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Updated sales numbers for Switch titles: Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (1.27M), and more

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IR Information : Sales Data - Top Selling Title Sales Units

www.nintendo.co.jp

updated sales numbers as of March 31, 2025 (+sales in the last quarter):
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 68.20M (+850K)
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 47.82M (+380K)
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 36.24M (+360K)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 32.81M (+190K)
  • Super Mario Odyssey - 29.28M (+240K)
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet - 26.79M (+410K)
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield - 26.72M (+120K)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 21.73M (+180K)
  • Super Mario Party - 21.16M (+60K)
  • New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - 18.25M (+190K)
  • Nintendo Switch Sports - 16.27M (+530K)
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder - 16.03M (520K)
  • Mario Party Superstars - 14.00M (+1.11M since March 2024)
  • Super Mario Party Jamboree - 7.48M (+1.31M)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - 4.09M (+180K)
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - 2.10M (+40K)
  • Mario & Luigi: Brothership - 1.97M (+130K)
  • Luigi's Mansion 2 HD - 1.88M (+80K)
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns HD - 1.27M
 
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Donkey Kong is currently the #5 biggest new release of 2025 to get a sales milestone.

 
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Xenoblade X DE didn't make it to 1m in 11 days so we will probably never know how much it sold unless someone leaks it.
 
Slightly lower numbers than I expected for DKCR, but decent enough. I kinda can’t help but wonder if Bananza is about to cut off any legs it’s gonna have though.
 
What i find interesting is how closely tied Paper Mario the thousand year door and Mario & Luigi Brothership sales were, Probably a lot of the same customers that bought both games.
 
Danny said:
What i find interesting is how closely tied Paper Mario the thousand year door and Mario & Luigi Brothership sales were, Probably a lot of the same customers that bought both games.
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Except on consoles with low install bases (heh), most Mario RPGs hover around 2-3 million units sold. So it has a pretty consistent fanbase that shows up, but doesn’t really grow.

I think it’s also clear NSMB and NSMBW were outliers for 2D Mario. The typical ceiling for the series is closer to 20 million than 30. U Deluxe and Wonder are pretty close and probably eating into each other.
 
1. I know we had this discussion several times before, but I want to mention it again: Still underwhelmed by number of Mario Wonder. It is at 16M units now after 18 months on the market. I would have expected that the game will perform much better

2. Also a bit (but only a bit) underwhelmed by EoW numbers. The game did a very good performance in several chart lists through the last months, so I thought that it would sell more units. It is at 3.7m units sell-through now. I think 5m units LTD will be the ceiling in the end (so noticeable lower than LA remake did)

3. Sales of Jamboree are great and the game will keep on selling well due to S2 Edition releasing in July

4. It seems that the ratio of BotW vs. TotK will remain at ~65%. The initial launch number of TotK was very huge, but its legs are a bit disappointing to me. But great numbers in the end anyway

5. Mario Odyssey should cross the 30m-mark this holiday season. A great milestone for a great game :)
 
Danny said:
What i find interesting is how closely tied Paper Mario the thousand year door and Mario & Luigi Brothership sales were, Probably a lot of the same customers that bought both games.
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Goes to show that there's really no preference in the gameplay design with Mario rpgs.

Pokemon SV is now the second best selling in the series. Massively deserved
 
Tialo said:
1. I know we had this discussion several times before, but I want to mention it again: Still underwhelmed by number of Mario Wonder. It is at 16M units now after 18 months on the market. I would have expected that the game will perform much better

2. Also a bit (but only a bit) underwhelmed by EoW numbers. The game did a very good performance in several chart lists through the last months, so I thought that it would sell more units. It is at 3.7m units sell-through now. I think 5m units LTD will be the ceiling in the end (so noticeable lower than LA remake did)

3. Sales of Jamboree are great and the game will keep on selling well due to S2 Edition releasing in July

4. It seems that the ratio of BotW vs. TotK will remain at ~65%. The initial launch number of TotK was very huge, but its legs are a bit disappointing to me. But great numbers in the end anyway

5. Mario Odyssey should cross the 30m-mark this holiday season. A great milestone for a great game :)
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Shouldn't you take into account that there is always a natural decline in software sales late into a console's lifespan?
 
