Metroid: Samus Returns Makes Modest Chart Debut in Japan, as Switch Still Dominates

Selling less than Other M can't be good news, especially since Other M became bargain bin fodder very quickly (a rarity for a Nintendo title).

Still love it how Mariokart 8 is still up there even though, as some would say, its just a port

Well other m seems like it was made to appeal to the japanese audience, so its not surprising its not selling as well. Now we just need to wait and see how well it does in america.

Posted this in the forums earlier. Very disappointing, Metroid: Samus Returns deserves better. But then Japan has never really loved the Metroid franchise. Their loss. Also pointed out that Champion Jockey Special's sales are abysmal.

Nintendo, you know what you have to do. Port it to Switch and Wii U. The Wii U has 2 screens, the Switch doesn't.

@Bunkerneath : Mario Kart 7 still commands AU$59 here. And that's with a $10 discount! Mario Kart 8 Deluxe costs only $10 more.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Agreed. It really baffles me how the Japanese public can't see how good a game it is...

The Wii U outsells the Xbox One in Japan. That's hilarious!

Should have be a duel release on switch!!!

I think Nintendo may still want this game on the Switch, just to give it a second chance with all those whom are moving over to the new system.

We also have to remember that Other M had much more of a buildup to launch than Samus Returns did, and will marketed as a hardcore title in the franchise. Other M benefitted from having over a year of hype as opposed to Samus that is coming off of two disappointing titles and only three-four months of hype.

I don't think the numbers are that dire considering Metroid isn't as big in Japan as it is in North America. Sure, it could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse after what Federation Force tried to do to the series.

30000 in Japan is still pretty solid.

@NewAdvent Don't worry yet, metroid has never sold well in japan and europe, so we should wait and see the how well it sold in america before making any conclusions.

It'd sell more in Japan if it had more fan service, like a petting mini-game. Those guys sometimes. Makes me think they're culturally dead.

It's strange that the Metroid games don't sell way more than they do. I get the feeling it's Nintendo who kinda fails to push them anywhere near as much as it does some of its other biggest franchises like Super Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda and Pokemon. In fact, the fact this latest game in the franchise was even developed by an external developer is a little bit of a testament that maybe Samus doesn't quite get the love she deserves from Nintendo sometimes. I think she deserves a bit more love. Captain Falcon too--F-Zero.

Switch games sell. Because people just love buying games for Switch.

So release it for Switch and it'll sell.

I wonder how many people have just pirated the game at this point.

@CoolPenguin1
I'm curious how Samus Returns did in the rest of Europe. The UK does not equal Europe and so far I've only seen UK numbers. Hope it does well in the U.S. too. I bought it day one with no regrets. Great game that deserves a big audience.

Not too bad considering Japan not really having much love for Metroid.

Whilst I would definitely buy a rerelease on the Switch, the need to change up the UI for the single screen and spruce up the graphics means I doubt they would push time and resources. Personally, I'd rather see a "Super Metroid HD" (new name pending) released on the Switch so the original trilogy has all gone through the remake process. Would also help if there's a delay to Metroid Prime 4.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE There's more business sense in releasing a Switch Fit Board than developing the game for the Wii U.

I think it'll do ok in NA.

Sold less than half of Pro Evo numbers?! Japan you should feel ashamed!

Metroid is one of my favorite nintendo franchises and i want it to be around for years to come, i plan on buying prime 4 day one, but prefer my metroid 2d. I picked up samus returns, and I love it. If nintendo would release samus returns for switch I would double dip.

Federation Force was a massive flop, though. It's a game almost nobody wanted. Outselling that doesn't seem like much of a victory.

So far it doesn't seem like the game has been selling very well in either the UK or Japan. Hopefully NA picks up the slack.

The reality is, the 3ds won't sell well again.
Fire Emblem Echoes sold well, but way bellow awakening and Fates, Metroid and tons of other titles.
3DS is in the sunset, so the games won't get the spotlight, even deserving ones.

