This Week In Sales: Not Even Super Mario 3D World Can Lift Wii U Sales

Period: The week of November 18th – November 24th (2013)

Top-seller: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – 277,082

Nintendo 3DS sales: 20,797 | Total sales: 8,995,972

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 63,709 | Total sales: 4,816,447

PlayStation Vita sales: 21,044 | Total sales: 2,071,679

Vita TV sales: 7,868 | 50,040

Wii U sales: 21,002 | Total sales: 1,190,956

<< Last week’s software sales chart

Last week, Nintendo released Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U in Japan. A successor to Super Mario 3D Land on the Nintendo 3DS, World’s goal was to combine the best aspects of 2D and 3D Super Mario games into a product that would hopefully reinvigorate the Wii U, which has been selling extremely poorly. Super Mario 3D World’s first-week sales, however, indicate that things may not go according to plan.

Above is a chart that compares opening week sales in Japan for every Super Mario game released since 2006. As you can see, while no game has ever managed to replicate the success of New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, most Mario titles have managed respectable opening week sales—with the exception of two games.

2012’s New Super Mario Bros. U sold around 160,000 copies in its first week—a rather shabby performance for a brand new Mario title. However, even that game didn’t do do as badly as last week’s Super Mario 3D World, which sold a mere 100,000 copies in its opening week. You can find a detailed breakdown of first-week Super Mario sales below.

New Super Mario Bros. (2006) – 899,518

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009) – 934,739

Super Mario Galaxy (2007) – 250,585

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010) – 339,901

Super Mario 3D Land (2011) – 343,492

New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012) – 407,503

New Super Mario Bros. U (2012) – 163,528

Super Mario 3D World (2013) – 99,588

Wii U sales for the week were characteristically poor as well, coming in at 21,002 units sold, which is shockingly low for a week that saw the release of a killer app for the device. Overall, a very poor showing indeed, and one raises the question of just what the Wii U’s future holds, given that even Nintendo’s flagship franchise has been unable to perform its necessarily role—at least in Japan.

One could argue that Super Mario 3D World sales will pick up this holiday season, and yes, they probably will. However, Mario’s strength comes partly from how well the games sell throughout the year, and judging by the opening sales for 3D World, this one isn’t going to be breaking any records. Time to find another solution, Nintendo.

The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.