Super Mario Galaxy 2, interestingly, has the best debut of any 3D Mario game to date. While the original Galaxy entered the market with 250,585 units sold in its first week, Galaxy 2 beat it soundly, debuting at nearly 340,000 units.
Since Media-Create numbers alone are harder to track down in this case, we decided to go through both the M-C and Enterbrain archives for older 3D Mario sales to see for ourselves where Galaxy 2 stands. As always, do note that drawing comparisons between two different trackers isn’t always the most accurate way to assess a game’s performance.
Year | Title | First week | Tot. Sales | Sys. |
1996 | Super Mario 64 | 162,111 | 1,639,921 | N64 |
2002 | Super Mario Sunshine | 280,610 | 789,989 | GCN |
2004 | Super Mario 64 DS | 120,062 | 1,133,678 | DS |
2007 | Super Mario Galaxy | 250,585 | 966,817 | Wii |
Going forward, it should be interesting to see if the beginners DVD that comes with Super Mario Galaxy 2 in Japan helps make a difference to long-term sales. The top-ten chart for the week of May 24th – 30th is as follows:
Lw | Tw | Title | Tw. Sales | Tot. Sales | Sys. | Publisher |
New | 01. | Super Mario Galaxy 2 | 339,901 | New | Wii | Nintendo |
New | 02. | Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin – The Lord of Elemental | 80,674 | New | DS | Namco Bandai |
New | 03. | Soccer Tsuku DS: World Challenge 2010 | 50,206 | New | DS | SEGA |
New | 04. | Medarot DS: Kabuto / Kuwagata Version | 50,164 | New | DS | Rocket Co. |
02. | 05. | Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 | 33,973 | 1,098,572 | DS | Square Enix |
01. | 06. | Lost Planet 2 | 33,85 | 118,463 | PS3 | Capcom |
04. | 07. | Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker | 25,465 | 697,576 | PSP | Konami |
03. | 08. | World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen | 22,168 | 79,382 | PS3 | Konami |
08. | 09. | New Super Mario Bros. Wii | 16,279 | 3,859,557 | Wii | Nintendo |
New | 10. | Death Smiles IIX | 16,112 | New | 360 | Cave |
In other news, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin – The Lord of Elemental did rather well for itself, selling through 82.54% of its first shipment. As illustrated in the chart, Deathsmiles made an appearance, too. Hot on its tail, just off the top-ten at #11, was Alan Wake, also somewhere in the range of 16,000 units. And way down the chart at #25 was Strike Witches: Anata to Dekiru Koto – A Little Peaceful Days for the PlayStation 2, which moved between 4,000 and 5,000 units.
Finally, poor Red Steel 2 failed to chart in the top 50 at all, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, given the emphasis on jumping around in first-person and the numerous other factors working against it.