Thread Description: In this series of threads I will be looking at games that have been released for at least 18 months, and then comparing how much first week, and first month sales make up of the total sales. In the second post there will be one of two polls, one for a game with strong legs (1st month sales make up less than 35% of total sales) and one for why a game was more frontloaded (1st month sales make up more than 35% of total sales) .  With the thread description out the way here is today's  Look at those Legs Game of the Day…

Game of the Day

Article to be posted on 10/11

Super Mario Galaxy

Description: Super Mario Galaxy launched in November of 2007 and achieved the rare accomplishment of hitting the 1 million copies sold first week worldwide.  However; despite the strong launch sales only account for ~13% of the game's total sales and the first month total accounts for less than 30% of total sales.  Consider how strong the launch was, and the fact the game is still selling moderately well each week, meaning the percentages are continuing to decrease, that is very impressive.  So why do you think Super Mario Galaxy continued to sell so well after it's launch? Was it positive word of mouth, lack of competition on the console or continued marketing, or something else?  Vote in the poll and then let us know what you think.

Update: Poll Removed now that follow up article has been posted.

Note:I'm aware the the game has not been officially bundled or been given an official rerelease, I just use all the same choices for each poll in case I want to be able to compare two games' results.                   

       Previous Look at those Legs threads  

       Assassin's Creed (10/13) (Article Link)              

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (9/25) (Article Link)

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I'm actually going to have to go with "it's a Nintendo game".

Look at the best selling games on Wii;

Wii Sports and play can't really be compared

Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii have far better legs. Wii Sports Resort will likely fit in here.

Mario & Sonic @ the Olympics has somewhat better legs. As does Mario Party 8.

Of Nintendo's top 10, only 2 games are not outlegging Super Mario Galaxy.  Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which practically ties SMG, and Twilight Princess, which is a Zelda title - Nintendo's perhaps worst legged multi-million selling franchise.

But again, that actually fits with your poll, because why do Nintendo's titles have such good legs? Definitely word of mouth.

That is a good point Pineapple. What do other people think?

It's a Mario game, they sell like hotcakes, and for a long time, so they probably sell like a cooled hotcake.

Mario Galaxy is one of the best games of this gen. the reviews were all positive, and also the players liked it very much.
Probably initially it would have sold like the past 3d Mario games, but as word of mouth kept going this title became one of the Wii's must have, and so probably part of the new Wii userbase bought it.

I'm actually dissapointed with SMG's sales.
Deserves much more when you compare it to the other Wii multimillion sellers.

Well, both critics and players liked it. It's one of the highest rated titles in recent history. It's a core title, but casuals like it a lot too. Basically the game appeals to almost everyone, whether they've played games for ages or not. For games like that, word of mouth really goes a long way. Also, it's Mario. Any Mario title sells tons.

And yes, the advertising is sure to have helped this game, too. I remember seeing tv-commercials for Galaxy just a few short weeks ago, while it released like 2 years ago. That's not something you see a lot. Well, apart from other evergreen Nintendo titles (I still regularly see commercials for Wii Fit, Brawl, and Mario Kart too :p).

Bundles, otherwise it wouldn't have made a single sale.

One of the best box-arts if not the best.

A couple of good comments so far, anybody else have an opinion?