Nintendo has delivered its annual Switch stats report. Like most gamers, I found my year was defined by The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Its release coincided with a three-month sabbatical from work, which afforded me so many hours to explore this iteration of Hyrule. In a way, I almost regret the timing: being off from work for that long, I could've played dozens of other games in my backlog. Instead, the completionist in me found it almost a chore to pursue every side quest I was assigned in Zelda, such that I'd sunk a hundred hours in before I finished even the second dungeon.

In preparation for this game's release, I revisited Breath of the Wild, whose DLC I'd purchased but never played. I found it an underwhelming series of fetch quests, and I didn't end up finishing most of its shrines.

The two Zeldas, sandwiched by the delightful, if unchallenging, Super Mario Wonder, were the three games in which I invested the most hours this year. Here's the full rundown.

And, because this information was present in Nintendo's interactive slideshow but not in a manner easily captured visually, here's a table charting my gameplay habits over the year:

| Month | Total Hours | Total Games | Days Played | Top Game | Hours | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Jan | 4 | 10 | 5 | Nintendo Entertainment System | 1 | | Feb | 10 | 6 | 10 | Super Arcade Racing | 5 | | Mar | 14 | 10 | 15 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | 9 | | Apr | 3 | 3 | 5 | Wandersong | 2 | | May | 38 | 4 | 15 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | 31 | | June | 66 | 5 | 25 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | 59 | | July | 63 | 4 | 22 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | 59 | | Aug | 39 | 10 | 18 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | 29 | | Sep | 1 | 1 | 1 | Nintendo Entertainment System | 1 | | Oct | 15 | 8 | 10 | Super Mario Bros. Wonder | 8 | | Nov | 14 | 4 | 16 | Super Mario Bros. Wonder | 5 |

(I have no recollection of investing much time in the Nintendo Entertainment System emulator; I might've booted it up only long enough to complete the missions necessary to earn some Platinum Points.)

What's not captured in any of this data is the flurry of activity with which I ended the year, playing such great games as Wilmot's Warehouse and The Stanley Parable. I'll have more to say about those in my next post, in which I recap every game I played this year.

The post My Nintendo Switch stats for 2023 first appeared on Gamebits.