Next week it's time for FE Warriors, I hope that outperform the regular Warriors sales.
Also, great to see the Switch at 40k ++ week basis.

I honestly expected as much. Japan has never really been crazy about Metroid.

Metroid has skin tight body suits, blonde anime girl, and tentacles galore and somehow isn't popular with the Japanese fanbase..

@Arminillo I know it doesn't make sense to me either.

Why do we care about Japanese sales so much? Don't NA and Europe dwarf them in terms of market share? Japan is a tiny sliver.

Is it just because they release hard numbers?

Don't get me wrong, it's fun to look at and discuss, but Metroid succeeding in the west is far more important than it succeeding in Japan.

Totally digging Samus Returns btw. It"s amazing.

@sillygostly

Metriod has had mediocre sales in Japan for pretty much every post super game.

Famitsu (First Week - LTD - Publisher - Release Date)

FC Metroid [Famicom Disk System] 1.040.000 Nintendo 8/6/1986
NDS Metroid Prime: Pinball 15.541 Nintendo 1/19/2006
WII New Play Control! Metroid Prime 2: Echoes 1.700 12.427 Nintendo 6/11/2009
3DS Metroid Prime: Federation Force 4.286 6.090 Nintendo 8/25/2016
WII New Play Control! Metroid Prime 5.200 20.607 Nintendo 2/19/2009
GBA Famicom Mini 23: Metroid 14.900 50.353 Nintendo 8/10/2004
NGC Metroid Prime 2: Echoes 17.680 40.355 Nintendo 5/26/2005
NDS Metroid Prime: Hunters 32.613 90.028 Nintendo 6/1/2006
WII Metroid Prime 3: Corruption 34.151 74.647 Nintendo 3/6/2008
GBA Metroid: Zero Mission 39.112 85.045 Nintendo 5/27/2004
NGC Metroid Prime 39.829 78.384 Nintendo 2/28/2003
WII Metroid: Other M 44.103 75.578 Nintendo 9/2/2010
GBA Metroid Fusion 49.680 155.528 Nintendo 2/14/2003

I think some are making way too much over this. Japan doesn't support Metroid games. It just isn't their thing.

Look at Splatoon 2 up against Breath of the Wild. It has sold almost twice as much. I don't think that translates across all regions.

Grant it, this is quite a bit less than the numbers of those two particular titles. However, we are obviously in the final stages of the 3DS lifecycle. It's not the newest shiniest thing.

I think there has already been reports that Samus Returns has done pretty good in other regions.

It only proves that the 3DS is dead. Cant wait for Nintendo to move all their focus to Switch.

Japan doesn't like Metroid to begin with, and this one isn't even made by japanese.

It was doomed to begin with, in Japan that is. Hopefully it does better in the west because it is a damn good effort from a company I used to deem as garbage.

@Oscarzxn Yeah, it is. It's the number of sales you'd expect for a relatively niche, yet well liked franchise in Japan. Which is what Metroid is over there.

@AlternateButtons Last time I checked, Wii U had sold over 13 million units. The Switch is somewhere around 6 million.

@AlternateButtons You'd better let these guys know that.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/09/battle_princess_madelyn_gets_an_awesome_teaser_trailer

I know Metroid has never sold well in Japan (I think besides from Super Metroid) and I shouldn't be too shocked by the painfully average sale number but I can't help but feel a bit sad over it. I've only just recently got into the Metroid series (I've only played Fusion, ZM and Samus Returns) but I've loved all the games I've played so far (Samus Returns is currently my GOTY until Odyssey obviously snatches it away) and I really want to see this franchise continue, not only for the long-time fans but also to expand upon the lore and explain any unsolved mysteries (like the creepy final chozo memory image). I know it's too soon to be crying 'oh no 2d metroid is dead, welp goodbye metroid', but I really hope this wasn't our last chance to safely secure the future of metroid and Japan mucked it up.

