Animal Crossing, released in 2001, was by far Nintendo's break-out new IP on the GameCube (sorry, Pikmin). Selling a total of 3.15m units in its life, it is the 6th best selling title for the GCN (according to VGC).
Fast forward 14 years, and we are in a similar situation. Splatoon is undoubtably the break-out new IP on the Wii U, as it has exceeded 1.1 million units just 3 weeks after release, with most of its sales residing in North America. Since then, it has sold an additional ~80k in Japan alone (according to Media Create).
The question here is: which game will come out on top? It's inkling vs villager, shooter vs simulator, meme vs meme! Fight!
For reference, here are titles that have exceeded 3.15m units on both the GCN and the Wii U:
| 1. | Super Smash Bros. Melee | 2001 | Fighting | Nintendo | 4.41 | 1.04 | 1.39 | 0.22 | 7.07 |
| 2. | Mario Kart: Double Dash!! | 2003 | Racing | Nintendo | 4.12 | 1.77 | 0.87 | 0.19 | 6.95 |
| 3. | Super Mario Sunshine | 2002 | Platform | Nintendo | 4.01 | 1.26 | 0.87 | 0.17 | 6.31 |
| 4. | The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker | 2002 | Action | Nintendo | 2.60 | 0.99 | 0.89 | 0.13 | 4.60 |
| 5. | Luigi's Mansion | 2001 | Action | Nintendo | 2.38 | 0.67 | 0.46 | 0.10 | 3.60 |
| 6. | Animal Crossing | 2001 | Simulation | Nintendo | 1.92 | 0.16 | 0.99 | 0.09 | 3.15 |
| 1. | New Super Mario Bros. U | 2012 | Action | Nintendo | 2.18 | 1.04 | 1.24 | 0.28 | 4.74 |
| 2. | Mario Kart 8 | 2014 | Racing | Nintendo | 2.07 | 1.26 | 0.98 | 0.29 | 4.59 |
| 3. | Nintendo Land | 2012 | Action | Nintendo | 2.27 | 0.91 | 0.45 | 0.27 | 3.89 |
| 4. | Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS | 2014 | Fighting | Nintendo | 1.86 | 0.69 | 0.64 | 0.28 | 3.47 |
| 5. | Super Mario 3D World | 2013 | Platform | Nintendo | 1.55 | 0.77 | 0.64 | 0.20 | 3.16 |
