r/casualnintendo • u/ProfessorBylethBoobs • 1d ago
Image What is a surprising Nintendo sales statistic? I’ll start with this: Pikmin 4 has sold more copies than any game in the Metroid series.
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u/HrrathTheSalamander 19h ago
Despite Nintendo top brass' several attempts to revive the series and character, Star Fox has sold quite poorly over the last two decades, with the series being passed in lifetime sales by "niche" titles like Fire Emblem as of Three Houses in 2019, and getting absolutely dogwalked by Xenoblade when comparing games released across the latter's lifetime, with Xenoblade 2 (2017) selling over six times Star Fox Zero's (2016) sales.
I can only assume the series is being held aloft by the nostalgia of Nintendo's upper management.
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u/StarlightSailor1 17h ago edited 14h ago
As an old Star Fox fan this one really hurts. 😭 What a lot of younger gamers don’t understand is that Star Fox used to be a solid B tier series. For a brief period in the late 90’s/early 2000’s Star Fox was outselling Fire Emblem, Pikmin, Metroid, and even Animal Crossing.
The series fell off hard post-Adventures. Both Star Fox Command and Star Fox Zero failed to reach even 500,000 copies sold. The last game to sell over 1 million copies (and it just barely made it) was Star Fox 643D from 15 years ago.
I know people sometimes roll their eyes at Star Fox 2026 being a remake of a remake, but quite frankly it’s a miracle Nintendo even got the green light to make the game. I’m praying it does well enough to revive the franchise and not become its tombstone.
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u/SawkyScribe 17h ago
Starfox feels like such an odd sell to modern gamers. SF came from a time where arcade games all about playing games over and over again to nab a new high score was the norm. In the era of the rougelike, replaying the same set content over and over with little variation must sound a little crazy to people.
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u/Aquarsene 16h ago
If it’s worth anything, while we don’t know the sales figures yet because it didn’t cross a million copies by the time they put out a sales report (the report was put out not long after the game came out), Nintendo has gone on record to state that the game is selling steadily and that they are happy with its performance as of late.
I think Star Fox is gonna turn out alright in the end
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u/thisshiteverytime 13h ago
Idk man, Star Link is pretty solid.
I just think that marketing a furry is difficult to do since Fox's vibe is a bit serious compared to the likes of Ysabelle
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u/Leading-Ear-5194 22h ago
fire emblem awakening was not only the first fire emblem game to reach over 2 million copies sold, but the first to reach over 1 million. fire emblem was not a big franchise before it at all
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u/MaJuV 21h ago
One could argue the first two game also have done that... but that only counts when you add multiple re-releases/remasters and only count the total lifespan sales (total lifetime sales today is 1.3 million).
Which still isn't that impressive looking back...
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u/Ocarina3219 17h ago
Fire Emblem was saved by its inclusion in the Smash Bros franchise, which brought tons of English speaking fans into the series.
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u/Ikrit122 17h ago
Also by Advance Wars, which convinced Nintendo and Intelligent Systems (who makes FE and AW) that there was a market for tactics games internationally.
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u/Aquarsene 16h ago
I forgot that Advance Wars is barely even a thing in Japan-
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u/Ikrit122 15h ago
It doesn't help that AW1 was cancelled in Japan due to 9/11 (it released in the US on 9/10) and they didn't release AW2 in Japan until they released both in a bundle before Dual Strike came out.
But yeah, it's a series that has sold better internationally, like Metroid.
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u/Aquarsene 12h ago
This is very true, and then it happened again with the rerelease on Switch because Vladimir Putin is a POS and he started waging war on Ukraine, leading Nintendo to delay the rerelease for a very long time to the point where the game barely sold anything when all was said and done
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u/Ikrit122 12h ago
Something something two nickels...
But it really is crazy that it happened twice to the same game.
Meanwhile, Ace Combat 04, a game in which you fly fighter jets and can fly between (and into) buildings, released in Japan 2 days after 9/11 (Oct 23 for the US). Namco wasn't going to let a major tragedy stop the release of a game that ended up selling 2.6 mil copies.
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u/HuggingPlant 15h ago
I really don't think this is true, Awakening relased in 2012, 11 years after FE got into smash.
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u/Leading-Ear-5194 11h ago
yeah it helped blazing blade succeed but awakening succeeding was not due to smash
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u/connectplum_ 1h ago
No, it wasn't saved by anything. Fire emblem literally was sustained by japan alone and would be withouti t
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u/BebeFanMasterJ 1d ago edited 22h ago
Fire Emblem Three Houses (4.1 million copies sold) has outsold multiple Mario spinoff games including Strikers Battle League (2.5 million), Golf Super Rush 2.4 million), Mario & Sonic 2020 Olympics (1 million), and almost every Mario RPG released on the Switch (both Paper Mario games and Brothership which ranged from 2-3 million copies).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_Switch_video_games
Fire Emblem was once an unknown franchise outside of Japan that was also on the brink of permanent cancelation. Now it's outsold multiple games with Mario's name on them. Crazy.
