Nintendo's Amiibo business is booming, as the company revealed during a recent investor's meeting that more than 20.50 million Amiibo figures were sold last year. Now, we have more details about which figures reigned supreme, and the results might surprise you.
Leading the charge for America is Link. Despite not having a major new game release and having taken the top spot in 2014 as well, the hero of time from Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. line of Amiibo figures proved to the most popular for North American fans. His more colorful persona, Toon Link, came in as the third-most popular Amiibo for the region, with Mario's nemesis Bowser taking the second place spot.
Nine of the top 10-selling Amiibo in the U.S. hailed from the Super Smash Bros. line of toys, with the only odd-Amiibo out being the classic Mario released as part of the character's 30th anniversary.
In Japan, the list looked far different. Japanese audiences latched onto the Inkling characters from Nintendo's new Splatoon IP, with the characters taking the top three Amiibo spots. Three different versions of Mario make the Japanese list, as well as characters like Yoshi, Kirby and two characters from Nintendo's Animal Crossing franchise.
European audiences by far had the most variety. Classic Mario took the top spot and Link the second, but the rest of the list looks far different from that of America or Japan. All three Inkling characters make the top 10, as do characters like Toad, Pikachu and Yarn Yoshi.
Nintendo makes note of supply initially not being able to keep up with demand for the Inkling characters, which might explain why they didn't crack the top 10 in the U.S. charts. Regardless, the data shows that Nintendo's Amiibo business isn't slowing down anytime soon. Characters like Link and Mario, who were among the first Amiibo released for Super Smash Bros., continue to be big sellers for the company. The future is looking bright for Nintendo's toy business, but we'll have to wait and see what Amiibo plans the company has lined up for later this year in order to keep the momentum going.