Metroid Samus Returns could be suffering from the Federation Force Disappointment syndrome.

@sillygostly metroid hasn't sold well I Japan in quite some time. I can promise you it will outsell the other m launch everywhere else.

For what it's worth, Samus Returns is awesome.

It’s a shame, “Metroid: Samus returns” is an awesome game, but since the 3DS is on its way out (At least it’s going out with a bang ), so that can explain the low sales, let’s just hope that this doesn’t negatively affect the future of the Metroid series...

@SLIGEACH_EIRE the game doesn't need 2 screens

Let's see what Nintendo does with Prime 4. Prime should always be in the limelight because it's not like Nintendo consoles get many shooters, the new Doom and Wolfenstein being the exception.

The last one was Metroid Prime 3 (2007). I wonder if Prime 4 was in development for Wii U at some point, but it's about time Nintendo stops ignoring this and the racing genre. It's not only Mario what gamers want to play.

The other thing that upsets me that unlike Federation Force, which had every right to crash and burn, Samus Returns definetly deserves to sell more than only 30,000 units. Again, I know the numbers are nothing terrible or even 'doom and gloom' worthy but I can't help but feel even more skeptical about the future of metroid (or to be more precise the future of 2D metroid). But on a more optimistic note at least there's always Prime 4 to fall back on which I think will sell MUCH more units just for the sheer fact it's on the switch.

@Arminillo Maybe because Samus isn't underage like those inkling girls. 🤣

@SweetOnion 3DS dead? Last week Metroid Samus Returns sold more than any Switch game in UK and Dragon Quest XI have sold 1,720,431 in Japan only. And wait for Pokémon. 3DS is far from dead, it's as alive as Switch.

@SweetOnion not all. I was expecting metroid to sell less.

Look at metroid sales on past Nintendo machines. Its not a seller in Japan and wouldn't have done great on switch either.

Did Japan get the Splatoon Switch bundle we got last week as well? That may be why Spla2n is near the top of the chart again.

This should have been a Switch release with a 3DS port. Nintendo misses so many opportunities when it comes to choosing a platform. There's still no sign of an Animal Crossing...

Considering Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2(Switch) was said to sell out last week, I'm not sure what to say about this current amount for this week being only 3,000 something compared to 24,000-ish. Personally I plan on picking up the game on Friday since I've been waiting to get the game since announcement. XV2 has been on sale multiple times on PS4 and Xbox one this year, so I'm not sure how American sales will go.

@Tarolusa In that case, I really recommend you the Metroid Prime trilogy. If you enjoy the Chozo lore, there are lots of interesting texts in them. Metroid Prime (1) in particular explains a lot of the basic stuff. It was my first Metroid game and I got everything, like it was designed for people playing Metroid for the first time.

Metroid is fiiiine. It has never been that popular in Japan and 3DS is not that hot anymore.

@pandarino Yep, only Pokémon, Dragon Quest (and Splatoon?) are hot in Japan.

@crifer so I guess you just decided to skip metroid sales on Nintendo machines in Japan then hey.

When does NA sales data come out again? If it sells poorly there then Metroid is definitely screwed.

Hopefully North American sales will paint a much prettier picture otherwise it's definitely goodbye 2D Metroid. I still think it was a bad idea not to have a Switch version ready to go day and date with 3DS. Could've advertised both heavily and I think it would've been a pretty decent success, even in Japan.

When Destiny launched on on PS4 in Japan with 50K sales the stance was that it had disappointing sales. So Metroid launching on the 3DS with 30K sales is definitely not "modest", it's pathetic. Yeah, historically the series hasn't been that strong in Japan, but it doesn't change that the sales are horribly low. Hopefully it goes on to sell quite a bit more, or more realistically, performs much better in the West to prove that there is an audience for Metroid. It's just not in Japan.

@LUIGITORNADO

Lol, you just invented a hypothetical and reacted to your own invention.