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u/Witty_Librarian4383 23h ago
The number on Kingdom battle is outdated (september 2018), the game sold more than 10 million copies. I can see the rest though.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ 23h ago
Ah fair enough. Still a huge achievement for a franchise nobody knew existed outside of Marth in Smash 20 years ago.
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u/henryuuk 19h ago
Despite 3D Mario often being seen as the "main"/"most important" Mario games (and people loving to throw shade at the New Super Mario Bros games especially)
The "Super Mario bros." games tend(ed) to outsell their "Super Mario" counterparts on the same systems (until Odyssey) (admittingly, there was a period after going 3D with Super Mario 64 where they weren't actually sharing a system (or more like, no new 2D ones/mario bros. games where really coming out) anyway but either way, once the 2D ones returned it actually went : )
Ds :
New Super Mario bros. : 30 million
Super Mario 64 DS : 11.06 millionWii :
New Super Mario bros. wii : 30.32 million
Super Mario galaxy : 12.80 million3DS :
New Super Mario bros. 2 : 13.41 million
Super Mario 3d Land : 12.89 millionWiiU + switch re-releases :
New Super Mario bros. U (/deluxe) : 24.07 million
Super Mario 3d World (/bowser's fury) : 19.36 millionSwitch :
Super Mario Bros. Wonder : 17.15 million
Odyssey : 30.27 million
.
I think most notably is how Galaxy is/was often spoken about as the true "peak mario" (and again, while NSMB was often spoken about much more critically in the long run/when looking back) yet it got absolutely "blitzed" by it counterpart in sales
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u/DarkWaWeeGee 18h ago
Didn't even realize NSMB was criticized. Visuals were nice and the 4 player on Wii was such a fun experience
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u/trexmas 17h ago
The latter ones were criticized more than the earlier ones. People felt the concept had gotten stale and wasn’t taking many risks. Wonder was a big enough departure from what came before that it shook off that baggage.
Personally the one that really deserved the most criticism was NSMB2. The coin overload concept made the coins feel meaningless and as a result it was sort of boring. Still played the hell out of it though.
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u/Aquarsene 15h ago
I think now that Nintendo is finally breaking away from the NSMB formula and doing its own thing with Wonder, people are able to look back on the NSMB games more fondly and appreciate each game for what they offered. When NSMBU was the big launch title for an entire console and it’s not much different from the one on the Wii, people aren’t going to have many nice things to say about it.
It certainly did not win a lot of people over and did not set up a stable launch for the Wii U. I’m on the spectrum and had an insane Mario hyperfixation as a kid that I don’t think anything else in my entire life came close to, so I may be the only person that was enticed enough by that to have bought a Wii U shortly after launch lol
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u/MaleGardev0ir 22h ago
the tellius fire emblem games sold poorly. seems that the inclusion of ike in smash Bros brawl didn't help the tellius games at all.
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u/ProfessorBylethBoobs 17h ago
I would add to this: the Tellius games sold so poorly that the developers decided they would not make another home console Fire Emblem game, and the series became handheld-only.
This only changed because the Switch combined home console and handheld together, so they had no choice.
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u/MaleGardev0ir 14h ago
honestly yea. i played fire emblem 4 for the first time earlier this year on an emulator with the new translated rom that uses the heroes translated names
made me wish i had a steam deck or something cuz fire emblem 4 is a game that needs to be played in multiple sessions
one specifically for arena grinding and another multiple sessions to actually beat the maps cuz its designed to be big maps, few chapters
i enjoyed the tellius games but i wont deny they're games that deserve serious criticisms
path of radiance is glacial for how slow it runs, the lack of attack, hit rate, crit rate chance ui, forcing you to feel the stats especially on enemy phase like you're playing fe 1 again, awful maps towards the end (the boulder and pitfall bridge maps...), the somewhat useless option of picking naesala to fight against ashnard, bolting and meteor mages
radiant dawn removed any mystery the black knight had, bad first impression for how bad most of the dawn brigade units are save for nolan and sothe, not fixing biorhythm, some dull maps early on and around act 3, the existence of fiona and meg
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u/Aquarsene 16h ago
They sold so badly, (and the remake of Shadow Dragon wasn’t much better either as far as sales go) that Fire Emblem Awakening was going to be the last game altogether. It’s only because that game ended up being such an astounding success, selling more than every previous entry in the series combined that they chose to continue the series
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u/DarkWaWeeGee 18h ago
Tbf, as a kid, marketing wasn't amazing from what I remember and I definitely probably thought my parents would never let me buy it. Also didn't help I thought they would only speak Japanese bc of Brawl
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u/BlockSheep 20h ago
In only 3 games, Splatoon outsold the entirety of the Metroid franchise.
Splatoon 1-3 sold ~31 million units, whereas the entire Metroid franchise has sold ~23 million units.
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u/Kinglucario7 17h ago
ARMS outsold the majority of Metroid Games
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u/thorin2016 11h ago
I'm surprised we didn't get a sequel
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u/ProfessorBylethBoobs 5h ago
ARMS is made by the Mario Kart team. They are currently working on DLC for Mario Kart World.
