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Sales Data Updated sales numbers for Switch titles: Pokémon Legends: Arceus (12.64M), Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2.65M), and more

Some of these will prolly come back in some form. Now for some of these 3rd party developers… they definitely don’t have any excuse to purposefully ignore Switch
There is plenty of excuses they can use:

-It’s for the Western/Asian market in which Switch it’s not big just a toy and all Switch owners have another console
-We didn’t expect the Switch success we need another 5 years to be sure
-Our audience is on PS and when we remember thanks to MS money also on Xbox
-We can’t compete with Nintendo 1st party offering please help 🥺
-Digital sales in PS/PC make up for the lost sales
-Nintendo audience didn’t bought a late port 10 years ago on the Wii U / on the DS 20 years ago so there is no audience
-Switch can’t run the game until 1 year lately magic happens and now it can run it
-We have no experience developing for the Switch and now is too late to change
-Handheld users have graduated to home consoles already no reason to make a Switch version

And other excuses they will always find, the companies that have wanted to take the Switch seriously even if they didn’t at the start have already done it, the ones who haven’t will not just change it because Switch It’s still highly sucessful
 
Ye, i agree they re quite the bad legs. When i saw that smtv moved 200k and managed to hut 1 mill i just thought "well smt sold less than 1/3 of what dread did, so it makes sense to expect more right?" it didnt sadly. But its like i said, i doubt dread will be stopping at 2,9 even if post launch sales will be waaay slower than i assumed lol
SMT V has got already decent sized discounts, Metroid Dread not yet btw
 
handheld titles/series that don't have a Switch entry
  • Nintendogs
  • Tomodachi Life
  • Rhythm Heaven
  • Style Savvy/Style Boutique
  • Mario & Luigi
  • Art Academy
  • Golden Sun
  • Wario Land
  • Mario Hoops/Slam Basketball
  • Super Princess Peach
  • Mario vs. Donkey Kong
  • Pokémon Ranger
  • Pokémon Pinball
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game

  • I feel like Nintendogs is a matter of when, not if. There's no way that isn't coming back at some point.
  • Tomodachi Life on a console with a Capture Button and the ability to share stuff via social media is a recipe for viral success. Easy 5 million seller. Get on it, Nintendo.
  • Rhythm Heaven's return is going to be entirely dictated by Tsunku♂'s health/desire to do another one.
  • A lot of people want Style Savvy to come back. They made enough of those games on DS/3DS that I have to imagine they're not NOT successful. Syn Sophia's been a little quiet, maybe they're cooking something up.
  • RIP Alpha Dream
  • RIP Resistive Touch Screens. I keep thinking an Apple Pencil-like Stylus for a Switch Revision would go a long way, but would also be expensive and maybe not used a whole lot? But it'd be needed for Art Academy and, more importantly, a new Elite Beat Agents.
  • Camelot's free, I guess? Maybe do a remake first to refamiliarize everyone?
  • Wario Land deserves a new entry. What's Goodfeel up to?
  • lmao square enix is uhh busy
  • I think I'm ok with them not making another game where Princess Peach's super powers are "emotions"
  • MvDK is good. They should make another.
  • Ranger and Pinball I'm okay without but I'm frankly baffled they haven't put PTCG on Switch in some capacity. Seems like a microtranscational dream come true for people in boardrooms who want lines to go up.
 
  • Ranger and Pinball I'm okay without but I'm frankly baffled they haven't put PTCG on Switch in some capacity. Seems like a microtranscational dream come true for people in boardrooms who want lines to go up.
I guess The Pokémon Company is content with letting the mobile/PC TCG client do all the money making for them?
 
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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's legs are ridiculous, and I'm sure it's only going to keep going from here now that DLC will sustain it for another year. What do you all think its final sales numbers will be by the time all is said and done? I think 50 million is a given at least.
 
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's legs are ridiculous, and I'm sure it's only going to keep going from here now that DLC will sustain it for another year. What do you all think its final sales numbers will be by the time all is said and done? I think 50 million is a given at least.
Sold nearly 10 million in the last fiscal year, and given the DLC is coming out, it is guaranteed to sail passed 50 million in the current fiscal year.
 