@Gamer83 er you do realise there people called destiny 2 sales disappointing because it sold half of the first game.

Nobody expected metroid do much in Japan. People predicted it would do less. Evidence shows the series struggles in Japan.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE ''Posted this in the forums earlier.''

Why do you always mention this?

@Bolt_Strike They're working on Prime 4, so who cares? Metroid was never huge on handheld anyway, especially a dying handheld now the Switch is a thing. It's filler, like that Pikmin game, or the Kirby stuff that comes out later this year.

You can combined all the numbers of PlayStation branded systems on that chart and their numbers still won't overtake the Switch.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Those 13 million Wii U buyers aren't all active on the system anymore, where the 6 million Switch owners for the most part will be since it's still new to them. The gap is closing fast.

Trust me I'd love for us to get more Wii U support but it's just not gonna happen when you consider the Switch will be past it in a matter of 6 months or so. Hopefully you get your Switch by October for Super Mario Odyssey! That's what I'm waiting for myself.

I can't understand why metroid never sells well. It's such a great franchise Samus returns is easily one of the best games this year and Im saying this as a person who hasn't even completed every game in the series. I was an 80s baby and grew up with the nes original. Chose the Genesis over the snes although I played my brothers snes and loved super metroid although I never finished it. Finished zero mission on the u, and completed prime and prime 3 on the Wii. The series is easily one of Nintendos best franchises but it seems Nintendo and only buy Mario and pokemon. Heck, Zelda hasn't historically sold well until the Wii. My dream is for Nintendo to give us a full blown modern reimagining of kid Icarus and with such a vast library of characters they could easily deliver franchises that span every genre. There could easily be franchises based on every character on the smash roster. Low sale numbers for metroid and other properties is probably why they will never pull the trigger on releasing games with less popular characters. I, fully absorbed in Samus returns at the moment and it definitely deserves a goty nomination even though it's on the 3ds.

Wow, roughly 7,000 more Switches sold than copies of Spla2n. That's the first week in ages that the hardware and software sales haven't been in approximate alignment! I'm guessing those 7,000 new Switch owners actually bought their copies of Spla2n last week...

How long does it usually take until we will have the results for NA? Really curious how well it sold. I preordered it and also got the Samus Edition New 3DS XL

Metroid Fail in japan.

It came in at #8 in the UK. NintendoLife usually acts as if that list doesn't exist if no Nintendo game on the top 10 - also, Splatoon 2 already at #27

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
It will NEVER Happened.
Wii U is already died.
Leave it to Switch !

@Anti-Matter Here's your English lesson for today. What you mean to say is:

"Wii U is already dead."

I'm a stickler for correct grammar and I wouldn't normally point it out but you've said that incorrect phrase numerous times. I'm not trying to be rude, so please don't take any offence.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Wii U is already DEAD !
Can you UNDERSTAND if the system is NOT Selling well anymore ?!
Better Leave it to Switch for BETTER Sales !
STOP Worshipping your Wii U Too Much !!
I Have Wii U also, but I DON'T Worship my Wii U like a God to be worshipped !
I'm looking for Nintendo Switch for BETTER Experience than Wii U !

@Octane In case anyone accuses me of repeating myself. People love to have a pop at me. The same way I justify my post sometimes by saying "in my opinion".

@kobashi100 #8 in the UK.and not in the top 10 at amazon in the states. It is a disappointment so far... People trying to make excuses.

Also, Destiny 2 already his 1.3 million concurrent players - that is for sure doing fine.

Got the legacy edition version of Samus Returns, got the Amiibos, got the Samus special edition 3DS, and the keychain that you get for preordering the game at GameStop. I went all out.

I think Nintendo knew how to draw more money out of this Metroid fan. Those numbers are only one-sided.

If you haven't bought this game yet, do that, it's really #good.

The game is awesome, can't praise it enough!

@Agramonte hey I am losing the argument on Japanese sales so I know what I will do. I will mention UK and NA sales to try turn it around.

