Fire Emblem seems like it'll hit in Sept or Oct? MH4 will get it week 1, Mario+Luigi might be the next imo!

52-Week Update: New Super Mario Bros. 2

New Super Mario Bros. 2 released late last July in Japan, and last August in Europe and America. For the purposes of this update, I'm going to be looking at global sales of the game for its first 52 weeks starting from its Japanese release.

In its first 52 weeks, New Super Mario Bros. 2 has sold over 6.2 million units. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: it is tracking nowhere near sales of previous New Super titles. After 52 weeks, the original DS title was over 9.9 million, and the Wii iteration was just a week shy of 17 million.

Oh, no! The brand is ruined! People aren't buying Mario games any more!

Alright, alright. The game is selling slowly for a NSMB title. We've known this was the case for months. Now the question is -- what exactly does "slowly for a NSMB title" mean in the long run?

Turns out it means "still pretty damn well." In Japan, NSMB2 has already surpsassed Super Mario 3D Land, and is now the third-best-selling 3DS game behind Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Mario Kart 7 (these are also the only three 3DS titles to have exceeded 2 million sales in Japan). NSMB2 has sold slightly more slowly than 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 in the West, bringing it just barely behind them globally. (NSMB2 is about 300k behind MK7 and 500k behind SM3DL in the same period).

As sales begin ramping up for this year's Holiday season, there will be a huge influx of new 3DS owners due to the major releases of Monster Hunter 4 in Japan and Pokémon X and Y globally. The three titles above are the sort that sell to new console owners throughout the generation, so this hardware rush should translate to a healthy Holiday sales period for New Super Mario Bros. 2. Regardless, it's clear that all three titles -- New Super included -- have a rapidly approaching date with 10 million. This is going to be tight.

New poll time!

Old poll results:

It seems the 36 folks who voted "Yes, later this year," hit the nail on the head. See you again soon for our next million-seller!

New Million Seller! Fire Emblem: Awakening

70 weeks after its Japanese launch, 28 weeks after its American launch, 19 weeks after its European launch -- physical sales of Fire Emblem: Awakening have surpassed 1 million units worldwide as of the week ending August 17, 2013. This is the first title in the 23-year-old series to reach one million sales.

There is something truly miraculous about this. Fire Emblem: Awakening is now the best-selling title ever released in its series -- yet it is not the best-selling Fire Emblem title in any single region. It was only able to achieve its impressive feat through a combined effort by 3DS owners in every region.

The game released first in Japan, where it has sold over 500 thousand copies since its release last April. Fire Emblem: Awakening ranks third among all 13 Fire Emblem games in Japan. Its sales have slowed to the point that it seems unlikely for the title to surpass the top-seller, which sold nearly 700 thousand copies. Neither game that stands above Awakening in Japan was released in the West.

In America, Awakening was released this past February. Despite high digital sales in the region spurred by a lack of availability at retail, the game managed to sell over 300 thousand physical copies. As in Japan, it is currently the third-best-selling title in the series in America. Unlike in Japan, Awakening was released rather recently and has not seen the end of its sales yet; it is unclear how the upcoming Holiday will affect its performance.

Finally, Europeans got their hands on Awakening just a few months ago, this past April, roughly one year after its Japanese release. Although it ranks third among Fire Emblem games in this region, too, it looks very likely to rise to the top of that list with a decent Holiday boost.

It really took a perfect storm for the series to reach this sales milestone. Even the "Rest of World" region was instrumental in the achievement -- without those 0.04 million sales, Awakening would still be just shy of the million mark.

This concludes my sales analysis of Fire Emblem: Awakening, but the celebration is just getting started. I'd like to kick it off with our first ever public shaming in the Million-Sellers Thread.

Shame on you, Conegamer! You should have shown more faith in this outstanding video game!

:P Really, he had a right to be skeptical. There was reason to doubt that this game would reach the 1 million milestone, given the series' declining popularity in the West and the lackluster sales of the DS iterations. And it should be noted that he predicted 0.98 million sales in tbone's thread. So don't be too hard on the guy.

But do shame him! Shame him as publicly as possible.

Wow very surprised Awakening reached a million. While is not my favorite in the series, it's definitely an amazing game, it truly deserves reaching a million. 

And this is only physical sales, imagine it with digital!

Well I know I bought mine digital so it should be at least 1.000.001 units sold

Although from what I understand, the game didn't had a big shipment (or at least at the beginning) so the digital numbers could be a lot higher than other games. I say maybe around 50k or so, but I'm just throwing that number out of nowhere. 

3rd favorite in the series (after FE GC+Wii feat Ike)

1mil first time in franchise,

Good for Fire Emblem, it's quite an achievement and it's the 1st one to do so too which is nice.
The next million seller ought to be MH4 and Pokémon following after. I do wonder what will get there after them?

zelda, also MAYBBBBEEEE Mario Party, Mario+Sonic is getting there(off by less than 40k) also DK is off by <280k alsoooooooo Pokemon mystery dungeon maybbeeee!

It's great to see Fire Emblem Reaching 1 mil, even though I still prefer Radiant Dawn ( maybe it's because I played it first?), Awakening is one of my favorite 3ds games!