By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

the_dengle said:

This isn't at all surprising to me. Mario games, especially the 2D ones, rely on their legs for sales. They don't usually have record-breaking first week sales. Zelda games, though, tend to be frontloaded. Twilight Princess is an interesting case in that it had a strong opening AND good legs.

NSMB Wii, week 1 in US: 838,236
Skyward Sword, week 1 in US: 604,477

2D Mario tends to have longer legs - that is, the proportion of early sales to lifetime sales tends to be smaller... but it has such high lifetime sales that it normally still outperforms Zelda in terms of launch sales, even at its strongest. But then, there's been three 2D Marios in just over three years, and they're not dramatically distinct from each other (compare SMB1, 2 (western), and 3 and how much different each one is).