The Road to 160m+ for Nintendo Switch

[pavel1995]

Shtinamin_ said:

super_etecoon said:

I really hope Metroid Prime 4 gets a 2024 release on the Switch.  If Nintendo is needing to rely on this title to keep up momentum, they are going to throw so much marketing at it that it might actually have a shot at breaking 5 million.  I'd possibly be even more bullish, considering the Switch effect, but this is Metroid and I've learned the hard lesson that it will forever be a niche franchise, despite its outsized impact on the videogame landscape.

5 million would be amazing! Why is it such a niche franchise? 
Is it the lack of multiplayer? Aimed at a more “mature” audience? Too difficult?

Legend of Zelda could be considered a niche franchise too, before the Switch it couldn’t sell above 10m on a single platform (Twilight was able to from both Wii and GCN).

On the home console Animal Crossing was a niche franchise before New Horizons. Though handheld (DS & 3DS) it was able to reach 10m.

Metroid just needs that one game to break it out if it’s niche shell.

I mean you can't really call zelda niche back before 2008 you rarely had games hit that 20 million mark zelda was a heavy hitter back then because it was more rare. You could argue that pre botw and post 2008 it was when the 20m seller was becoming more normal, but at best that would be a ten year period where zelda wasn't as wide reaching as other titles.