6/20 edit:
Here's the current totals for each game.
New Super Mario Bros. 14.75M
Mario Kart DS 10.99M
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games 6.82M total; 4.60M Wii, 2.22M DS
Super Mario Galaxy 6.69M
Super Mario 64 DS 6.01M
Mario Kart Wii 5.69M
Mario Party 8 5.29M
Mario Party DS 4.05M
Super Paper Mario 2.36M
Mario Hoops 3 on 3 1.77M
Mario Strikers Charged 1.68M
Mario and Luigi 2: Partners in Time 1.54M
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis 1.51M
Total: 69.15M
7 games above 5 million; all 13 games above 1.5M.
Pending what new Mario games are shown at E3, I'd put the over/under for generation to date Mario sales through the end of December at 85 million.
I figure 2-3M more for M&S, 3-4M more for MK Wii, 1M+ more for SMG, MKDS and NSMB each, 1M+ for Mario Sluggers, 1M+ more for the rest of the back catalog, and at least 1, maybe 2 more Mario releases for later in the year.
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Original Post:
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Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games DS reached .99M sales this week, making it a million-seller for all intents. It is the 13th game released this gen with the word "Mario" in the title, and the 13th to cross the 1M sales barrier.
Deluge of insane numbers:
By game:
New Super Mario Bros. 13.64M
Mario Kart DS 9.87M
Super Mario Galaxy 6.09M
Super Mario 64 DS 5.79M
Mario Party 8 4.87M
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) 3.53M
Mario Party DS 3.33M
Super Paper Mario 2.25M
Mario Hoops 3 on 3 1.71M
Mario Strikers Charged 1.51M
Mario and Luigi 2 1.49M
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 1.48M
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) .99M
Total: 56.55M
Average: 4.35M
5 games rank among VGChartz top 100 best-selling games of all-time.
7 games--over half of those released this gen--rank among the top 200 best-sellers.
In total, 25 Mario games rank among the VGChartz top 100.
Kart DS, Party 8, Party DS and Super Paper Mario have all notably outsold all previous gen titles in their respective subseries.
Kart lifetime sales have topped 40M with only 5 games in the subseries, almost 10M this gen; Party lifetime sales have topped 23M, over 8M this gen; RPG lifetime sales have topped 11M, over 3.5M this gen.
Spin-off games Yoshi's Island DS, WarioWare: Touched and WarioWare: Smooth Moves have all topped 2M sales; Super Princess Peach has topped 1M; Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with Mario on the cover has topped 3M. Several Mario-related titles have failed to sell 1M; more if counting DK games. Itadaki Street DS is the only title with Mario on the cover which failed to sell 1M, though it has not seen wide release.
Combined sales of Mario and Sonic (4.52M) exceed sales of the original Sonic the Hedgehog at 4.34M.
Among the 13 million sellers, Mario has the three best-selling platformers of the gen (NSMB, SMG, SM64DS), the best-selling racing game of the gen (MKDS), the best-selling sports game of the gen (M&S Wii), and the second best-selling home console RPG (SPM) of the generation behind Oblivion.
Mario sales, this gen alone, are in the same range as the lifetime totals of Gran Turismo, Donkey Kong and Zelda. And what should be at worst the 4th biggest Mario game this gen, Kart Wii, is yet to be released. 80, 90 or 100 million sales for Mario this gen don't look out of reach.
All Hail the King.
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