There is plenty of excuses they can use:

-It’s for the Western/Asian market in which Switch it’s not big just a toy and all Switch owners have another console
-We didn’t expect the Switch success we need another 5 years to be sure
-Our audience is on PS and when we remember thanks to MS money also on Xbox
-We can’t compete with Nintendo 1st party offering please help 🥺
-Digital sales in PS/PC make up for the lost sales
-Nintendo audience didn’t bought a late port 10 years ago on the Wii U / on the DS 20 years ago so there is no audience
-Switch can’t run the game until 1 year lately magic happens and now it can run it
-We have no experience developing for the Switch and now is too late to change
-Handheld users have graduated to home consoles already no reason to make a Switch version

And other excuses they will always find, the companies that have wanted to take the Switch seriously even if they didn’t at the start have already done it, the ones who haven’t will not just change it because Switch It’s still highly sucessful
Lol it’s just sad. There’s certain 3rd party developers that could have easily began a audience on Switch or continued success with certain games. Mass Effect Trilogy skipping Switch is unforgivable.
 
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Also, I'm glad Clubhouse Games is doing well. I feel it's a game a lot of people slept on; it's legit great and has endless replayability.
 
JP vs Overseas

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BOTW about 2 years away from 30M outside of Japan (excluding Wii U) and holding firm on #3 spot. It just passed 3M in JP coming off a 550K year and should definitely get past 4M at this pace.

ACNH will pass 30M Overseas this year.

MK8D will pass 40M Overseas this quarter and 6M Japan as well.

SwSh will grind its way to be the best selling Pokemon game outside of JP in a year or two unless SV cuts into the legs.

LGPE shipped >1M Overseas four years in a row.

SMO will pass 3M in JP this year and will grind its way to >25M Overseas in two years.
 
Mario Kart is a monstrosity, holy shit

Nintendo HAS to have MK9 on deck to be a launch game for Switch 2, thing is gonna fly off the shelf
 
Id be shocked if prime didnt do considerably better (and that is being pessimistic)

Ye, i agree they re quite the bad legs. When i saw that smtv moved 200k and managed to hut 1 mill i just thought "well smt sold less than 1/3 of what dread did, so it makes sense to expect more right?" it didnt sadly. But its like i said, i doubt dread will be stopping at 2,9 even if post launch sales will be waaay slower than i assumed lol
That doesn't make sense at all, SMTV and Metroid Dread are completely different genres with different fanbases.
 
I don’t know why people keep bringing up the two version thing for Sword/Shield and BDSP for why those games sold better then Legends Arceus. Barely anyone buys both version, they only get one version and that’s it. I think the main reason for Arceus selling lower than Sword/Shield and BDSP is the different gameplay that may have not attracted traditional and casual fans of the series. Besides, 12 million is great for the game, we are definitely getting more of the Arceus gameplay style which is awesome.
 
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That doesn't make sense at all, SMTV and Metroid Dread are completely different genres with different fanbases.
looking by that side yes, but i just assumed because dread sold so much more naturally things would move faster for dread.
 
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Man, Nintendo is eatin’

Shame about Metroid not hitting the 3 million milestone, still happy it did so well
 
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I think Prime will do better (so long as it's a good game) just because the market is more receptive to first person games at $60 than 2d action/shooter games at the same price.

But those legs for Dread are crazy bad, lol. Everyone who wanted it bought it right away. No one else appears interested. It is apparently the ultimate hardcore fans' game. The anti-Animal Crossing.
I think Prime will do about the same but have bad legs. There are only a few ways I think Metroid can have good legs & and all of them are the antithesis to what fans constitute as a “proper” Metroid game.

Edit: lol @Blue Monty that’s what I posted in another thread when talking about 3rd parties & their ever moving goalpost
 
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These numbers confirm that Nintendo will continue to make video games. Considering the video game industry is trending away from making video games, that is a good thing.
 
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Also Dread shows how important the Japanese market is to Nintendo’s core franchises. Compare it to New Horizons where nearly 1/3 of the sales are from Japan. Without a big Japanese userbase to buy in Nintendo games very rarely break out.
 
I wonder when we're going to get the trailer for Wave 2 of MK8DX DLC. I figured it'd be right around now.

