Rumor: Super Mario Galaxy sells 130k first day

by Eric Caoili { Nov 2nd 2007 at 9:45AM }

Despite the weak crowds queuing outside of game shops yesterday in Japan, an estimated 130,000 people opened their wallets for Super Mario Galaxy's first day of sales, according to Japanese blogger and ninja sales reporter Sinobi.

That seems like a lot, right? Well, while that's an excellent figure for most other titles and publishers, many were expecting much higher numbers for this major release. Let's compare that 130,000 with some first-week sales data for past entries to the series and recent games.

New Super Mario Bros. - 900,000
Super Mario Sunshine - 280,000
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core - 486,659
Mario Party 8 - 265,000
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen And The Tower Of Mirrors - 263,000

Of course, Super Mario Galaxy still has a lot of months ahead to pick up sales, as the moustachioed plumber has proven many times in the past that his releases have legs. Also, it's not as if the numbers are any indication of the game's quality. Still, it's a bit distressing to think of such a high-profile release from Nintendo generating so-so sales.

Tags: japan, sales, smg, super-mario-galaxy, supermariogalaxy

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

troy @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:08AM

Weren't there almost a million preorders in Japan though? You can't publicize the preorder super heavily to all the 'core' players and give them a special coin for buying early, not count their sales data in with the first week of sales, and then consider the first day of sales on the same scale as the first week of many other entries, and draw a reasonable conclusion from that.

AzaMcWazza @ Nov 2nd 2007 11:26AM

I wonder what the advertising was - probably a photocopies a5 sheet of paper on the back of a bus stop. Maybe Nintendo need to start pushing their core franchises, or maybe they just need to make some newer IP's.

Anyone have any insight as to why the launch was so lacklustre? Is this normal in Japan for a Mario 3d platformer?

Dash @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:23AM

It actually looks impressive. It seens to be able to beat the others except Mario DS. If it keep this number, it could beat the half-million units by the end of the week.

And its a preety impressive thing to beat Final Fantasy in Japan. Now I want see how it fares on the US (even though I live in Brazil). I already have mine preordered (with the coin and all)

troy @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:26AM

Exactly Dash, I have mine preordered too. I think most hardcore fans do at this point and its why I think that that sales data is not accurate. So preorder numbers just disappear into the void? I'm sure halo 3 preorders made up part of their 3.3 million sales for the month of september or what have you.

Nii @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:27AM

Wait why are you guys comparing first *day* SMG sales against first *week* sales for other games?

vidGuy @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:58AM

That's actually VERY impressive for SMG. Remember that this game didn't have ridiculous tie-ins for months like Halo. Most likely it will sell better than Sunshine did in its first week.

I think that US sales will be skewed downward, though, because of the proximity to the holiday shopping season. I am going to love me some SMG, but I think I'm going to have to ask for it from my girlfriend for Christmas because I cannot afford to buy it for myself this time of the year. So my copy won't be bought until December.

Don Day @ Nov 2nd 2007 11:10AM

Man, I played the demo yesterday at Gamestop. Once a few people play this thing, the word of mouth alone about the game play will move units. I literally had to close my mouth because it was hanging open after my first minute or so. I can not wait to get my hands of the game.

J @ Nov 2nd 2007 11:20AM

Its going to be okay. Sales for Mario will be fine. As everyone knows, there are just so many games to buy nowadays and the main characteristic tying together all of all "Next-Gen" games is the price. Gamers only make so much money, or can only convince their parents to spend so much on games. Mario will sell incredibly well throughout its lifetime and I am definitely buying it, but probably not on the first day that it releases here.

I also think that it is kind of a psychological thing too in that some games like Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, or Call of Duty 4 etc. are, in a way, games that seem like they will need to be obtained right away to get the maximum enjoyment from them because after a couple/few months, they just won't feel that fresh anymore. Whereas Mario Galaxy appears to be a timeless classic and can be counted on to be a great experience at any time, escpecially once these others have lost their shine. Right or wrong that's the way I see it.

samfish @ Nov 2nd 2007 11:30AM

Seems to me that it's at least on track to more or less match Sunshine.

I really don't understand why people are kinda freaking out over this. The whole narrative has this undercurrent of, "People only buy the Wii for Wii sports!"

Zertoss @ Nov 2nd 2007 11:55AM

In contrast, when Halo 3 topped Japan's sales charts, it was at 53,000 or something like that. Less than half of SMG. I'm not taking a stab at Halo 3, I'm just saying that 130,000 in Japan on day 1 is pretty impressive.

On top of that, there might still be a ton of people there waiting to get a Wii. I wouldn't write this off as a failed launch.

Kenology @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:21PM

Like Nii said, we can't compare DAY one sales to WEEK one sales. Also, this is just a rumor. A lot of people are trying to play the "Wii=fad" game, so who knows how reliable this is. I'll wait for Media Crate numbers, thanks.

troy @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:00PM

Yeah the numbers here come from some lone blogger seeking attention. Looks like he got it. Who knows where he got the numbers, though...

jan_halmes @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:07PM

I predict Galaxy to sell at least one million sold world wide by X-Mas. It's over 1/10 of the way there already, after the first day of release, and in only one country at that.

One million sold in less that 2 months is still considered a success, right?

troy @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:25PM

Dude, there were over a million pre-orders for this between japan and us gamestop preorders alone... it is going to be a race to two million or more by november 31st.

ElRhodeo @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:27PM

One million WW by X-Mas? Psshhh... It will be one million WW the day it releases in the US. A few days later it's released in Europe. By X-Mas it will be > 2 million WW for sure.

B1gC72 @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:44PM

i just played it for like a half hour at Gamestop and damn was i impressed. it lived up to all my expectations. only complaint i had was that the camera made me a little dizzy at first but im sure ill get used to it. if this doesn't sell like hotcakes then nothing will.

plus those are FIRST DAY figure for Galaxy vs. FIRST WEEK figures for the other games. Galaxy will do absolutely fine.