The argument is about the Japanese market. I get it, you are destiny fan and it hurts to see sales not so great in Japan. You don't need to tell us how well it is doing outside of Japan

@impurekind @Linked2thaPast
I've never found it that surprising. It has a small hardcore fanbase, but the games are very inaccessible for most other players (atypical for a Nintendo franchise).

@Arminillo Samus is TOO bad*** for Japan, unfortunately. They also don't really like the Tellius Fire Emblem games because Ike is too good of a unit. The idea of one-man/woman army just isn't very appealing to them; even various shonen like Dragon Ball, despite having protagonists far above the rest of their casts feature them helping in some way. Maybe Nintendo should release a game with Samus undergoing a training montage with the Chozo.

Hopefully word of mouth gets around and the game finds a much larger audience which it deserves , it is such a spectacular title .

People always talk about Metroid not being big in Japan, as if it's big anywhere. While to be fair, I haven't heard this in a while, I do remember often hearing people talk of Nintendo having a "big 3" franchises, with Metroid being one of them... If Nintendo had a "big 10", Metroid wouldn't make the cut.

First week sales/LTD sales of previous Metroid games:
Metroid [FC]: ??? / 1.040.000
Metroid II: Return of Samus [GB]: ??? / 102.550
Super Metroid [SFC]: ??? / 508.698
Metroid Fusion [GBA]: 49.680 / 155.528
Metroid Prime [GCN]: 39.829 / 78.384
Metroid: Zero Mission [GBA]: 39.112 / 85.045
Famicom Mini 23: Metroid [GBA]: 14.900 / 50.353
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes [GCN]: 17.680 / 40.355
Metroid Prime: Hunters [NDS]: 32.613 / 90.028
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption [WII]: 34.151 / 74.647
Metroid: Other M [WII]: 44.103 / 75.578
Metroid Prime: Federation Force [3DS] : 4.286 / 6.090
Metroid: Samus Returns [3DS]: 30,855

Metroid hasn't been a big franchise in over 2 decades. I was surprised myself to find that Metroid and Super Metroid sold that much (1 million and 500,000+ respectively).

BTW even with Metroid being niche in Japan, Federation Force was an unmitigated disaster.

This is the main reason why we don't get Metroids anymore. Japan doesn't really care about them. Not only that, it just isn't a big franchise where it is popular. If you want more Metroids, I hope you bought the new one.

Bring it to the Switch!

@meleebrawler That may be because of Japan's whole "community over the individual" mindset they have. I believe that's part of the reason why popular shonen, even if the main character themself is OP, often have friendship and comradery as a theme, since it plays into that very mindset.

@electrolite77 well, I stand corrected... Still hope for NL. Now they just need to do it consistently

@BetaBugs64 Yeah pretty much. Just looking at JRPGs vs. Western RPGs says it all: the former has you control a party of defined individuals, the latter is usually a player-customized avatar that is the center of everything.

@MoonKnight7
If Nintendo based their commitment to Metroid on its sales in Japan, the franchise would have been canned after Metroid Prime on the Gamecube failed to reach 100,000 copies sold in Japan (while selling 2.7 million in the west and thus becoming the biggest game in the franchise).

@Agramonte no, you open the door when you implied it was expected not to do well in Japan as an excuse - when there is already evidence that it Is not doing wll outside of Japan. So fair gain. Last I check, this is not a Japanese market only news site... So yes, all the data counts. Crazy to want the bigger picture.

Hell yeah, Im a Destiny fan, and a Zelda fan, and Xenoblade, NinoKuni, mario, sonic, uncharted, battle front. I even own the 1 game on this list - So no need to make excuses on any game. Always games Im a fan on in the top 10.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE "People love to have a pop at me."

I think it is because you have come to be kind of a celebrity on here. I personally enjoying reading the article and then scanning the comments to see what you posted about it and then skipping down to all the comments replying to yours and your counter replies. It can be very entertaining reading sometimes. Keep it up!

