Grimes said:
NYANKS said:
Grimes said:
This game is pretty much a lock for 30 million. How much beyond that I don't know.
People jump up and down when games sell millions.
This game is measued in the tens of millions.
It's an astonishing achievement that I don't think gets the recognition it deserves.
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It gets attention, it's just hard to keep up the excitement when it's on the chart every week for years. After a while...it's just kinda there lol. Doesn't diminish it at all obviously, but you can only talk about something so much I guess. Ungodly numbers though.
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I rarely gets discussed though. I can't remember any big posts about it. Even when it passed 20 million it didn't get much attention.
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Actually, that's not completely true. I've had quite a keen eye on Mario Kart Wii, as I even before it launched insisted it would be the best selling game of the generation, barring Wii Sports and Wii Play.
I don't think it will be now, though. New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be less than 4 million behind Mario Kart Wii by the start of 2011 (I have them at ~ 24.75 million vs 21 million), and it's selling at a far higher pace.
It's also likely to lose to Wii Sports Resort. Mario Kart Wii will only have a 1-1.5 million (24.75 vs ~ 23.5) lead on Wii Sports Resort by the end of the year, and Wii Sports Resort too has a far higher momentum.
I'm not sure how high Mario Kart Wii will go. It looks to be selling around 4 million in 2010, quite a lot down from the 7.3 million of 2009. I've nearly always said Mario Kart Wii will definitely exceed 30 million, but now I'd say that 30 million seems to be pretty much exactly where it will end. It could reach 35 million with a platinum release and a long generation.
Wii Sports Resort and New Super Mario Bros. Wii should both end in the 35-45 million range, which ends higher I have no idea.
Making an "expected top 10 games" list could be interesting. The only game I really see challenging the very top is New Super Mario Bros. DS. It's pretty much selling neck-to-neck with Mario Kart Wii as of right now. However, its sales will die out slightly sooner, due to the DS death being before the Wii's, so 28-33 million seems like a likely result for it.
So excluding my expected top 2 obviously bundled games, and Wii Play, the list becomes
1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 35-45 million
1. Wii Sports Resort - 35-45 million
3. Mario Kart Wii - 30-35 million
4. Pokemon Blu/Red - 31.37 million
4. New Super Mario Bros. DS - 28-33 million
6. Tetris - 30.26 million
7. Duck Hunt - 28.31 million
After that, it gets a bit tricky. You have Nintendogs ending in the 25-26 million range, Black Ops possibly making a number near that height, Wii Fit Plus possibly making that high a number, and then Mario Kart DS which should see 22-24 million or so. Also, Pokemon Gold/Silver at 23.10 million
I'd say this seems the most likely
8. Nintendogs - 25-26 million
9. Mario Kart DS - 22-24 million
10. Pokemon Gold/Silver - 23.10 million
(With the possibility of Black Ops or Wii Fit Plus beating MKDS or Gold/Silver).
So a bit more lengthy an answer than you asked for, but I'd say that Mario Kart Wii is fairly certainly going to end in the 3rd to 5th best selling non-bundled game of all time range, depending on how Nintendo plays this generation and how they handle Player's Choice. Most likely 3rd spot, though.
Mario Kart also nicely manages to be one of the largest franchises of the generation with just 2 games. It's obviously bested by the Mario franchise (duh), the Wii series, Pokemon and Call of Duty, as well as the 2D Mario Platformers (just the 2 New Super Mario Bros. ones alone beat the Mario Kart series)
One way of illustrating the sales is this:
Excluding Skyward Sword, Mario Kart Wii Mario Kart DS is equally large as the entire The Legend of Zelda franchise, in terms of sales.
