Is Metroid Prime 4 in trouble?

[Otter]

Norion said:

Otter said:

Even with poor legs you can still more than double your launch numbers over several years. I think more to the point, what sales numbers were people hoping or expecting in it's first 3 weeks?


All we know is Switch 2 physical sales <1m

Switch1 (total sales) +Switch 2 digital <1m

Considering its biggest platform (S2) has had its sales split in 2, we could technically be looking at 700k + 800k (1.6m). We just don't know...

Doubling the initial sales would be very unusual though considering Metroid games typically having poor legs. Due to that the vast majority of its sales could very well have already come from those initial weeks. If it was at 1.6m by the end of December it could have just a few hundred thousand left in the tank. Also a lot of people were generally expecting it to quickly hit 3m like how Dread nearly did 3m in a few months.

Do we have any sales numbers from a previous games launch to confirm that?

Because the 3month tally that saw Dread achieve 2.6m, is 3 months including black friday OLED bundles etc. We don't know how that was spread across week 1, 3, 7 etc. Without the OLED bundle it likely would have sold slower or more spread out.

Prime 4 exists in a very different context and I think people should treat it as such, best to wait for the next fiscal report before worrying too much.

This week Metroid Prime 4 climbed from 29 to 16 in the UK charts (Switch 2 82%, Switch 18%)

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/02/uk-charts-final-fantasy-vii-remake-intergrade-plummets-as-familiar-faces-retake-the-podium

Last edited by Otter - 2 days ago