It'll be more interesting to see the US sales. We do have to keep in mind that Japan is very much portable oriented and they seem to be picking up the Switch at such a large pace that demand for a game at the end of the 3DS life cycle is probably much less then it should be.

I bought it for my 3DS, but I haven't played it yet.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE There is no way it's coming to Wii U (the first party support for that console is over), although I suspect we may be in for a Metroid Prime 4 Direct in 2018, which could include a 'surprise' release for Samus Returns to tide us over.

3rd place during a lull isn't too bad.

Do these count digital sales? It could likely be selling much more on the eShop.

Face it guys, the 3DS is beginning to fade. I know many of you don't want to accept that, but it is.

On the other hand, I continue to giggle everytime I see PS3 and Wii U still selling better than Xbone in Japan.

Question about the console sales, what are the 2 different numbers for each one?

@MegaVel91 Different culture, different ways of seeing things. As simple as that.
Japanese are more attracted to other genres and the Metroid series was made from the start to appeal more to the West than Japan. It nevertheless still has a loyal fan base here (it wouldn't have sold as much otherwise)

Metroid has never been popular in Japan because the first letter of the title is 'M', and if you turn an 'M' on its side, it looks a bit like a '3', and 3 is only one numerical place below 4, and 4 is pronounced 'Shi' in Japanese, which is a homophone for the Japanese word for 'death', and so buying a Metroid game is akin to cursing yourself and all your family to a swift demise and an afterlife of eternal suffering.

...Sorry, I thought we were coming up with weird-ass theories for a game's middling sales based on sketchy cultural assumptions.

@Maxz Mario sells well on Japan though.

Metroid has always been my favorite game franchise. Even I had to 'force' myself to buy this because I just really didn't want to ever use my 3DS again. The game is great tho, just woulda preferred it on Switch

3rd place is far from being modest considering it's probably the swan song for the 3DS (before Pokémon, of course). It's almost a miracle.

@Maxz Not true. Metroid games used to be popular in Japan.

@NinNin Almost nothing I wrote in that post was true.

@Oscarzxn That's because the 'i' and the 'o' in 'Mario' are in the opposite order to the ones in 'Metroid', which reverses the polarity of the franchise's karmatic residue and brings the player bountiful luck and longevity. And possibly also wealth and fertility.

@Maxz Don't forget that Mario battles turtles and as everyone knows, turtles are the natural enemies of japanese people.

@roy130390
Eh, really ?
I think Crane and Turtle are symbol of Longevity in Japan.

@Anti-Matter Nope dude, that's what they make you want to believe, but that's because there's a sector of the japanese goverment already controlled by turtles disguised as humans.

Lol, of course not mate, it's only a joke

@FitnessGamer "The Wii U outsells the Xbox One in Japan. That's hilarious!"

Wii U was released in December of 2012. XB One in 2013.
Even if its not supported anymore it's not that surprising that outsells XB One in Japan.

I honestly have no idea how to interpret this. I just hope there's more 2D Metroid. The game's really good so far

This game is a 2D Metroid masterpiece.

Jeez. I bought Metroid: Samus Returns and the new Metroid Amiibos on launch day (though I bought the download version so that probably doesn't count in the rankings), and saw some other guy buy a copy... but apparently we were among the very few. That's too bad... I've only played the game for a few hours total, but it's easily taken the spot as my favorite 2D Metroid game.

All variations of 3ds sells little less (21.500) than PS4+Pro (little less than 25k). Thats pretty good for a console that its near the end of its cycle and already got a successful successor

Wow someone is still buying wii u

@MegaVel91 Super Metroid apparently sold a bit more in Japan than it did in the US so I don't think it is impossible to resurrect the franchise here. But Japanese tastes in entertainment have also changed in the past 20 years and the country has lost the fervor it had up until the mid 90s.