Just because I thought it was interesting, here's a quick overview of all handheld titles/series that have sold 1m or more but haven't appeared on Switch. Disclaimer:
  • This includes all handhelds from the original GB to the 3DS
  • "Handheld series" is used somewhat loosely here, but it's generally "series that originated on a handheld"
  • The two exceptions are 2D Mario and 2D Zelda due to their recent history
  • Some expanded ocean series like English Training or 100 Classic Books are left out because I felt they are unlikely to return for a variety of reasons
  • Games only licensed by Nintendo (Layton, Yokai Watch etc.) have been left out

handheld titles/series that don't have a Switch entry
  • Nintendogs
  • Tomodachi Life
  • Rhythm Heaven
  • Style Savvy/Style Boutique
  • Mario & Luigi
  • Art Academy
  • Golden Sun
  • Wario Land
  • Mario Hoops/Slam Basketball
  • Super Princess Peach
  • Mario vs. Donkey Kong
  • Pokémon Ranger
  • Pokémon Pinball
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game

no original Switch entry:
  • 2D Zelda*
  • 2D Mario*
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

It's possible that I missed something so feel free to point it out
Kinda surprised at this point that there isn't a Mario RPG on Switch. Dream Team's art style done in HD would be awesome.
 
Nintendo is laughing their way home with software sales.

Considering their most expensive game cost around 120 million to make, they are likely laughing their way to the bank.

Considering that Kirby, Metroid, and Pokémon Legends probably had modest budgets of probably 30-70 million to make. And then go on to sell megatons, it's really impressive and it's why their profit jumped up so much. Meanwhile, many Triple A developers of spending obscenes amount of money, trying to ostensibly break even.

And in turn, with Metroid Sales, Nintendo is probably very happy. It didn't take up many internal development resources, it brought interest in their consoles, and it probably made a really good profit too. As long as Mercury Steam wants to keep doing them, I am positive we will see more. It's pretty much the exact same relationship we see with HAL and Kirby.
 
Nintendo is laughing their way home with software sales.

Considering their most expensive game cost around 120 million to make, they are likely laughing their way to the bank.
Smash costs for sure more than 120M , I wouldnt be surprised at all if Smash is as expensive as some Western AAA titles. (Not GTA level but still )
Also they are not the only ones that does this nowadays there is also Konami but Konami prefered the mobile/jp market only route.
 
Also Dread shows how important the Japanese market is to Nintendo’s core franchises. Compare it to New Horizons where nearly 1/3 of the sales are from Japan. Without a big Japanese userbase to buy in Nintendo games very rarely break out.
Thats... a weird thing to say. If america and europe didnt exist botw would lose what, 90% of sales
 
Smash costs for sure more than 120M , I wouldnt be surprised at all if Smash is as expensive as some Western AAA titles. (Not GTA level but still )
Also they are not the only ones that does this nowadays there is also Konami but Konami prefered the mobile/jp market only route.
I don't think so, Smash Ultimate only had a development time of 2 years. Full development only started in 2016, and the game released 2018. While it was still a huge game, it reused many assets from Smash for Wii U, and had largely most of the design work done. As far as I understand, licensing costs for characters isn't as much as people think too. Since Sakurai had personal relationships with a lot of developers, there weren't huge licensing costs.

If we attribute DLC to Ultimate's development, then maybe. However, Vanilla ultimate didn't seem to break the bank. It was a fast turnaround time easily.
 
Thats... a weird thing to say. If america and europe didnt exist botw would lose what, 90% of sales
My point is to break into that coveted 5+ million sales range, Nintendo games basically always need to be big sellers in Japan (I can’t think of many Nintendo games that sold over 5 million worldwide that sold less than a million in Japan). Metroid generally has strong showings in North America but compared to similar titles it does much worse in Japan (ARMS did 400k in Japan with 2 million worldwide but I don’t think Dread even cracked 100k).
 
My point is to break into that coveted 5+ million sales range, Nintendo games basically always need to be big sellers in Japan (I can’t think of many Nintendo games that sold over 5 million worldwide that sold less than a million in Japan). Metroid generally has strong showings in North America but compared to similar titles it does much worse in Japan (ARMS did 400k in Japan with 2 million worldwide but I don’t think Dread even cracked 100k).
It did, they said dread did 270k in japan. Japan is certainly a strong market, but dread's almost 3 million absolutely show its not needed for every franchise.
 
Arceus released 2 months after BDSP and after the holidays and it’s only 2 million behind it, that’s pretty good. Sadly I think SV is going to murder its legs.
 
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For once, I can say that the insane sales for a Pokemon game were 100% deserved. Arceus is the best PKMN game ever made (IMO) and has invigorated my love for the franchise, on top of my excitement for Scarlet/Violet.

Kirby sales are superb too.
 
