Super Mario 3D World Had The Worst Debut Week of Any 3D Mario Game

[Dragonbums]

Taking the route of IGN?

Okay, yes, for a 3D Mario game it had poor sales.

However you need to look at the bigger picture.

If I'm not mistaken, there are only 1 million Wii U's in Japan. Super Mario 3D world sold about 344,000 copies in the week of release.

That means that almost 40% of all Wii U owners bought the game. And since Mario games tend to have steady sales and a good attachment rate, the more people who buy a Wii U, the more sales they will make on this game.

They aren't like regular AAA buster games where they sell like hotcakes week 1, and drop off the face of the planet a month in.

This is going to be a must buy game for any Wii U owner.

I think you misread the figures; it is not 344,000 units sold. Super Mario 3D World sold only 106K and that is according to Famitsu. According to Media Create, it sold only 99K. It was supposed to be the biggest system seller for the Wii U and it was not able to do anything. It got outsold by 170K by the lowest selling FF game ever. Furthremore "system-sellers" do not rely on the installed base to sell; they make people buy the system to play them. This clearly proves that the game was not a system seller.

I'm looking at both the source of the article, and various other outlets. Every single of them has said that SM3DW sold around 350k in it's first week. I'm not sure where you are getting 99K from, but that is not the numbers ANY media venue is reporting.

As such, my comment still stands. Overall the games sold 1 million units. On a console with a 3 million units install base that is far from bad, but not ideal. I would be more concerned about Lightning Returns.

"Facepalm!" Please look carefully at the first post or the Neogaf source link. Super Mario 3D LAND sold 344,000 in its first week which was released on the 3DS years ago. Super Mario 3D world sold only 99K/106K in it first week. Here are two more links,

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/11/super_mario_3d_world_underwhelms_on_japanese_chart_debut

http://nintendoeverything.com/media-create-software-sales-1118-1124/

That same thread you linked is the same one in the article, which if clicked on states that they sold 420k in its first week. So either your mixing up day 1 sales with week 1 sales or every gaming outlet is wrong in their statistics.

Can you link to one of these sources that claims Super Mario 3D World sold 350k rather than saying "every gaming outlet"?

Also keep in mind that this is Japanese sales, not worldwide, USA or Europe.

There are no such links. He is just being stubborn and lying to save face now because he mixed up the figures. Or maybe he is just trolling and having fun by denying the facts.

First off she. Secondly I'm not lying.

Thirdly I just told the person I mixed up 3D world with 3D land. An easy mistake seeing as how its the same name with a word swapped.

Fourth, quit your flamebaiting.

 

[Dragonbums]

Taking the route of IGN?

Okay, yes, for a 3D Mario game it had poor sales.

However you need to look at the bigger picture.

If I'm not mistaken, there are only 1 million Wii U's in Japan. Super Mario 3D world sold about 344,000 copies in the week of release.

That means that almost 40% of all Wii U owners bought the game. And since Mario games tend to have steady sales and a good attachment rate, the more people who buy a Wii U, the more sales they will make on this game.

They aren't like regular AAA buster games where they sell like hotcakes week 1, and drop off the face of the planet a month in.

This is going to be a must buy game for any Wii U owner.

I think you misread the figures; it is not 344,000 units sold. Super Mario 3D World sold only 106K and that is according to Famitsu. According to Media Create, it sold only 99K. It was supposed to be the biggest system seller for the Wii U and it was not able to do anything. It got outsold by 170K by the lowest selling FF game ever. Furthremore "system-sellers" do not rely on the installed base to sell; they make people buy the system to play them. This clearly proves that the game was not a system seller.

I'm looking at both the source of the article, and various other outlets. Every single of them has said that SM3DW sold around 350k in it's first week. I'm not sure where you are getting 99K from, but that is not the numbers ANY media venue is reporting.

As such, my comment still stands. Overall the games sold 1 million units. On a console with a 3 million units install base that is far from bad, but not ideal. I would be more concerned about Lightning Returns.

"Facepalm!" Please look carefully at the first post or the Neogaf source link. Super Mario 3D LAND sold 344,000 in its first week which was released on the 3DS years ago. Super Mario 3D world sold only 99K/106K in it first week. Here are two more links,

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/11/super_mario_3d_world_underwhelms_on_japanese_chart_debut

http://nintendoeverything.com/media-create-software-sales-1118-1124/

That same thread you linked is the same one in the article, which if clicked on states that they sold 420k in its first week. So either your mixing up day 1 sales with week 1 sales or every gaming outlet is wrong in their statistics.

wat

No, seriously, what?

Where are you getting these numbers from?

Both of those linked articles state that Super Mario 3D World has moved 99k units, and the source article for this thread as well as any article you click on by Googling "Super Mario 3D World Sales" states that it has moved 107k at most.

Please tell me where you're getting these numbers.

Besides, the only system that really got a massive boost by having a Mario game release on it was the Gamecube. The SNES was "the" console to own, the Nintendo 64 was selling steadily but being beaten by the Playstation, and the Wii was flying out the doors faster than Nintendo could keep up with.

