Last week saw the launch of Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the same day as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (October 20). According to GfK statistics, Spider-Man 2 beat Super Mario Bros. Wonder in physical copies sales in the UK. However, a deleted tweet from Nintendo of Europe claimed that Super Mario Bros. Wonder has become the fastest-selling Mario game in Europe.
“Wowie zowie!” was how the now-deleted tweet from Nintendo of Europe account started. “In its first three days on sale, #SuperMarioBrosWonder has become the fastest-selling Super Mario game ever in Europe. A huge thanks to everyone who helped make this a wonderful launch.”
No figures were given to prove the claim which left many in the dark on the actual number of copies of the game sold. At the time of writing this post, the performance of the game in Japan and North America is also not known.
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However, Christopher Dring of GamesIndustry.biz mentioned that the sale of Super Mario Bros. Wonder is “significantly better” than those of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe which has sold over 16 million copies worldwide to date.
In comparison to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the sales number of Super Mario Bros. Wonder is 62% lower. However, unlike most games, Mario games tend to be evergreen and continue to maintain healthy sales numbers, years after its release.
Eurogamer’s Editor-in-Chief Tom Phillips had the opportunity to speak with Super Mario Bros. Wonder director Shiro Mouri at Gamescom and discussed the challenges of making a Mario side-scrolling game that still felt fresh.
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“As we were developing more and more side-scrolling Mario games, the challenge became that these kinds of secrets and surprises were more and more normalized to players,” said Mouri. “So, I thought it’d be important to create a side-scrolling Mario that really fit the day and age that we live in now. You need to try harder to try and surprise these players.”
What it will take for Super Mario Bros. Wonder to be a record breaker in the franchise
Nintendo has now reposted the earlier deleted tweet with the identical message but with an updated image. The company explained that the reason why it had to take down the earlier tweet was that “one of the scores on the original post was incorrect”.
The company also apologized for the error. I crosschecked through the deleted image and the new one and discovered that the error they mentioned must have been the 5-star rating by Gamer.nl that was replaced by a 5-star rating from NWTV.
If Super Mario Bros. Wonder is performing as well as Nintendo of Europe claims, it may well be on its way to surpass the record set by the New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. However, it may still need to do more to outshine 2006’s New Super Mario Bros. released on DS.
The DS game sold over 30.8 million copies making it the best-selling Super Mario game. The original Super Mario Bros. game actually beat all the competitors at 40.2 million copies sold. However, it is technically not counted since most of the copies included in the tally were bundled with the console.
The Mario franchise has been a huge money spinner for Nintendo. In April this year, The Super Mario Bros. Movie launched in cinemas and went ahead to rake in close to $1.4 billion globally at the box office, making it the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time. The success of the movie has made the company consider opening its other IPs for movie adaptations.
Have you played Super Mario Bros. Wonder? How well did you enjoy the game? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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