Also Dread shows how important the Japanese market is to Nintendo’s core franchises. Compare it to New Horizons where nearly 1/3 of the sales are from Japan. Without a big Japanese userbase to buy in Nintendo games very rarely break out.
To be fair outside of Metroid and kind off Zelda , Nintendo series and Nintendo itself have always been Japan centric. Nintendo has done the contrary of the common trend of appealing the West when it comes to JP publishers and even at their worst during Wii U they choosed to appeal the JP market with their latest new IP (Splatoon) , this is shown especially with Switch being the perfect console for the Japanese market
 
The Breath of the Wild numbers are absolutely insane. In a way, I feel bad for people who don't care for open-world Zelda, because I am quite confident Nintendo is looking at those numbers and realizing that is for sure the path the franchise must follow. I mean, I am not even certain those sales are simply a result of open-world gameplay plus the Switch's success, but that is probably going to factor into the company's decision about where to go next.

As for Metroid Dread, I am super happy and I hope Metroid 6 is already being planned. I love the franchise and the formula, but I will agree with those who said that now that Metroid Dread has resurrected the property, it is time to look for a Breath of the Wild type of evolution.
 
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To be fair outside of Metroid and kind off Zelda , Nintendo series and Nintendo itself have always been Japan centric. Nintendo has done the contrary of the common trend of appealing the West when it comes to JP publishers and even at their worst during Wii U they choosed to appeal the JP market with their latest new IP (Splatoon) , this is shown especially with Switch being the perfect console for the Japanese market
Yeah that’s the overall point I’m making, until recently Nintendo sales have basically been hard carried by North America and Japan. It’s actually a testament to how popular Metroid is in North America that it’s lasted this long with a smaller consumer base in Japan.
 
Kirby doing those numbers in a few days is WELL DESERVED.

I feel bad for all the 2D/traditional gameplay fans here, though. I think Dread is doing really well, but overall, this list reflects that people want 3D, open-world, non-linear games.

Oh, and go-karts and anthropomorphic villager friends. But also open worlds and 3D games.
 
People who think Metroid Dread was a financial disappointment when it is literally the best-selling game in the series make me giggle a bit.
Just want to point out that there's a huge difference between being personally disappointed in the sales (as I am, just slightly) and thinking it's a financial disappointment. In fact, I haven't seen a single person, anywhere, say the latter.

Considering this is a collaboration with MercurySteam (meaning few Nintendo dev resources went into it) and that Samus Returns sold 0.55m, from a financial perspective this is unequivocally a huge, huge success.

$60 x 3m is 180m. They won't see all of that as revenue (retailers' fees etc) but with digital being a thing they'll see most of it. That's just a ton of money.

For MercurySteam I think their highest selling game previously was Lords of Shadow at 1.8m. They will also be delighted. They're in Madrid with 160 employees. Probably doesn't cost more than 15m a year keeping their doors open. (Average software dev salary in Madrid is 35k euro according to glassdoor, so double that for proper talent and you've still got 4m left for fixed costs / top level people.) Big profits here.
 
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I feel being disappointed that Dread couldn't go HAM like Animal Crossing or BotW or even Luigi's Mansion relative to where the series' sales were before.

With the Switch's success and how many IP went to new heights on it, it's easy to dream.

5M seemed like a reasonable hope, and I get why 3-3.5M will feel like a disappointment even if it's a clear financial success. There's probably still some "will we ever get a new 2D Metroid again" fear there, whereas at 5M-6M, it's more like "WHEN will the next one come out because we know it's coming."
 
Quoted by: Joe
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Kirby doing those numbers in a few days is WELL DESERVED.

I feel bad for all the 2D/traditional gameplay fans here, though. I think Dread is doing really well, but overall, this list reflects that people want 3D, open-world, non-linear games.

Oh, and go-karts and anthropomorphic villager friends. But also open worlds and 3D games.
The appeal of games, is player expression and choice. Even Miyamoto understood this when he created the first Mario Bros. That's why coins aren't required to beat the game, and that's why Miyamoto designed the game for speed running and for people who like to take their time and explore.

3D simply offers way more of a choice for players. That's not to say 2D games can't do well. And Metroid Dread sold amazingly for what it is. However, you will never achieve gigaton sales without appealing to that sense of choice. The top 5 selling games of all time really showcase how much player expression is important.

Minecraft revolutionized player expression, because it literally allows people to play however they want. Creative mode is an ultimate form of player expression, allowing creativity. While survival mode still allows you to tackle the game in any way. It has limitless amount of content in the way of people creating, or exploring.

