Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Shifts 3 Million Copies In The US In Just 11 Days

They certainly have stricken a good stride. Hopefully the high tide will last until the summer. Right now e-shop is overflowing with many interesting titles as an addition to first party heavy hitters.

Nice to see Nintendo getting a lot of success. Here’s hoping they keep it coming!

Smash Bros Ultimate sales are staggering. 3 million copies sold in 11 days in the US alone is unheard of.

2007's Halo 3 holds the record as the fastest-selling exclusive game in US history, with 3.3 million copies sold in its first month.
Smash Bros Ultimate will exceed 4 million copies sold in its first month , thereby comfortably "smashing" that record.

3 Millions in 11 days ?!
Oh, wow !
Congratulations, Nintendo !

And they said Smash wasn't a seller.........it's all quiet on the western front.
Adding the Japanese numbers to the US, this is over 4.2 million copies in less than two weeks.

Rightfully so! Smash Ultimate is a blast.

For some more context, Smash Bros Ultimate sold more in its first 11 days than Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 DX, and Zelda Breath of the Wild in their first 11 days combined.

Insane numbers. And this is without downloads?

@TheBigN93 Seems to be physical only from what I can tell.

@Hyrule That makes it even more insane.

@NewAdvent Oh good to know then

@westman98 that comparison is not really fair as the install base was way smaller (extremely small for Zelda and mk8)

I don't think comparing it to Zelda and Mario Kart's first 11 days is about fairness. The point of that comparison isn't to say 'Smash is bigger than Zelda'... it's about saying 'Smash is selling really well, and here's some benchmarks to prove it'.

Anyway, UK was on around 200,000, Japan 1.2 million - I suspect that's jumped to over 1.5 million at least by now. With the rest of Europe not included, we are surely looking at around 6 million sales by now?

Launch sales of Smash Bros games in the US:
> Super Smash Bros Brawl: ~2.7 million in first 5 weeks
> Super Smash Bros 3DS: ~1.2 million in first 5 weeks
> Super Smash Bros Wii U: ~1.3 million in first 7 weeks
> Super Smash Bros Ultimate: ~3 million in first 11 days

Smash Bros Ultimate should be at ~5 million copies sold in North America and Japan by now. Add in sales from Europe and the rest of the world, and the global world-wide sell-through should be ~7 million by now.

If this would be a Capcom title, they still would be saying that it "sold below expectations"

@Lemmy_the_Koopa Lol and flood the game with adverts and loot boxes probably.

Well, of course it sells more games in its first 11 days then earlier titles like BOTW. I mean only few people owned the switch 11 days after release compared to units sold to this day.

@Lemmy_the_Koopa So true. If Capcom was steering the boat Ken would already be wearing a Pepsi jersey and any naysayers would be called “entitled”. Nintendo almost seems like the Dalai Lama giving stuff away for free in the AAA space these days.

If Zelda has a 50% attach rate in the USA then that means in under 2wks smash ultimate almost has a 50% attach rate in the USA. That is insane!

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/12/half_of_all_switch_owners_in_the_us_have_bought_zelda_mario_and_mario_kart

Where are all the negative nellies?,obviously not here as they can't spin this in any way to make it look bad.

Awesome game well deserved sales.

@NotTelevision I'm honest here, I bought the Season Pass of Smash, because this is for me a "More of a good thing" than "Needed to flesh out the roster". Yes, it's still an attempt to cash in a bit more, Nintendo is no saint, but with over 70 fighters already in the main game, I have no gripe...

Anyone got PS4 stats for the same period?

My last console was a GCN, I had a long break! The Switch lured me back and I’m loving Nintendo’s resurgance. Long may it last! Can’t wait for global Switch figures next March! Was the target 20 million? Maybe 25-30 by then! Fingers crossed!!!

@Simonmoskovits The target was 30 million, which is probably not going to happen.

@PolarExperience After March 2019 they want to have sold 40 million switch consoles in total.

@PolarExperience maybe the 20 odd million owners currently are just buying every major release! I kno I have!

@TheBigN93 @TheBigN93 and then they’ll be a Switch XL and we’ll all have to upgrade! I’d love an edge to edge 1080p screen with the same overall dimensions. Maybe they’ll do a ‘generous’ trade in like Sony LOL

@Lemmy_the_Koopa Word. Feel the same way especially considering how much time it takes to add characters, unique move sets, stages, music, and then work on the balancing issues inherent in fighting games.

Good for Nintendo. I’m one of the many who got a copy of the game. Which I’m sure a lot of people on this site have as well.

