Smashing Japan: A Look at the First Ten Weeks of Smash Brothers Sales

[TheSource]

With the prelim data in, and the first week of Smash Brothers Brawl data officially in, I am going to attempt to project how well Smash Brothers will sell. To predict yourself, take a look at this:

 

SSB	218,077	132,721	89,838	86,536	57,950	38,921	39,120	25,860	43,070	43,512
SSBM	360,070	63,843	54,754	82,911	153,547	120,714	114,403	26,233	20,200	13,934
SSBB	842,536	454,000	230,000	120,000	70,000	50,000	46,000	35,000	55,000	56,000
	Launch	week 2	week 3	week 4	week 5	week 6	week 7	week 8	week 9	week 10

 

Italicized numbers are estimates, but for week two I am more confident because of the preliminary data figure, which is why I bolded it.

SSB is Super Smash Brothers for N64 (late January 1999).

SSBM is Super Smash Brothers Melee for GC (mid November 2001)

SSBB is Super Smash Brothers Brawl for Wii (February 1 2008)

For reference, weeks nine and ten for both SSB and SSBB are boosted from Golden Week. SSBM saw boosts from the Dec-Jan season.

Also at launch:

SSB launched to 4099k total N64s in Japan in 1999 (N64 had been out since June 1996)

SSBM launched to 475k total GCs in Japan in 2001 (GC had been out since Sept 2001)

SSBB launched to 5205k total Wiis in Japan in 2008 (Wii had been out since Dec 2006)

 

Note that Smash Brothers went on to outsell Super Mario 64 and all other N64 titles in Japan except for Mario Kart 64. For Gamecube, Smash Brothers Melee was the only million selling title in Japan. For Wii, Smash is to be the 5th million seller for Wii in Japan, and it should stay ahead of Mario Party 8 for the duration of its life among the current million sellers. The title will likely outsell Mario Kart and Super Mario Galaxy lifetime in Japan. Short term, Brawl may (for a few weeks, depending on legs) exceed Wii Fit sales in Japan, although it is unlikely to do so lifetime.

Regardless, it is looking as though Brawl will be Nintendo's first game starring its franchise characters in Japan to sell over 2 million copies since Mario Kart 64 launched in 1997.