Following on from the February news that Metroid Dread had sold 2.74 million units from its October launch to the end of 2021 — a figure which put it behind only GameCube's Metroid Prime in the series' best-seller list — Nintendo's end of year financial results have confirmed that MercurySteam's 2D entry is now the best-selling Metroid game ever.
The life-to-date sales of 'Metroid 5' now stand at 2.9 million according to Nintendo's report, putting it approximately 60,000 copies ahead of 2002's Metroid Prime, as per estimates gathered from Nintendo's own data. It was previously known that Dread was the best-selling Metroid entry in the UK, but this new reported figure puts it top of the list worldwide.
Sales of Metroid Dread have reached approximately 270,000 in Japan to date, with the remaining 2.63 million sales coming from overseas — another clear indication that the West's appetite for Samus' adventures is larger than that of Nintendo's domestic market.
Metroid Prime 4 is currently in development, of course, although it has no release date attached at present. Rumours persist that Nintendo has a Metroid Prime 'remaster' in the pipeline, and with the strong sales of Dread, it would certainly make sense to keep the Morph Ball rolling with a re-release in the long lead up to MP4.
Let us know below what you think this means for further 2D adventures with Samus in the future.
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[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments 67
it please me immensely to see that Metroid Dread sold so well.
A very well deserved achievement
I'm late to the party on this one and only picked it up last week. Brilliant game and well worth the purchase.
Well deserved. I had such a blast playing through this game.
I liked Prime a lot more, but Dread is on a more popular console.
If they actually brought Prime to Switch then I wonder what the numbers would be like.
still not at 3 million 😕
RGT85 better prepare for Baland Wonderworld
Well deserved its amazing, proves 2D gaming is alive and kicking!!
Great game, finished it recently.
I got it for 40e, which was a good price in terms of how much content it had.
Was sad to hear about the challenges at MercurySteam, and people not getting proper credit for their work.
I still have to get it, but as I'm replaying all the previous 2D Metroid games prior to getting this one, I still have Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion left to go. So it'll be a while. I'm just really happy that this is doing so well!
Time for Prime 4 to change it back in Primes favour. I’m always routing for Prime as it’s my favourite game of all time.
Hard to imagine that before 2021, most everyone in the Metroid fandom still believed that Metroid Dread was vapourware, and suddenly here we are, celebrating it as the best sold title in the series thus far!
@F_Destroyer according to this he actually won the bet. The bet was for it sake 3 Milton copies. It's sitting at 2.9 after a year. He won by the skin of his teeth.
Gotta say, with the marketing push it got, and the general reception, it's kinda disappointing for it not to have pushed beyond 3 mill. by now. Good numbers, no question, but what's it gonna take to get this series to properly take off?
@Gtask025 hasn't been a year since release yet, there's still time
Lol, still no 3 million. The saga continues.
Will we get to see the end of Balan Wonderworld?
@Gtask025 He said 3 Million within the first year. Metroid Dread came out in october! So the game must sell 100k between april and october, he will lose, no way he win.
@steizgr8 you're right. Idk why I thought that game came out in May. Worse yet I could have easily looked it up lol.
Great to read about this games success! I hope people continue to pick it up and enjoy it over the coming years. And I hope I finally defeat Raven Beak some day (soon).
Well deserved! Amazing game that deserves all the glowing reviews and that's coming from someone who doesn't really like 2D Metroid games ^_^
Fantastic game, well deserving of its praise
@F_Destroyer well, you beat me to the obligatory RGT comment. Lol
Also, to everyone else RGT actually said lifetime it wouldn't hit 3 million. Idk if that was the bet, but he will likely be wrong.
What’s not stated here is that if Prime is re-released on Switch wouldn’t it retake the crown?
Metroid Dread has quite the fabled history, having been in development hell for about 15 years when it finally launched. Of course, Star Fox 2 for the SNES beats it out at 20 years of development hell.
Still, it's always a treat to finally play a game that was in development, abandoned, then brought back to life again. I can't help but wonder if the fans who talk about and want to play these games had a hand in Nintendo releasing them.
If so, that gives me hope for an official release of Dinosaur Planet, despite it eventually becoming Star Fox Adventures. I love Adventures, being one of my favorite games in the series, but I would also love to play what it was originally meant to be.
