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New Super Mario Bros. Wii Tops 10 Million Sales

Posted by Soulskill on from the it'sa-me-mario dept.

According to a report from Japanese publication Nikkei Net, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii has now sold 10 million copies worldwide. The game needed only 45 days to pass the already impressive sales numbers of Super Mario Galaxy. Quoting Gamasutra: "NSMB Wii has sold 3 million units in Japan, where it launched on December 3; 3 million copies in Europe, where it launched November 20, and 4.5 million units in North America, where it launched November 15. Super Mario Galaxy has sold 4.1 million units in North America since 2007. The game's design hearkens back to the two-dimensional, side-scrolling style of earlier Mario titles ... The numbers would seem to suggest that these traits successfully generated more mass appeal for NSMB Wii than for the three-dimensional and far less familiar Super Mario Galaxy, which sent the plumber navigating more innovative spherical space environments."

9 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. The right way to rehash by mykos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you're going to rehash old franchises, this game is the way to do it.

    Now I hope they'll give us a high-resolution, all-new, top-down Zelda game in the caliber of Link to the Past and Link's Awakening.

  2. I have to give props to Nintendo for by anss123 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not overly milking the core Mario franchise like Sega did with a certain hedgehog. In four or so years Sega puked out 7 similar Sonic games while Nintendo now have 8 since 1985 (Mario 1,2,3, World, Land, Land 2, New SMB and new SMB Wii)

    There has been a few misses (like Mario is missing) but overall Mario is a quality stamp and I think that's the reason why Mario Wii can see this well now.

    1. Re:I have to give props to Nintendo for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You missed Mario 64, Mario Galaxy, Mario Sunshine and Paper Mario, not even counting the various Mario games for the various GameBoys, Mario Kart, Mario Party and the Olympics.
      You think, there's not many Mario games out the last few years? Think again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mario_games_by_year

    2. Re:I have to give props to Nintendo for by ultrafunkula · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I found that with Super Paper Mario at first, but it's worth playing through as it gets much better. The game has some clever mechanics, the puzzles are fun (although not that tricky), and the humour is very good. After Super Mario World this is my second favourite Mario game.

  3. Re:One of the few games I bought by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shhh... he doesn't have 3 friends, don't make him feel bad.

  4. To Put This In Perspective by rsmith-mac · · Score: 5, Informative

    For anyone trying to grasp just where 10mil would fit in, here's how it would compared to some other games based on VGChartz' data:

    Ahead of: Halo (any of them), Xbox 360 versions of Call of Duty (any of them), Myst, GTA4 (360), Gears of War (any of them), Final Fantasy 7, Gran Turismo 4

    Some games it's behind: Starcraft (11mil), Gran Turismo 3 (15mil), The Sims (16mil), Super Mario Bros. 3 (17mil), GTA: San Andreas (PS2, 18mil), Mario Kart Wii (20mil), a massive number of handheld games (which sell well because they're cheap), and several pack-in titles such as Wii Sports (60mil), Super Mario Bros. 1 (40mil), and Super Mario World (20mil).

    It's a good seller, but it's not close to being the best-selling game of even this generation of consoles (that would be Mario Kart). Unless it has long legs (which is entirely likely), it's not likely to cross any of the original Mario games other than SMB2, since it still needs another 7mil units to catch up to SMB3.

    1. Re:To Put This In Perspective by Toonol · · Score: 4, Informative

      He read the charts correctly; that's why he said it sold more than MW2 on the 360, not more than MW2 in total.

  5. Re:One of the few games I bought by Starayo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a matter of teamwork. When you work together it can be brilliant, but it's planned stuff, not spontaneous play.

    For example, I managed to pull off jumping off one player onto another player who themselves had jumped off another player to let me reach a high altitude secret without a helicopter helmet dealie.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  6. History behind Super Mario Bros Wii and other info by PhiberOptix · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On the latest Iwata Asks (where the president of Nintendo interviews his staff) there's a lot of interesting info about how Miyamoto came up with the sound effect for the propeller mario, why mario wears overalls, why use a mushroom as a powerup, why turtles as opponents and other interesting info.

    http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/nsmb/vol1_page1.jsp