Danny said:
Shouldn't you take into account that there is always a natural decline in software sales late into a console's lifespan?
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This is not the case by default for special titles. TLoU2 sold also incredible well on PS4 although it was released very lately in the cycle. Pikmin 4 e.g. released only three months earlier than Mario Wonder and was a great record breaking success for the IP. Pokemon S/V released also 'only' 11 months earlier than Mario Wonder and sold also record-breaking. And take also a look at the current Jamboree sales etc. So this can not be the only explanation for the sales performance of Mario Wonder and EoW
 
Danny said:
Shouldn't you take into account that there is always a natural decline in software sales late into a console's lifespan?
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Yeah. As console gets older, sales of software is going to keep getting lower in the end as the active users number keep going down.

Sad no Xeno X number though.

I wonder if they are going to do something with Wonder with DLC there to make it become evergreen for Switch 2 era.

Tialo said:
This is not the case by default for special titles. TLoU2 sold also incredible well on PS4 although it was released very lately in the cycle. Pikmin 4 e.g. released only three months earlier than Mario Wonder and was a great record breaking success for the IP. Pokemon S/V released also 'only' 11 months earlier than Mario Wonder and sold also record-breaking. And take also a look at the current Jamboree sales etc. So this can not be the only explanation for the sales performance of Mario Wonder and EoW
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Don't TLoU 2 sell behind TLoU1 there? Literally the same case as ToTK? Where bigger launch then weaker leg?

Pikmin 4 is brand new title after such long time there so it pushes it sales stronger there.

Wonder i feel is because Mario platformer series already has quite a number of title there. So, some players feels happy enough with the 2D mario experience they already have.
 
Tialo said:
This is not the case by default for special titles. TLoU2 sold also incredible well on PS4 although it was released very lately in the cycle. Pikmin 4 e.g. released only three months earlier than Mario Wonder and was a great record breaking success for the IP. Pokemon S/V released also 'only' 11 months earlier than Mario Wonder and sold also record-breaking. And take also a look at the current Jamboree sales etc. So this can not be the only explanation for the sales performance of Mario Wonder and EoW
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But i don't see the dissappointment regarding Mario Wonder, i'm fairly sure lifetime sales of Wonder will be higher than NSMBD, given that Wonder will continue to sell a bit during the Switch 2 generation as well, at least until the release of a new 2D Mario game years from now. And beating the previous 2D Mario game is the most realistic comparison. I don't think its possible for 2D Mario games to sell as much as they did during the Wii/DS generation, because during that generation a lot of people that played Mario on NES were still active gamers, and there was a big nostalgia factor that now has lessened considerably. Fewer people than before have nostalgia for 2D Mario games, which naturally lowers sales potential.

Echoes of Wisdom is just the exact situation when it comes to 2D Zelda as TOTK was for 3D Zelda, natural decline from the first game on the console.
 
Wonder not getting a Switch 2 patch (while NSMBUDX is) makes me think it's getting a full NS2E instead. Which would be even better for legs potentially.
 
Danny said:
But i don't see the dissappointment regarding Mario Wonder, i'm fairly sure lifetime sales of Wonder will be higher than NSMBD, given that Wonder will continue to sell a bit during the Switch 2 generation as well, at least until the release of a new 2D Mario game years from now. And beating the previous 2D Mario game is the most realistic comparison. I don't think its possible for 2D Mario games to sell as much as they did during the Wii/DS generation, because during that generation a lot of people that played Mario on NES were still active gamers, and there was a big nostalgia factor that now has lessened considerably. Fewer people than before have nostalgia for 2D Mario games, which naturally lowers sales potential.

Echoes of Wisdom is just the exact situation when it comes to 2D Zelda as TOTK was for 3D Zelda, natural decline from the first game on the console.
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Regarding EoW: I think this kind of comparison is difficult because LA was 'only' a remake. Yes, it was the first entry of a 2D-Topdown-Zelda on Switch 1, but it was not a brand new game and only a remake of an older GB game. So I would have expected that EoW could perform better and at least on par with LA, because its a fresh brand new game that should naturally attract more players than a remake. We see the same pattern e.g. for Pokemon games. S/S and S/V also sold much more units than the remake titles of older gens on Switch 1. MP4 Beyond will for sure sell much more units than MP1 Remaster etc. So I would have expected that EoW should at least perform on par with LA remake
 
Links Awakening is a remake of a (at that point) 26 year old game, it was practically a new experience for a lot of people within the Switch user base (especially those, who joined a Nintendo ecosystem for the first time AND for those, who got into the Zelda series thanks to BotW, which is a sizeable number). I don't agree that it being remake has much weight when looking at its sales potential. It's essentially a new experience for a large number of people.

