By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Super Mario Bros. 3 sells another million copies 20 years later! plus more

Lastgengamer on 23 February 2010

Not too shabby for a 384 kilobyte game, wouldn’t you say?

The information comes by way of download and mobile tracking firm FADE (Forecasting and Analysing Digital Entertainment), who released their annual report detailing the top WiiWare and Virtual Console sales and trends late yesterday evening.  The report is particularly unique (and also quite handy) due to the current dearth of information on download sales figures across the interactive industry.

 

Topping the digital charts in North America for 2009 is 1990’s Super Mario Bros. 3, which managed to net Nintendo another $5M in pure profit last year (the game sells for 500 Nintendo Points, equivalent to $5.00).  Following closely behind was 2D Boy’s excellent WiiWare release, World of Goo, which added another $4.8M to its coffers in 2009.

To put this accomplishment in perspective, New Super Mario Bros. Wii tallied 1.4M units in 2009, making it the year’s 10th best-selling game in North America (this, despite being released in the middle of November).  Super Mario Bros. 3 – with its 1M paid downloads across the year – would almost certainly have found a seat at the top-20 table, if not the top-15.*

The claim would still stand even if one were to include the digital content of competing online storefronts, such as Xbox Live Arcade, whose top-seller for the year was EA’s Battlefield 1943 – a game which saw an estimated 830,000 downloads in 2009, making its volume still less than good ol’ Mario 3.

Stare at these numbers long enough and the mind starts to ponder: is this a sad reflection of an industry in creative peril (which already relies heavily upon sequel after sequel; remake after remake; year after year) or is it that Mario just knows how to sell the goods?

Many in the video game industry would be very quick to justify with the latter and move along, giving it not one second of extra thought.  However that would be foolish; to say that a game sells just because of a character, and to bitch and moan when their product fails to do the same, is terribly naïve.

Brands can and do die.  Witness one Sonic T. Hedgehog.  Once a celebrity of the 16-bit era, he is now the Lindsay Lohan of the gamespace, popping up every now and again to remind us that he’s alive and didn’t O.D. on amphetamines – though no one really cares.

Mario’s greater lesson is that complex games aren’t always to the benefit of the player (and the market, which he controls).  Instead, we find that 100 GB doesn’t always hold something as special and creative as 3 megabits used to.

*NPD Group releases annual data only on the top-10 best-selling games per year.  Anything below this threshold can only be considered speculation.

Estimated Top Western Downloadable Wii Titles by Revenue, 2009 (Price in USD):

  • Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo, NES) - $5,000,000 ($5.00)
  • World of Goo (2D Boy, WiiWare) - $4,800,000 ($15.00)
  • Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, NES) - $3,300,000 ($5.00)
  • Super Mario World (Nintendo, SNES) - $2,900,000 ($8.00)
  • Super Mario 64 (Nintendo, N64) - $2,700,000 ($10.00)
  • Tetris Party (Hudson, WiiWare) - $2,600,000 ($12.00)
  • Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the (Nintendo, N64) - $2,300,000 ($10.00)
  • Pokémon Rumble (Nintendo, WiiWare) - $2,200,000 ($15.00)
  • Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, the (Nintendo, N64) - $2,100,000 ($10.00)
  • My Pokémon Ranch (Nintendo, WiiWare) - $2,000,000 ($10.00)

http://trueslant.com/josephhayden/2010/02/23/super-mario-3-sells-million-copies-20-years-later/

 

 



Around the Network
palancas7 on 23 February 2010

That's just in 2009 if I'm not mistaken.
It has sold way more than that.



 

Acevil on 23 February 2010
palancas7 said:
That's just in 2009 if I'm not mistaken.
It has sold way more than that.


I could be wrong but is this data North America only?



 

forest-spirit on 23 February 2010

Some games are timeless!



Pyramid Head on 23 February 2010

i have to say its lame to always see the marios on top of the charts

id like to see new and cool games sell, so there will be more of em

not that the games are bad, but yeh, just wanna see new stuff pop up more

(lots of good new games i got on dl, like geo wars, braid, and swords and soldiers)



Last year's game of the year turned out to be Silent Hill : Shattered Memories (online GOTY was COD 6).  This year's GOTY leader to me is Heavy Rain.

Wii Friend Code: 4094-4604-1880-6889

Around the Network
WilliamWatts on 23 February 2010

Interesting. I wonder how the real numbers stack up between Wiiware/VC and Xbox Live as they seem to both be rocking the dollars.



Maynard_Tool on 23 February 2010

Mario is amazing O.o But SMB3 definitely deserves this kind of sales.... 20 years alter



03/10/09 HUGE day in my life:

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=63437&page=1

killeryoshis on 23 February 2010

I'm disapointed in Mario World. It should've sold better(Better than mario 3). Than again the world doesn't revolve around me.

Now if only they would release Mario Party already



Tag:I'm not bias towards Nintendo. You just think that way (Admin note - it's "biased".  Not "bias")
(killeryoshis note - Who put that there ?)
Switch is 9th generation. Everyone else is playing on last gen systems! UPDATE: This is no longer true

Biggest pikmin fan on VGchartz I won from a voting poll
I am not a nerd. I am enthusiast.  EN-THU-SI-AST!
Do Not Click here or else I will call on the eye of shinning justice on you. 

elmerion on 23 February 2010

This game has legs!!



Nintendo is the best videogames company ever!

Games4Fun on 23 February 2010

Really goes to show you the quality most Nintendo games have.