Splatoon has sold more than Mario Kart 8 WORLWIDE ( not Japan ) in the second quarter of sales.

[DivinePaladin]

Aielyn said:

DivinePaladin said:
How can you say Splatoon has better legs when MK8 is only barely losing despite being out a year longer? That's ridiculous. Wait a year until you can actually analyze them long term, especially with a game boasting as unique a strategy as Splatoon. I'm more curious to see how it sold after August, once the meat of the game was out. If it slows down after that point, it just sold more for longer because it had a six month long launch.

I think you've missed that the comparison is Splatoon in the last three months vs MK8 in 2014 (equivalent three months). It's not comparing the sales numbers for 2015, it's comparing the numbers for "the July-September quarter immediately after launch" for each of the two games.

MK8 had a stronger launch period. But Splatoon is selling more strongly in the longer term. If there's an issue, it's not due to the comparisons being unequal, but due to the circumstances being unequal - Splatoon has launched to a larger install base, and has sold to a smaller number within that install base, prior to the quarter in question.

But really, the key point of the discussion is that Splatoon is at the very least keeping up with MK8, and that's pretty damn respectable for a new IP. Not many IPs could keep up with Mario Kart - we're talking about a franchise that, even at its worst, sold nearly 6 million copies (Super Circuit for GBA), and that has broken 36 million once, and two other times breaking 23 million and 11 million. Note that MK8 is on track to easily beat both Super Circuit and Double Dash (almost 7 million). Splatoon is doing pretty damn well if it's keeping up in terms of sales rate.

Whoops. I did misread, my bad. Ignore the majority of my post. I still do stand by my comment about post-August sales, though. I'm genuinely very curious whether the game will keep up this push in the face of what will likely be a much less focused DLC cycle. The game's legs were temporarily increased, but we don't have a clue whether that increase is because of a successful staggered launch or because the game genuinely has this massive selling power (relative to the Wii U of course).