we constantly see Nintendo's for kids. Why are you playing Nintendo? LOL, Nate, you're playing Sonic Frontiers on Switch? What's wrong with you? It's 60 FPS and better looking on other platforms. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're right, but I already own Switch. And as an adult who already owns Switch that wants to play it freely in my bedroom and the bathroom and on TV, it's just more convenient for me to play it on Switch. That's not a knock on the other platforms. It's that as an adult, I enjoy the freedom Switch gives me. Now you can say, well, then just get a Steam Deck. I agree, although Sonic Frontiers doesn't work very well on a Steam Deck but I can agree there. The thing is, I don't own one right now and as an adult, I tend to just use what I already have. Sonic Frontiers isn't a reason for me to buy a Steam Deck. It's just not because I could just play it on Switch. I wouldn't feel like I need a Steam Deck unless there were games on Steam Deck that I wanted to play that I couldn't play on Switch. And unfortunately for Steam Deck, a lot of the games I want to play happen to be on Switch already. Sports Story, December, it's on Switch. I don't need a Steam Deck. Yeah, you can emulate everything on Steam Deck. That's fine, but why would I do that when I already have the platform? I'll just play it on Switch. I understand, higher frame rates, better FPS. I get that's the reasoning but I also go, yeah, but for $500 extra out of my wallet, the only more games I could buy with that on Switch? I think I'll just stick with Switch. So look, I am sitting here today thanking Nintendo for giving us this update at age chart. I wondered when they would do it. They hadn't done it in forever. 106 million active users, 36 million active paid Nintendo accounts, Nintendo Switch online accounts and guess what a majority of us are adults. I mean, adults are the ones organizing, getting family plans and sharing it with eight people. Why? Because we're not stupid. Why not make the family plan as cheap as possible to share with eight people? Why not be stupid that I had in DLC, right? Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC. So a majority of adults are playing Switch, a majority adults are buying Switch, a majority adults are playing Switch games. And it sort of just defeats this entire narrative because as cool looking and as mature and as amazing as the visuals can be in other games, Nintendo's the place that has more adults playing video games. And that's just awesome. I am Nathaniel Rufflejans from Nintendo Prime. I hope you enjoy this video and I'll catch you in the next one.