GTA V(especially GTA online) is one of those games where your character can do almost anything. Whether it's being a fast food worker, to the owner of a drug cartel. You can go anywhere, do anything.

Tetris, really allowed for a more open ended puzzle games. The point of the game is to make lines, but there are infinite possibillities to actually achieve that. There are so many options in such a constrained space, that anyone can play it and enjoy it.

Wii sports is not something we think of when we think of freedom or player expression. But it has revolutionized it. Before Wii sports, you could have just a few different of inputs with a controller. Either a button press, or the analog stick. Wii sports expanded those possibilities with different motions, allowing for player expression to increase exponentially.

Pubg is a game that allows the player to take different strategies to win. It allows people to try to hide, or build up resources, or play aggressively. It really created so much freedom for players to win on their own terms.

Animal Crossing, Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, and most of these best selling switch titles understand this as well.
 
Yeah that’s the overall point I’m making, until recently Nintendo sales have basically been hard carried by North America and Japan. It’s actually a testament to how popular Metroid is in North America that it’s lasted this long with a smaller consumer base in Japan.
Its not, especially considering that NA is larger than japan. Nintendo knows metroid is much stronger in NA, and they not only dont give a shit about that fact, they endorse it. If they didn't, Prime would never have been made.

Also im sorry, but for 2D Metroid there isnt much to be done in relation to ''evolution'', Dread is already as much evolution as it can be done.
 
I feel being disappointed that Dread couldn't go HAM like Animal Crossing or BotW or even Luigi's Mansion relative to where the series' sales were before.

With the Switch's success and how many IP went to new heights on it, it's easy to dream.

5M seemed like a reasonable hope, and I get why 3-3.5M will feel like a disappointment even if it's a clear financial success. There's probably still some "will we ever get a new 2D Metroid again" fear there, whereas at 5M-6M, it's more like "WHEN will the next one come out because we know it's coming."

Contrary to popular belief, I don't think sales ever had anything to do with Nintendo wanting to make more Metroid games. The drought was more to do with not having a dedicated team to develop them, as well as not having the right hardware at the time. It looks like the series now has a dedicated 2D team in MercurySteam, so I think Metroid 6 is a matter of when, not if, regardless of the sales numbers.
 
Numbers as of December 2020:

Three Houses - 3,4m
Xenoblade 2 - 2,17m
Xenoblade: DE - 1,52m (as of March 2021)

Sadly couldn't find any numbers for XB1 on Wii or 3DS.

Only source I have ever seen for Xenoblade 3d has been vgchartz, at .56 million. No idea where they got those numbers from.

The original Xenoblade Wii's first print runs has also been sourced from Game Data Library at .91 million, but fuck if I can look at that site on my phone.

(I don't think anyone anywhere ever publically tracked GameStop's later ordered print runs of Xenoblade Wii)
 
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Its not, especially considering that NA is larger than japan. Nintendo knows metroid is much stronger in NA, and they not only dont give a shit about that fact, they endorse it. If they didn't, Prime would never have been made.

Also im sorry, but for 2D Metroid there isnt much to be done in relation to ''evolution'', Dread is already as much evolution as it can be done.
When Nintendo games usually have 25-30% of their sales from Japan if a game doesn't sell well in Japan it hurts the sales WW always,even if NA is a larger region even for Nintendo, Metroid 2D doesn't sell well enough in the West to make up for not selling as well in Japan like most other Nintendo titles. There is a high chance that a Prime title does sell well enough in the West to make up for Japan sales though.

Metroid Dread is a success anyway In Japan though and doing 270k is a big surprise,most people in IB expected 150-200k LTD max, just that it shows how for Nintendo the Japan market still matters a lot compared to other companies. Hope Metroid keeps growing in Japan
 
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handheld titles/series that don't have a Switch entry
  • Nintendogs Maybe
  • Tomodachi Life Probably
  • Rhythm Heaven Probably
  • Style Savvy/Style Boutique Maybe
  • Mario & Luigi Developer is dead
  • Art Academy Developer is dead
  • Golden Sun Developer is too small
  • Wario Land Last one was decades ago
  • Mario Hoops/Slam Basketball One off deal
  • Super Princess Peach One off deal
  • Mario vs. Donkey Kong Developer moved on to better things
  • Pokémon Ranger Last one was decades ago
  • Pokémon Pinball Last one was decades ago
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game Last one was decades ago
 
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