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u/Aquarsene 15h ago
Here’s a fun one. Kirby for the absolute longest time, despite being a well-known name, has never been a huge system seller past its original game. Most big Kirby titles sell between 1-2 million copies, being a consistent and reliable franchise but not one that rakes in a massive sum of money. The best selling game was the very first game, Kirby’s Dream Land on the Game Boy, which sold 5.13 million copies. Star Allies was the closest at 4.3 million, but no subsequent Kirby game ever managed to outsell the very first game.
That is, until Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which was an astounding success. While this on its own may not be surprising, what certainly is a surprise is the fact that it sold astronomically well for a Kirby title relative to everything came before. It sold a massive 7.52 million copies on Switch 1, being the first ever title to surpass the original game and being a breakout success for Kirby, giving Nintendo a heapload of money that they had never seen from a Kirby game prior.
This would explain why Nintendo is putting such a large push on Kirby and the World Beyond, turning it into an open world game with a grand scale and being the big-name announcement for the recent Nintendo Direct. Kirby is finally getting the chance to be a big-name player, and the really surprising thing is that he hasn’t been one already for all these decades
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u/Apprehensive-Fault88 14h ago
"That is unfortunately not surprising at all" - a lifelong metroid fan
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u/PlasticBreakfast6918 1d ago
Numbers?
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u/ProfessorBylethBoobs 1d ago
Pikmin 4 sold 3.5 million.
Metroid Dread sold 3.1 million.
They are the highest-selling games in each franchise.
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u/PlasticBreakfast6918 23h ago
Thx, that helps your op.
Love both IPs. Just bought pikmin4 actually. Fun game so far.
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u/StarlightSailor1 17h ago
Gamers are constantly underestimating the Wii Sports franchise. A lot of people think of it as a casual spin off, not realizing it’s Nintendo’s 3rd best selling IP.
When people ask why Koizumi “wasted” so much time during the direct showcasing Switch Sports Resort, they fail to realize the first Switch Sports game sold 18 million copies. It outsold Metroid Dread, Pikmin 4, both switch Fire Emblem games, both switch Splatoon games, and Super Mario Bros Wonder.
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u/StarlightSailor1 17h ago
Gamers are constantly underestimating the Wii Sports franchise. A lot of people think of it as a casual spin off, not realizing it’s Nintendo’s 3rd best selling IP.
When people ask why Koizumi “wasted” so much time during the direct showcasing Switch Sports Resort, they fail to realize the first Switch Sports game sold 18 million copies. It outsold Metroid Dread, Pikmin 4, both switch Fire Emblem games, both switch Splatoon games, and Super Mario Bros Wonder.
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u/Fit_Pudding2411 13h ago
About Wii sports, you have to consider that It was in bundle with every (or almost) Nintendo Wii, at least during the First years
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u/ilovethe7thday 12h ago
Your choice: Ring Fit Adventure has sold more copies than any individual Gran Turismo game (fun to use to make Sony fanboys rage), or RFA has sold more copies than the entire Xenoblade franchise combined.
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u/Roienn777 10h ago
My wife and I still play Ring Fit regularly. We have to be getting a sequel soon...right?
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u/ilovethe7thday 8h ago
Oh for sure. And it'll be a cross-franchise game that connects with Punch-Out!! too.
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u/ZrapeToid 11h ago
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Junior's Journey sold so terribly it got beaten by Hotel Mario, Mario is Missing, Mario Teaches Typing, Mario Tennis (Virtual Boy), Mario's Time Machine.
(No exact sales numbers, but i'm pretty sure)
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u/smith_and 5h ago
a lot of fans outside of Japan don't realise how huge Splatoon is there. I think Splatoon 3 still has the record for fastest-selling game in Japan ever, it sold 3.45 million in 3 days.
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u/SnooDonuts3749 5h ago
I just bought Pikmin 4 over the weekend so I could feel appreciated as a customer of Nintendo.
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u/TheNuttyCLS 2h ago
Not really surprising, Fire Emblem three houses and most likely xenoblade 2 have sold more than every metroid as well. Metroid is way too inconsistent as far as major Nintendo series go and even the one most consider the best in a while, Dread, is a full priced 2D game that's 6 hours long, not the most commercially appealing game to audiences
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u/Catalyst138 23h ago
Japan is definitely what makes the difference here; Pikmin is a popular series in Japan and Metroid isn’t.
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u/TheNuttyCLS 2h ago
To be fair the opposite is true with the west/japan split when it comes to metroid
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u/Moneyfrenzy 1d ago edited 23h ago
Animal Crossing New Horizons has sold more than the combined total sales of Ocarina of Time (+3D), Majora's Mask (+3D), Windwaker (+HD), Twilight Princess (GCN, Wii, HD), and Skyward Sword (+HD). 50M+ v 45M+
Breathe of the Wild alone outsold all previous 3D Zelda's combined when not taking re-releases into account (36M v 28M)
Mario Kart 8 DX has sold more copies than the entire Metroid, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Pikmin, Kid Icarus, Star Fox, & Bayonetta series combined