Outside of the obvious "second game from franchise x on the same platform will do worse than the first" effect, I think one reason why EoW is not doing quite as great as I expected (but still really good) is that despite Nintendo's efforts, a lot of people still perceived it as a spin-off type game thanks to the nature of the game (playing as Zelda, no traditional close combat, etc.).
 
Zelda EoW really released at the tail end of Switch's life and was noticeably different from all other 2D Zelda games so it's not shocking that it might sell less than LA Remake.

That said I enjoyed my time with it, it was refreshing and so beautiful! I think 5 million sales would be a great result for it and maybe the free Switch 2 update will give it a boost on the long run :)
 
Although it is often mentioned here that sales of a series in one console are usually lower, and sales decline in the later stage. But do people have a consensus on the reasons behind these two?

For the former, I think the main reason is that the first game is essentially a screening process, and it is often mixed with the reasons for the decline in sales in the later stage.

For the latter, I think the main reason is that although the installation of consoles is increasing, some people have already left early. Games that can last the entire lifetime of a console can reach the entire gaming community, while later games can only reach a portion.
 
TotK has had terrible legs and it's now getting outsold by BOTW and games like Mario Odyssey. We're at the end of the Switch's lifetime and that surely is a factor but I'd ask how much of its mediocre legs could also be attributed to the fact that it reused the same map and also the fact that it was 70 dollars? Did Nintendo anticipate this? Also it's interesting how BOTW used to outsell Mario Odyssey regularly before TOTK and now that has changed. Sure it's a sequel but there are also plenty of other Mario games on Switch. The iterative nature of TOTK might have hurt BOTW's longevity sales wise.
 
  • Mario Party Superstars - 14.00M (+1.11M since March 2024)
  • Super Mario Party Jamboree - 7.48M (+1.31M)
Mario Party is such a reliable seller now, crazy to see how much its bounced back, even when a third title in the series gets released. Switch 2 + TV or whatever version is going to sell a couple million for sure as well.
 
Jamboree is selling very strongly, but it's still a decline compared to the previous Mario Party on the system
so, why should it be seen as a counter-argumento toward EoW or TotK or Mario Wonder?

I'm confused
 
Aostia82 said:
Jamboree is selling very strongly, but it's still a decline compared to the previous Mario Party on the system
so, why should it be seen as a counter-argumento toward EoW or TotK or Mario Wonder?

I'm confused
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Well Jamboree is outselling previous Mario Party games launch aligned while Echoes of Wisdom isn't (vs Link's Awakening) and neither is Super Mario Bros Wonder (vs NSMB Wii).

I guess TOTK technically is too but it seems obvious its trajectory has totally flatlined whereas that hasn't happened to Jamboree (at least yet).
 
Sampdoria said:
TotK has had terrible legs and it's now getting outsold by BOTW and games like Mario Odyssey.
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TotK sold the same amount of units than BotW last quarter.
Sampdoria said:
We're at the end of the Switch's lifetime and that surely is a factor but I'd ask how much of its mediocre legs could also be attributed to the fact that it reused the same map and also the fact that it was 70 dollars?
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TotK is priced similarly with BotW in Europe and Japan so I'd say that the impact is very minimal since the trend is the same there too.
 
AruanaRiva said:
Wonder i feel is because Mario platformer series already has quite a number of title there. So, some players feels happy enough with the 2D mario experience they already have.
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That and the 2D platformer market is way different than 20 years ago thanks to the indie scene. Tons of cheap games you can buy if you want 2D platforming. Considering games like SMB3 and SMW also sold 18-20 million, I just can’t really understand seeing Wonder’s numbers as a disappointment.
 