Good God... That's a lot in so little time. This was the last piece of the puzzle into just how well Smash is doing. The answer is, insanely well.

I've never played a Smash game, except a brief few hours with the 3d version before I traded it: it was just like little coloured dots flying across the screen.

But something weird happened, I got sucked in by the hype and put it on my Christmas list. 😲

Dang, I really want to pull my Christmas present out of the closet and start playing it. It's no fair that I contributed to these sales figures but haven't been able to sit down and actually but some decent time into it.

Then on Christmas the kids will hog it, having fun without really appreciating the gaming history and intricate controls within the game. Oh well, maybe I will spawn infinite Waluigis for them.

Amazing that Smash Ultimate has already sold over 4.2 million worldwide (combining this number with last week number from the Japan charts). It truly is ULTIMATE!

I am not surprised.

@Medic_alert Agree!!!!!!

I was just discussing the upcoming year outlook on the Switch. The two you listed, plus Marvel, Yo Kai, Yoshi, Doom, and maybe Pokémon and Metroid. That would be an incredible year....and that would be following 2018, which I thought was terrific.

Figured SSB Ultimate would sell extremely well but nice to get confirmation none the less. Easily my favorite game of the year, I've been hooked since I got it. Takes me back to 2001 when I couldn't put Melee down. This one is even better.

This level of sales is surreal and completely unexpected. Not sure how they managed the pull it off! The game deserves it, it's surpassed all my expectations, but I still never saw this level of response coming.

I figure past experiences with SSB iterations would be a Smash(pun) seller. I bought SSB Ult and SSB standard for my sister's kids for xmas. I also bought the Season Pass and gave her instructions for the Piranha plant. I haven't played mine yet only because I have too much backlog to get back to. I also bought a extra SSB Pro controller so now I got a total of 8 controllers for SSB Ult.

@Simonmoskovits I wouldn't mind having the screen be bigger myself, but I kind of want an oled screen on it more, the color vibrancy can really help some games out (like xenobalde or Bayonetta) and it could help with viewing things on Hulu, YouTube and that comic app (and Netflix whenever they pick up the ball they dropped).

@dkxcalibur Also NSMBU, which is lame for Wii-U owners but for everyone else will feel like a new 2D Mario. I don't think we'll see Metroid until 2020, but Pokemon is definitely coming in 2019. Also coming down the pipeline at some point: Animal Crossing, Bayonetta 3, Luigi's Mansion 3, Town, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Some of those will probably release in 2019. It's looking like a big year.

Edit: Ah, I see Luigi's Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing were already mentioned.

@johnvboy You want a nevative spin? No problem: all this means is that every other Switch game has underperformed. We shouldn’t praise Smash for performing adequately. We should wonder why none of the other games did

On a serious note, I’m not too surprised by these numbers. I live in the US, and Smash has always been pretty big here. Couple that with a great marketing campaign and just how good the game is itself, and you have a major hit. Of course, it still feels good to see the official numbers for confirmation

Where is the source? I dont see anything quoted or a linked article to the 3 million.

Regardless that is crazy.

Happy days are here again!

Still don't have Smash myself. I think someone in my family bought me a copy for Christmas, so holding out until then. Just glad to be past the dark days of the Wii U.

@Trajan There are numerous articles about it almost everywhere.

Expect that Animal Crossing will break records as well next year. Pokémon too if they make 2019. It'll be interesting to see how NSMB and Fire Emblem do.

Awesome sales for an awesome game. I've been hooked to the spirit board ever since I got the game.

@jbreez00 do you want to pay a grand for that OLED Switch? The screen on the Switch is 7 inches, the screen on Note 9 is 6.5 and it's a $1000 phone.
Nintendo can get cheap 7 inch screens because there are a ton of 7 inch devices made (mostly garbage Android tablets) the machinery to make them already exists, Nintendo just needs to put an order in to one of the many companies that can make one, and bam. You're looking at at least another 5 years before OLED screen costs are down to the point where you can put a 7 inch one in a $300 dollar console and still afford to put internals in the console.

People who are asking for an OLED screen simply don't understand economics of scale and where consumer tech is. It would also be great if Nintendo was able to drop the X1 and move over to whatever A series chip Apple is going to use in their next iPad Pros, but that isn't going to happen either.

Good to see it is smashing sales records, while I am on the fence as to whether it really is the Ultimate Smash it undoubtedly deserves all the success.

This is why those who have access to a AAA game that had the largest Entertainment lanch in HISTORY do not care about what random $10 eshop game came out on Switch

Big games are what matter most in the US. When Nintendo finally gets one, people will buy it.

