Recently, I was looking at the sales of Nintendo games on the 3DS and Wii U, but realized that it was hard to tell at a glance which series had better sales in which region, and by extension which Nintendo series had regional vs worldwide appeal. Out of curiosity, I decided to make a spreadsheet to help analyze these sales. And I found some interesting results!

Sales Tiers

• Nintendo's series can be divided into a few "tiers," based on sales across the Wii U and 3DS.
• Top Tier - 10 million or more copies worldwide. Includes New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 3D platformers, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, and Pokemon RPGs. (Note that if Animal Crossing is grouped with its spinoffs, and if Zelda remakes and original titles are likewise grouped, they become Top Tier franchises.)
• Upper Tier - 4 to 10 million copies worldwide. Includes Animal Crossing, Zelda remakes, new Zelda games, Mario RPGs, Tomodachi, Luigi's Mansion, Nintendo Land, and Splatoon.
• Middle Tier - 2 to 4 million copies worldwide. Includes Fire Emblem, Nintendogs, Mario Party, Donkey Kong Country, Kirby, Super Mario Maker, Yoshi, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Also would include Mario & Sonic Olympic crossovers if they weren't mostly Sega ventures.
• Lower Tier - 1 to 2 million copies worldwide. Includes Wii Party, Mario Sports, Style Savvy, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus, Star Fox, Kid Icarus, Art Academy, and Pikmin.
• Bottom Tier - Below a million sales. Includes Pilotwings, Steel Diver, Code Name STEAM, Chibi Robo, NES Remix, and so on.

North America

• North Americans buy about 38% of Nintendo games.
• Relatively High - Nintendo Land, Star Fox, Pokken, Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario 3D Land/World, Hyrule Warriors, and, surprisingly, Fire Emblem.
• Relatively Low- Mario Sports games, Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life, Wii Party, and Style Savvy

Europe

• Europeans buy about 29% of Nintendo games.
• Relatively High - Style Savvy, Tomodachi, Yoshi, Pilotwings, and Nintendogs.
• Relatively Low - Nintendo Land, Mario RPG's, Art Academy, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Super Smash Bros, Pokemon spinoffs.

Japan

• Japanese buy about 27% of Nintendo games.
• Relatively High - Kirby, Mario Sports, Wii Party, Animal Crossing, Art Academy, Style Savvy, Tomodachi
• Relatively Low - Zelda, Pilotwings, Nintendo Land, Yoshi, Star Fox, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong Country

Regional Series

• Certain series have overwhelming success in a specific region.
• Note that there are only borderline cases in Europe (aka Nintendogs).
• North America - Nintendo Land, Star Fox, Legend of Zelda, and Pokken.
• Japan - Animal Crossing, Mario Sports, Kirby, and Art Academy.

International Successes

• The following franchises may be particular popular in one region, but have no true weaker areas.
• Pokemon, Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros, Luigi's Mansion, Nintendogs, Mario Party, Super Mario Maker, Kid Icarus, and Pikmin.

Immediate Future?

• The success rate of franchises thus far seems to be affecting Nintendo's future software.
• Many of Nintendo's recent or upcoming games are from their series with widespread success. Ignoring the mysterious Mario Kart and Splatoon titles on the Switch, we have Super Mario Maker on the 3DS, Mario Party: Star Rush, and Pikmin 3DS, despite Pikmin in particular being a seemingly minor series.
• Even games like Yoshi's Woolly World on 3DS may relate to regional sales; the Wii U version sold poorly in Japan, where the 3DS is much more popular.
• If Nintendo intends to treat the Switch as a console rather than a handheld, then their last round of 3DS games will likely focus on Japan, which is a handheld country. This not only explains the various Wii U to 3DS adaptations (Hyrule Warriors, Woolly World, and Mario Maker), but also how some new games seem poised for Japanese success in particular. Hence we are getting Mario Sports SuperStars.
• The main game with international appeal but no known follow-up at the moment is Luigi's Mansion. Expect that to get a sequel sooner rather than later.
• Even with the decline of the New Super Mario Bros series, their earlier popularity is worth investigating for Nintendo. Perhaps if they included the equivalent of a smaller title with the next iteration of Super Mario Maker... the 3DS version is already supposed to get 100 new stages...

Switch Potential

• Nintendo can base their early Switch games on the preferences of their preferred audiences.
• Historically, Nintendo consoles rely very heavily on North America, especially the N64 and GameCube, with the Wii being an oddity by having strong European support.
• If Nintendo wants to go back to their American audience, priorities include porting Pokken and creating a new Super Smash Bros and 3D Super Mario game.
• For a European focus, the Switch should receive some of the more casual games that flourished during the Wii era, along with the worldwide favorite.
• For a Japanese focus, the Switch could benefit greatly from a new Animal Crossing, Kirby, or Mario Sports game. This is particularly interesting, since we we are almost due for a new Animal Crossing. They have yet to be released over five years apart.

Notes

• I focused on games with international retail releases, which is why Rhythm Heaven doesn't appear.

Please Disregard this thread until I get the formatting working.

hurry up and fix this thread!!!!!

I finally managed to get this to work!

Some mighty impressive numbers between the 3DS and Wii U, all the more reason why I expect Switch to be a respectable success.