Big Start for December Wii Titles
New Super Mario Bros. and Samurai Warriors post impressive results. PSP titles not too shabby either.
Wii's year end sales season appears to be off to a great start. First day sales for two of the system's big holiday releases should ease some concern about slow software sales for the system.
As detailed today at the Sinobi retail blog, New Super Mario Bros. Wii managed 422,000 units in its first day Thursday, instantly slaughtering Super Mario Galaxy's first week sales of 256,000.
Only three other games have topped the 500,000 mark in first week sales: Smash Bros. X (816,000), Mario Kart Wii (608,000) and and Monster Hunter 3 (583,000). New Super Mario still has Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to make up the difference between those games.
A loftier goal could be DS's New Super Mario Bros. That title sold 900,000 in its first week and has gone on to sell over 5.5 million units. It's doubtful that the Wii incarnation could ever reach that lifetime total, but a couple of million units could be within reach.
Mario is the season's biggest Wii title, but Nintendo and its third parties have plenty of other likely hits on the way. PokePark Wii is being given a special Saturday release. Tales of Graces hits next week.
Samurai Warriors 3, released opposite Mario yesterday, was widely expected to be a flop, despite the strong brand name. But it seems to have come through, with 81,000 first day sales. The blog reports sellouts for the Classic Controller bundle, which had low shipments.
In non Wii news, PSP had a couple of big hits to start off the month. Phantasy Star Portable 2 saw first day sales of 202,000 units, closely matching the original's 217,000. The original went on to sell 329,000 in its first week and 637,000 lifetime.
Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus sold 170,000 in its first week, just beating 2008's Gundam VS Gundam, which sold 160,000. That title reached 241,000 in its first week and 415,000 lifetime.
Other first day figures:
- Tokimeki Memorial 4 (Konami, PSP): 28,000
- Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft, PS3): 28,000
- Power Pro Kun Pocket 12 (Konami, DS): 23,000
- Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft, X360): 21,000
- Kaiju Busters (Namco Bandai, DS): 10,000
- Yggdra Unison (Atlus, DS): 4,700
- LittleBigPlanet Portable (Sony, PSP): 2,200
We'll have to wait until next week for more official weekly sales numbers from Media Create and Enterbrain.
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