Mixed up the titles. My bad.

 

[Asim Mehmood]

The author should fix this thread.
The game sold that much on the first 2 days.

Also, the source of the news is a NeoGaf forum post without any proof of those numbers.
Good job gaming "journalist".

Every gaming website is reporting the same figures. It is not like Neogaf have made up the numbers. The game launched on 22 in Japan and these figures are utnil 24 so it makes 3 days of sale in the first. The week is calculated until Sunday even if the game launches on Saturday. Besides the same excuse has been used numerous times including for Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3 and DmC. It does not matters because most of the sales happen in the first two days. The second week sales are always down and in case of Pikmin 3 the sales dropped 70%. Do not expect any better figures in the second week. As far as digital sales goes, even companies dont count them because only a small minority downloads digital version on home consoles. This is even truer for Wii U which only has 32 GB of storage and the prices for digital games is the same as the retail version.

 

[Asim Mehmood]

Taking the route of IGN?

Okay, yes, for a 3D Mario game it had poor sales.

However you need to look at the bigger picture.

If I'm not mistaken, there are only 1 million Wii U's in Japan. Super Mario 3D world sold about 344,000 copies in the week of release.

That means that almost 40% of all Wii U owners bought the game. And since Mario games tend to have steady sales and a good attachment rate, the more people who buy a Wii U, the more sales they will make on this game.

They aren't like regular AAA buster games where they sell like hotcakes week 1, and drop off the face of the planet a month in.

This is going to be a must buy game for any Wii U owner.

I think you misread the figures; it is not 344,000 units sold. Super Mario 3D World sold only 106K and that is according to Famitsu. According to Media Create, it sold only 99K. It was supposed to be the biggest system seller for the Wii U and it was not able to do anything. It got outsold by 170K by the lowest selling FF game ever. Furthremore "system-sellers" do not rely on the installed base to sell; they make people buy the system to play them. This clearly proves that the game was not a system seller.

I'm looking at both the source of the article, and various other outlets. Every single of them has said that SM3DW sold around 350k in it's first week. I'm not sure where you are getting 99K from, but that is not the numbers ANY media venue is reporting.

As such, my comment still stands. Overall the games sold 1 million units. On a console with a 3 million units install base that is far from bad, but not ideal. I would be more concerned about Lightning Returns.

"Facepalm!" Please look carefully at the first post or the Neogaf source link. Super Mario 3D LAND sold 344,000 in its first week which was released on the 3DS years ago. Super Mario 3D world sold only 99K/106K in it first week. Here are two more links,

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/11/super_mario_3d_world_underwhelms_on_japanese_chart_debut

http://nintendoeverything.com/media-create-software-sales-1118-1124/

That same thread you linked is the same one in the article, which if clicked on states that they sold 420k in its first week. So either your mixing up day 1 sales with week 1 sales or every gaming outlet is wrong in their statistics.

wat

No, seriously, what?

Where are you getting these numbers from?

Both of those linked articles state that Super Mario 3D World has moved 99k units, and the source article for this thread as well as any article you click on by Googling "Super Mario 3D World Sales" states that it has moved 107k at most.

Please tell me where you're getting these numbers.

Besides, the only system that really got a massive boost by having a Mario game release on it was the Gamecube. The SNES was "the" console to own, the Nintendo 64 was selling steadily but being beaten by the Playstation, and the Wii was flying out the doors faster than Nintendo could keep up with.

Mixed up the titles. My bad.

Sorry for calling you a liar. You insisted the game sold 420,000 even after I pointed out that you were mixing the titles and that seemed the only possible explanation. Kudos to you for having the courage to admit that you were wrong.

 

[MisterM2402]

All this shows is that the *WiiU* hasn't done well; if not many people bought the console then *of course* the sales figures for a 3D Mario aren't going to be high. Obviously when 3D Land and Galaxy 2 came out, many many more people had 3DSs and Wiis, respectively. It would make more sense to look at sales of the games as a % of people who own the consoles: if 99% of WiiU owners have 3D World but only 67% of Wii owners have Galaxy 2, does that not mean 3D World was more successful? Not in absolute terms, but relatively, yes.

Basically, the low sales are (likely) a result of poor WiiU sales, not the game itself.

 

[Asim Mehmood]

All this shows is that the *WiiU* hasn't done well; if not many people bought the console then *of course* the sales figures for a 3D Mario aren't going to be high. Obviously when 3D Land and Galaxy 2 came out, many many more people had 3DSs and Wiis, respectively. It would make more sense to look at sales of the games as a % of people who own the consoles: if 99% of WiiU owners have 3D World but only 67% of Wii owners have Galaxy 2, does that not mean 3D World was more successful? Not in absolute terms, but relatively, yes.

Basically, the low sales are (likely) a result of poor WiiU sales, not the game itself.

