How many copies does a game have to be sold for it to considered successful?

[BengaBenga]

For the developer the only measurement is profit.

In general terms I think you can say that a PS360 game over 1 million and a Wii game over 500.000 can be considered a profitable and therefore successful game. Of course there are the bigger budget exceptions.

Success in terms of expectation is something completely different.

Let's take MGS4. It's not Konami's fault that the PS3 is not (yet) the success it was supposed to be. Yet a lot of people expect the game to sell millions of consoles. In that regard MGS4 can be considered a failure by the fans, while still be very profitable for Konami.

The big names like Zelda, Mario and FF of course have a history that has to be matched in order to be called a success. If Mario Galaxy doesn't outsell Sunshine it will be considered a failure, same with FF13 vs 12.