Also, funny how Nintendo didn't just say, "exceeded expectation" but gave actual numbers 😏

@DavidMac Considering a hypothetical switch xl would already cost more than a 300 dollar version, and you're comparing a dedicated gaming device to a phone, I don't think it's that much of a stretch to still be cheaper than a note. It'll be more expensive than it is now sure, but definitely not 1k considering Samsung has 10 inch tablets fitted with amoled and they're cheaper than the iPad pros.

I get what you're saying though, I just like oled screens, so the cost of manufacturing can't drop fast enough for me.

@jbreez00 cheapest I could find was a 700 dollar tablet. Add in the cost of joycons.

Not to mention they’re not going to do a 720p OLED. So you are gonna have to include a newer Nvidea chip (not sure if they even have a legit successor to the X1 that would meet Nintendo’s needs) and probably a beefier battery. Also pretty sure Nintendo demands higher margins on their consoles than Samsung does in their tablets. (Though they might finally be done trying to make Apples iPad numbers look bad by channel stuffing.)

Either way, people might pay 100 extra for a Switch Pro, but it won’t be coming out any time soon if they’re going to do things like enable 1080 in hand held mode and 4K on old games when docked.

They’d be better to just go with a higher quality LCD in the Switch especially if they don’t want it to wash out in the sun.

Nintendoomed. Because potato.

@DavidMac I think there is very little chance they would try to release a 4K Switch. But a revised version with a better battery, portable screen, and better specs in general, quite likely.

4K would be just too much of a jump I think. We might see that on Switch's successor, but not on a revised Switch Pro.

A resolution bump for older games actually makes a lot more sense. GPU power is increasing much faster than CPU power. They could ‘easily’ keep the same textures and upscale the polygons to render at higher resolutions. The iPad Pro already has the same sort of GPU performance as the One S. Depending on where Nvidea has their mobile GPUs by the time they want to do a hardware refresh, they’ll release “the new” Switch. Saying it can render 2K won’t be nearly as impressive so they’ll probably hold off until they can render some games in 4K. It’ll also mean that old games show in 4K but newer cross platform titles might only do 1080, which is fine.

Either way the Switch is probably going to be Nintendo’s console for all of the PS5’s lifecycle. They’ll release new games that run on the original hardware but look better on the newest devices. The same way that things work on PC and mobile devices.

You won’t buy a new switch because you have to for newer game’s. You’ll buy it to replace the one you already own when the battery starts to go or when you want the picture to look nicer.

Hardware refresh cycles scare the industry so much, because what if the instal vase shrinks? The Switch is going to live on like the 3DS. Eventually some games might require the newer version, but it’s not going to be a new generation. From here on in it’s going to be improved hardware but the same platform.

@Agramonte
Why do you insist on posting the "nobody cares about $10 eShop games" crap on every sales article like this?

By your definition, games like Hitman 2 and Darksiders 3 need to go away, because I can guarantee you that those two titles are selling more like a "$10 eShop" game than and less like a Smash Bros Ultimate/Red Dead Redemption 2.

@DavidMac "People who are asking for an OLED screen simply don't understand economics of scale and where consumer tech is."
Because people are trained for instant gratification rather the do some honest brainstorming or "COMMON SENSE" lackof.

@DavidMac "It would also be great if Nintendo was able to drop the X1 and move over to whatever A series chip Apple is going to use in their next iPad Pros, but that isn't going to happen either."
Not going to happen - imagine the price Apple would charge and CONTROLS Apple would institut that would rule out a affordable Switch for anyone. Also Nvidia is the go to for Switch and that is how the rest of us can enjoy it. Apple totalitarian control won't make it a go to for anyone. We will see a updated GPU Nvidia but probably not for some time til this run cools down. Maybe in 10 year time frame we will see a update.

@westman98 I own DarkSiders 3 and didn't start playing it till this week. Because had bigger and better things to play at home (like Red2)

Most people did not care about those games either when top games came out. They just fill.

@SwitchForce Hey, are you one of the guys who do the Switch Force YouTube channel? If so you guys do a good job a pretty good job.

(And yes I'm aware that for however much a Nintendo and Apple partnership would be great on paper, the only way Apple would let Nintendo use their parts is if they bought the company, and then Apple would probably mismanage them because Apple just doesn't get video games.)

It's just the name here but he does a super job at what he does.

@westman98

Lol I think that I muted them & some other clowns. So glad that I don't have to see or read the verbal diarrhea out of their mouths & insteas just see snippets & echoes of their idiocy in others comments. Let's me know overwhelmingly that I made the right decision.