But how will the Wii U sell if the games dont make it sell? System sellers do not need installed base to sell hardware. That whole point of first party quality exclusives is to make the system sell and Super Mario 3D World was unable to do that. Remember how Gears of War and Uncharted 2 forced people to buy Xbox360 and PS3 respectively? If even the first party title needs an installed base to sell then what will sell the system itself?

 

[shrekfan246]

Mixed up the titles. My bad.

Fair dos. Apologies if my post seemed harsh.

That does point out one of the problems I've had with recent Nintendo naming conventions, though; It's far too easy to confuse things like New Super Mario Bros., the Wii U, and everything else.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

That's a shame, esp. since this looks like one of the more interesting Mario games if only because they're deviating from the usual Bowser kidnaps Peach routine. He's still kidnapping something, but baby steps.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I'm not willing to call either Super Mario 3D World or the WiiU a failure until I get American and European Numbers. I'm expecting 300K In the USA (3D Worlds, Not WiiUs) and 110K-150K in Europe. If they don't meet either of those expectations, then I will accept the WiiU is a dud. Until then, I will simply chalk this up as "Home Consoles Don't Sell Well In Japan, and neither do Home Console Games."

I'd also like to mention that on the same week, game no. 1 In Japan, the PS3 exclusive Final Fantasy 13-3, only sold 227K, a far cry from Final Fantasy 13-2, which sold 588K.

 

[LightningFast]

This might be due to a lack of interest in the console itself. Frankly, this, Windwaker HD and Zombi-U are the only games I look at on the Wii U and say "I WANT THAT."

Once Smash Brothers comes out, Wii U sales will almost certainly go up. I'll probably buy one myself after the holidays.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I assume the numbers will pick up as more people eventually get the Wii U. I don't even have this game yet, but I'm super excited to get it soon. Plus, come Christmas, there will be plenty of 3D Worlds under the tree that haven't been bought yet.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

It's pretty obvious it has to do with the low number of Wii U's. It's be interesting to see first week sales - number of consoles at the time ratio. But that journalism is probably too hard... I mean, no one tought of this?

Apparently, WiiU sales went from 15K the Week Before, to 20K-21K the 3D World Launch Week. Obviously not a big jump. So far the Console has sold about 1.4 Million Units in Japan.

Of course I do expect 3D World to have legs, especially in the USA, but it sucks it sold so little in Japan on Launch Week.

 

[Chemical Alia]

As someone who loves the Marios, that's kinda sad to hear (assuming that these numbers are at least in some way usable). I bought a Wii U just for this game, and I've got to say, it's honestly the most fun I've had in a new game in a few years.

My initial reaction when I first heard about it was kind of meh, even the title of the game sounds like a bunch of existing Mario titles mixed together, so I didn't have the highest of expectations.

I was recently bummed when I read that the new Paper Mario on the 3ds was more or less stripped of being a much richer, story-driven game in favor of "casual fun" by Miyamoto, and that's apparently the direction Nintendo seems to be going with their games. It was bad enough it was on a lousy handheld system to begin with. I would be even more bummed if the game doesn't sell to expectations, and Nintendo reads that is "welp, time to stop making Mario games for consoles for all of eternity".

 

[EmilShmiengura]

I'd also like to mention that on the same week, game no. 1 In Japan, the PS3 exclusive Final Fantasy 13-3, only sold 227K, a far cry from Final Fantasy 13-2, which sold 588K.

Very good observation that. Along with the new Mario sells this probably tells us more about the Japanese market than it does about the commercial potential of the game itslef.
As for the WiiU I'd like to note that it's biggest competitors aren't the new cash cows that MS and Sony just launched, or at least it's what I think. Kinda feels like the WiiU is competing with the 3DS.

 

[Dragonbums]

As someone who loves the Marios, that's kinda sad to hear (assuming that these numbers are at least in some way usable). I bought a Wii U just for this game, and I've got to say, it's honestly the most fun I've had in a new game in a few years.

My initial reaction when I first heard about it was kind of meh, even the title of the game sounds like a bunch of existing Mario titles mixed together, so I didn't have the highest of expectations.

I was recently bummed when I read that the new Paper Mario on the 3ds was more or less stripped of being a much richer, story-driven game in favor of "casual fun" by Miyamoto, and that's apparently the direction Nintendo seems to be going with their games. It was bad enough it was on a lousy handheld system to begin with. I would be even more bummed if the game doesn't sell to expectations, and Nintendo reads that is "welp, time to stop making Mario games for consoles for all of eternity".

Probably not. Keep in mind that the release date is very near holiday season (and Black Friday) it would not surprise me one bit if the bulk of it's sales comes from Christmas. Since that is the splurge date for money spending.

 

[Ghostface2206]

1) It hasn't launched in Europe yet
2) It came second in the Japanese charts, just under Lightning Returns FF13
3) People in the west are waiting till Christmas
4) It sold 1/3 the amount of a Final Fantasy game, on a system with 1/20 of the install base.
5) You're only counting the Japanese charts, and the charts also don't count digital sales of the game