This Week In Sales: Not Even Super Mario 3D World Can Lift Wii U Sales

Period: The week of November 18th – November 24th (2013)

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Top-seller: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – 277,082

Nintendo 3DS sales: 20,797 | Total sales: 8,995,972

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 63,709 | Total sales: 4,816,447

PlayStation Vita sales: 21,044 | Total sales: 2,071,679

Vita TV sales: 7,868 | 50,040

Wii U sales: 21,002 | Total sales: 1,190,956

<< Last week’s software sales chart

 

Last week, Nintendo released Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U in Japan. A successor to Super Mario 3D Land on the Nintendo 3DS, World’s goal was to combine the best aspects of 2D and 3D Super Mario games into a product that would hopefully reinvigorate the Wii U, which has been selling extremely poorly. Super Mario 3D World’s first-week sales, however, indicate that things may not go according to plan.

 

Above is a chart that compares opening week sales in Japan for every Super Mario game released since 2006. As you can see, while no game has ever managed to replicate the success of New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, most Mario titles have managed respectable opening week sales—with the exception of two games.

 

2012’s New Super Mario Bros. U sold around 160,000 copies in its first week—a rather shabby performance for a brand new Mario title. However, even that game didn’t do do as badly as last week’s Super Mario 3D World, which sold a mere 100,000 copies in its opening week. You can find a detailed breakdown of first-week Super Mario sales below.

 

New Super Mario Bros. (2006) – 899,518

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009) – 934,739

Super Mario Galaxy (2007) – 250,585

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010) – 339,901

Super Mario 3D Land (2011) – 343,492

New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012) – 407,503

New Super Mario Bros. U (2012) – 163,528

Super Mario 3D World (2013) – 99,588

 

Wii U sales for the week were characteristically poor as well, coming in at 21,002 units sold, which is shockingly low for a week that saw the release of a killer app for the device. Overall, a very poor showing indeed, and one raises the question of just what the Wii U’s future holds, given that even Nintendo’s flagship franchise has been unable to perform its necessarily role—at least in Japan.

 

One could argue that Super Mario 3D World sales will pick up this holiday season, and yes, they probably will. However, Mario’s strength comes partly from how well the games sell throughout the year, and judging by the opening sales for 3D World, this one isn’t going to be breaking any records. Time to find another solution, Nintendo.

 

The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:

 

Lw Tw Title Weekly Sales Total Sales Sys. Publisher
New 01. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII 277,082 New PS3 Square Enix
New 02. Super Mario 3D World 99,588 New WiiU Nintendo
New 03. One Piece Unlimited World: RED 83,605 New 3DS Namco Bandai
05. 04. Pokémon X and Y 72,932 3,002,738 3DS Pokémon Co.
New 05. Aikatsu! Futari no My Princess 72,087 New 3DS Namco Bandai
01. 06. God Eater 2 39,052 305,378 PSV Namco Bandai
03. 07. Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 35,879 187,678 PS3 Konami
02. 08. Call of Duty: Ghosts (Subtitled Version) 29,252 219,883 PS3 Square Enix
07. 09. Monster Hunter 4 21,120 2,959,789 3DS Capcom
04. 10. God Eater 2 20,508 132,531 PSP Namco Bandai
New 11. Monster Hunter Frontier G Beginner’s Package 19,334 New PS3 Capcom
New 12. Taiko Drum Master: Wii U Version 19,265 New WiiU Nintendo
New 13. New Atelier Rorona: Origin Story of The Alchemist of Arland 17,536 New PSV Gust
New 14. New Atelier Rorona: Origin Story of The Alchemist of Arland 14,060 New PS3 Gust
09. 15. Grand Theft Auto V 13,548 593,370 PS3 Take 2
06. 16. Daigasso! Band Bros. P 12,635 52,831 3DS Nintendo
12. 17. PowerPros Baseball 2013 9,485 190,659 PS3 Konami
10. 18. Battlefield 4 9,134 150,124 PS3 Electronic Arts
11. 19. Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 7,624 24,600 PSP Konami
17. 20. Sentouchuu: Survival Battle with the Legendary Ninjas 7,046 102,350 3DS Namco Bandai

 

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.

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Author
Ishaan Sahdev
Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.