Mekanos said:
That and the 2D platformer market is way different than 20 years ago thanks to the indie scene. Tons of cheap games you can buy if you want 2D platforming. Considering games like SMB3 and SMW also sold 18-20 million, I just can’t really understand seeing Wonder’s numbers as a disappointment.
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Nearly every Nintendo IP broke new sales records on Nintendo Switch - some of them by a huge margin (Smash, AC, 3D Mario, 3D Zelda, Luigis Mansion etc). Mario Wonder is one of the few Nintendo IPs which did NOT manage to do this. So this is the main reason why numbers of Wonder could be interpreted as 'underwhelming'
 
Tialo said:
Nearly every Nintendo IP broke new sales records on Nintendo Switch - some of them by a huge margin (Smash, AC, 3D Mario, 3D Zelda, Luigis Mansion etc). Mario Wonder is one of the few Nintendo IPs which did NOT manage to do this. So this is the main reason why numbers of Wonder could be interpreted as 'underwhelming'
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No, simply not the case, and you really have been labouring this point far too much, for far too long. SMBW's sales are not underwhelming in any sense of the word, and the game's going to continue to have an extremely long sales tail. Maybe one day you'll stop trying to justify the same point again and again.
 
jesusraz said:
No, simply not the case, and you really have been labouring this point far too much, for far too long. SMBW's sales are not underwhelming in any sense of the word, and the game's going to continue to have an extremely long sales tail. Maybe one day you'll stop trying to justify the same point again and again.
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No. Other users also claimed my argument. So I will not stop :)

Furthermore I simply answered on the posted question here what kind of reason was behind this discussion. Nothing more
 
fiendcode said:
Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Super Luigi Wonder
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The other week I had compiled a list of all the Nintendo published games (in Japan) and their potential of being updated to being Switch 2 software.
So there are the 11 titles that they have announced will get free updates, and 6 titles that are getting Edition releases, currently leaving 81 titles as they are. Of those 81 I think 11 are unlikely get updated since they overlap with potential future games, things like MK8DX, Mario Golf, Splatoon etc. 5 are games that were handled by Platinum which is in limbo, and I could see some of them going either way, maybe Nintendo might toss them a few bucks to update them to have better performance, it is unlikely they will get funding for any of them to add extra DLC to turn then into Edition. There are like 37 titles that are some combination of either too old to bother, or the sales don't warrant it, or they are small titles that don't need it at all. Things like 1 2 Switch, Jump Rope, Good Job, Famicom Detective, Super Hero Girls, etc.

As for everything else, I think it depends on if there is someone to do the port and if it is needed. Mario Luigi RPG probably doesn't have the sales or a developer so is unlikely to get updated, Xenoblade games I could see go either way, probably free updates for DE and 3 and XDE, and possibly an Edition for 2, however Editions are probably hard to do without some sort of extra DLC. Something like Wonder however which is developed at Nintendo, hasn't had any DLC, and is still selling well has a good chance of getting an Edition in the future, and I think Pikmin 4 (1+2, 3 are all old) is a good candidate as well. For future free updates that haven't been mentioned, I'm sure Tetris 99 and F-Zero 99 even though not listed, will get free Switch 2 updates. Switch Sports I could see either way, a free update or just a whole new game in the future. Ring Fit probably a compatibility update it needed.

I'd be curious to what other Editions/free updates are likely and why, but I think at least for a good 80% of what they haven't already committed to has a pretty weak case.
 
Lelouch0612 said:
TotK sold the same amount of units than BotW last quarter.
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No it didn't. It's not a big difference, but BotW shipped 190k and TotK 180k. The same thing happened in the quarter ending September 2024. It adds up over time.
Lelouch0612 said:
TotK is priced similarly with BotW in Europe and Japan so I'd say that the impact is very minimal since the trend is the same there too.
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In Europe it's the same price, in Japan TotK is slightly more expensive.
 
TOTK is a sequel for diehard Zelda fans who want more. It should not be seen as surprising that it's more frontloaded than BOTW.
 
Sorbete said:
I wouldn't call TotK legs terrible tbh. Worse than something doesn't mean bad. Still a 21M+ seller selling almost 200k in a quarter almost 2 years later. Is that terrible?
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Yeah. Many games would die to still have such good legs with not much price cut there. People should remember that Nintendo games no matter how old. Usually still sells close to full price there. Outside select discount weeks.

That alone always limit the sales potential there.
 
TotK started with 17.5m units in its initial quarter and is now - 2 years after launch - at 21.7m units. So this means: 80% of its units so far came from the release quarter. In comparison to a lot of other Nintendo titles, we can surely call this 'underwhelming legs' or 'heavy frontloaded'.

