52-Week Update: New Super Mario Bros. 2
New Super Mario Bros. 2 released late last July in Japan, and last August in Europe and America. For the purposes of this update, I'm going to be looking at global sales of the game for its first 52 weeks starting from its Japanese release.
In its first 52 weeks, New Super Mario Bros. 2 has sold over 6.2 million units. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: it is tracking nowhere near sales of previous New Super titles. After 52 weeks, the original DS title was over 9.9 million, and the Wii iteration was just a week shy of 17 million.
Oh, no! The brand is ruined! People aren't buying Mario games any more!
Alright, alright. The game is selling slowly for a NSMB title. We've known this was the case for months. Now the question is -- what exactly does "slowly for a NSMB title" mean in the long run?
Turns out it means "still pretty damn well." In Japan, NSMB2 has already surpsassed Super Mario 3D Land, and is now the third-best-selling 3DS game behind Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Mario Kart 7 (these are also the only three 3DS titles to have exceeded 2 million sales in Japan). NSMB2 has sold slightly more slowly than 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 in the West, bringing it just barely behind them globally. (NSMB2 is about 300k behind MK7 and 500k behind SM3DL in the same period).
As sales begin ramping up for this year's Holiday season, there will be a huge influx of new 3DS owners due to the major releases of Monster Hunter 4 in Japan and Pokémon X and Y globally. The three titles above are the sort that sell to new console owners throughout the generation, so this hardware rush should translate to a healthy Holiday sales period for New Super Mario Bros. 2. Regardless, it's clear that all three titles -- New Super included -- have a rapidly approaching date with 10 million. This is going to be tight.
New poll time!
Old poll results:
It seems the 36 folks who voted "Yes, later this year," hit the nail on the head. See you again soon for our next million-seller!
