Japan: Super Mario Odyssey becomes the second million-seller on Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch was released less than a year ago, but it already has two million-sellers in Japan. The first one is Splatoon 2, released in July, that only needed a few weeks to sell over 1 million units. The second is none other than Super Mario Odyssey. We already pointed out that sales would top 1 million units during Week 50 last week, but an early sales report from Famitsu confirms it.
As of Week 50, Super Mario Odyssey has sold 1 055 806 units in Japan at retail (including download cards, but excluding Nintendo eShop sales). In other words, it became the Nintendo Switch’s second million-seller in only 8 weeks, which is quite the feat.
Super Mario Odyssey already had the third best debut for a Mario game in Japan (and the best one for a 3D Mario), and it looks poised to become the best-selling 3D Mario game in the country (currently, that title goes to Super Mario 3D Land, with 2 111 490 units sold). After all, it’s unlikely the game will not keep on selling steadily throughout 2018 (and beyond)… unless Nintendo surprises us with a Super Mario Odyssey 2!
Speaking of million-sellers on Nintendo Switch, the next one should be Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: it’s currently sitting at 840 000 units sold (as of Week 49). Unfortunately, no other game (first-party or third-party) is likely to reach 1 million units any time soon. The Nintendo Switch version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild should get there eventually, but it’s going to take a few months at best.
But it’s not just Super Mario Odyssey that’s selling well… the Nintendo Switch also is! Unfortunately, no sales milestone this week, but at least, it came very close to 3 millions! According to Famitsu’s early sales report, the Nintendo Switch has sold 2 988 399 units in Japan, as of Week 50. That means it sold about 230 000 units during that week (about 40 000 more than during Week 49).
Nintendo did promise bigger shipments for the holiday season, and it clearly shows in the weekly sales data. However, the increase isn’t as big as you would expect for such an important period, and of course, it’s nowhere near enough to meet demand. After all, it only takes a few hours (at best) for new units shipped to retailers to sell out…
Week 51 is the biggest week of the year for video game sales in Japan, and it will be interesting just how many consoles Nintendo end up shipping for it. One thing’s for sure: there will be many kids disappointed on Christmas Day, as there definitely will not be enough Nintendo Switch consoles for everyone…
Source: Famitsu