@KtSlime To be honest: I dont think that we will get soo many S2 Edition games. I personally expect the following ones (not counting all of the small free updates):

We know so far:

TotK and BotW (technical updates)
Jamboree (technical update + extra content)
Kirby Forgotten Land (technical update + extra content)
MP4 Beyond (technical update)
PLZA (technical update)

I expect aditionally:

Mario Wonder (technical + extra content)
Switch Sports (technical + extra content)
Tomodachi (technical)
Smash Ultimate (technical + extra content - because I dont think that we will get a new entry on S2 unfortunately)
Mario vs Rabbids (technical + extra content)
And some weird choice, that nobody expected (e.g. Peach Showtime or Mario RPG Remake etc.)

Pikmin 4 is also a candidate, but I really think that they started development of Pikmin 5 really soon after the release and success of P4, so I think that we will rather get a new entry here 'soon' than a S2 Edition
 
Tialo said:
TotK started with 17.5m units in its initial quarter and is now - 2 years after launch - at 21.7m units. So this means: 80% of its units so far came from the release quarter. In comparison to a lot of other Nintendo titles, we can surely call this 'underwhelming legs' or 'heavy frontloaded'.
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You are really working so hard on this point. Using percentages without considering actual numbers does not explain anything. Selling 1M per year after First Year is considered a good Leg for most games.
 
Necu said:
You are really working so hard on this point. Using percentages without considering actual numbers does not explain anything. Selling 1M per year after First Year is considered a good Leg for most games.
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Why? Using Percentages / relative shares is much more senseful if we talk about stuff like 'legs' or 'frontloaded', because using absolute numbers will definetly not show you the real picture. If a game that started so huge like TotK, sells 'only' 1M per year after first year than these numbers are definetly NOT a sign of good legs. You have to consider the inital starting numbers for sure.

Example: If a game like EoW would do 1m per year after launch year, then these would be surely great legs. The game did ~3.5m units in its first year, so it would be a great result if it can add another 1m units per year and leg out to 7-8m units in the end. In this case, the game would have at least doubled its first year numbers in the end.

But if a game that started with 17.5m units in its first quarter will 'only' leg to 23-24m units in the end, then these are definetly NO good legs. The multiplier between first quarter and LTD numbers would only be 1.4 in this case which can not be interpreted as 'good legs'. The total number of sales is for sure still very good. But this good number came mainly from the great starting numbers and NOT from the legs in this case
 
BTB123 said:
TotK and BotW are also getting a companion mobile app that adds a bunch of stuff.
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Yes I know. I was unsure if this is 'enough' to consider it as 'extra content' in this list ;) Because the scope of extra content for Kirby and Jamboree is for sure much more obvious.

By the way: Is the companion app also for BotW? I thought it would only work for TotK?
 
TOTK sold more than BOTW during the previous fiscal year, its just not a major difference. But if we look at total sales for FY25, TOTK sold more than BOTW during that fiscal year.
 
when you take a look at "legs" you should also consider many factors, if you are actually interest in understanding a game performance
The Legend of Zelda previous higher first quarter has been at...how many millions? TotK, pushed by the HUGE hype and brand awareness created by BotW, quadrupled this number, debuting at 17.5mil units?

its sales curve (that IS the key concept) surely can't be compared to other zelda episodes, like at all: they

- debuted TOO LOWER to get a fair comparison
- had incredible consistency during the entire generation (BotW), something clearly impossible for a second episode sold so later into the life cycle and debuting with such high number


to understand why this exercise can't be done is a simple "math" way, let's take zelda average legs and add/multiply this data starting from the 18mil debut: what should have sold TotK to keep that kind of legs? 30/35mil in 2 years?
 
I just don't see why one should expect TOTK to sell better. It would be incredibly difficult to make an iterative Zelda sequel sell more than the previous one during the latter days of the Switch lifespan. Why compare it to Scarlet and Violet? Scarlet and Violet were in no way an iterative sequel to Sword and Shield, in fact it was more popular than Sword and Shield precisely because it changed a lot from Sword and Shield in world map and game play. The changes in formula that was made with Scarlet and Violet were so popular among Pokemon players that it nullified the impact of the game running terrible.

We have many different console generations to compare, no Zelda game has ever been able to sell more than the previous Zelda game during the same console generation. Just look at the huge decline of sales for Skyward Sword compared to Twillight Princess during the Wii era, or the big decline for Majora's Mask compared to Ocarina of Time.
 
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