Wait, you were expecting a pure 1:1 correlation? You understand that there were only a few Switch games each month that we even got any numbers for in those lists, right? There is a giant chasm of missing data and despite that, besides two outliers (Minecraft and Mario Party) its an overall descending arrangement with the full complete order provided by Nintendo's eShop.
It's absolutely bizarre that it ended up even that close considering just how little there was to go by. Honestly, expecting such a insignificant and incomplete fragment of data to line up more than it already is would be irrational.
The vague correlation is caused by the Top 15 being made up of mostly Nintendo's top games and they generally follow their order in retail.... But Famitsu's order doesn't follow that same pattern. Game Data Library lists all the digital numbers and you can see Famitsu's order and compare that to Nintendo's. Famitsu's #1is Nintendo's #9. Nintendo's #3 is Famitsu's #12. There are some match up, but not a lot. MK8, Splatoon, Zelda, Taiko, Mario Odyssey, and Mario Party have no missing data through November, so you can't blame the errors on that. Under the Top 15, there is no correlation. There's just too much missing, too many lesser titles with data, and titles completely out of order to pretend that its useful.
There's also only two games on the digital only list that have any numbers. I have no idea why we have numbers for Puyo Puyo eSport andnothing for Human Fall Flat or Stardew Valley. But then we have numbers for Snipperclips.... I doesn't make sense.
I'm confused. Some of you are saying they are crap but others saying ithey are good. So which is it?
Their methodology is about as accurate as their Most Wanted numbers. As long as you're not concerned with accuracy or consistency... They're great.
So what then? We know digital estimation is not accurate. So we just pretend there is no digital sales? I'd venture a guess that the digital estimation is closer to true number than assuming digital is 0.
Have you tried a random number generator?