But I'd rather play an official release, not a beta ROM. Hopefully Microsoft will let Rare take a break from Sea of Thieves for a while to work on finishing the game it was originally intended to be and release it on PC, Xbox, and the Switch.
This bodes well for Metroid Prime 4
Am I the only one who feels like this isn't enough? Comparing it to other first party sales it's not even close!
It’s nice to see, still a bit of a shame it doesn’t do significant better, like other Nintendo franchises.
@gcunit
I'd say this is a good start. A 2D entry just became the best selling in the entire series in 6 months. That's serious progress. It'll do 4 million over it's lifetime, which many hyper-realistic AAA games don't even achieve across 3 platforms.
It's easy to lose sight of just how much that is, on a single platform no less, what with many Nintendo evergreens selling 20, 30 even 40+ million copies. But 4 million lifetime sales on one platform, for a core, unapologetically difficult 2D entry at $60 is, imo, about as good as one could reasonably expect.
I think a Metroid Prime Remaster could do 5 million lifetime, and assuming Metroid Prime 4 is a worthy successor, it could be the one to truly make Metroid "mainstream" with 6 or 7 million. That's my take, anyways.
I've never played any other Metroid games, and I feel like none of them could best this game
Was hoping it could get to 5 million. I do think the difficulty may have turned quite a few nintendo fans away. Still one of the best and most polished games I've ever played.
Happy for the Metroid series and its fans, but the number is unfortunately still very underwhelming when you compare it to new Kirby which sold 2 millions in 2 weeks.
Congrats to Metroid Dread.
Excited to see how much Metroid Prime 4 will sell when it releases on switch or switch successor
@Donutsavant Actually, it is. Dread is in a position where lifetime sales will likely end up on par with Fire Emblem Three Houses, DK Tropical Freeze, and Kirby Star Allies. It's close to overtaking Paper Mario, and has already surpassed all Xenoblades, Mario Sports games, Octopath, Yoshi, Pikmin, Mario + Rabbids, Pokken, Warioware, etc. The places it near the top of their more 'niche' series, with Kirby and Fire Emblem being series that have constant releases due to their performance.
It's not on the same insane sales tier as Mario, Mario Kart, Pokemon, Zelda, Splatoon, Animal Crossing, or Ring Fit, but few series are.
@Donutsavant You have to compare Metroid with series like Fire Emblem, Xenoblade or Star Fox. You CAN'T compare it to Mario, Pokemon or even Zelda because it would be really unfair. Metroid is not for everyone.
@moodycat You're joking, right? Metroid Dread is GREAT!
I feel that Nintendo should do a campaign to give some of those second-tier games a second push. There’s a few masterpieces this generation that now seem to sell quite slowly after the initial hype (Metroid Dread, Paper Mario: Origami King, Link’s Awakening).
@the_beaver I guess I just don't understand why that is? It's a real solid action game, with stunning production values
Still doesn't make it the best though.
@NintendoWife I'd say Nintendough's refusal to ever put them on sale beyond their $40 limit regardless of how long they've been on the market is why the sales slump, not lack of interest.
I really don't enjoy Metroid games for the most part (all the backtracking and maze-ness of it all stresses me out), but I know this made a lot of fans happy and I'm glad the series is getting some love.
Great sales for franchise standards. Will MP4 sell equally, or sell less? Time will tell.
Dread definitely deserves top spot! It's the greatest Switch exclusive game out there!
I wish I could compare it to a Prime game, but I've never played one. Maybe Prime 4 will be my first...
Hollow Knight has sold more copies than Metroid Dread. Of course, it's on more systems and has a cheaper price point, but still.
@dartmonkey Metroid Dread is 60k ahead of Prime, not 600k.
@BTB20 Thanks for the spot. Let's blame that one on a dodgy zero key.
What's wrong with Japan!? Why only 270000 sold there?
Good to see Dread getting the love it deserves but if I'm honest I expected it to be well past 3 million at this point. Hopefully it can achieve around 4 million over its lifetime
@sketchturner And Hollow knight has been available for 3 years more than Dread
@Gtask025 he didn’t win
He bet 1 year. These are the sales numbers after 5 months
Well Deserved! Such a Masterpiece!
@moodycat Article about Metroid Dread --> Obligatory moodycat comment talking about how horrendous of a game it is.
This just physical or is it including digital sales too?
Amazing achievement. I hope we see a Metroid renaissance like we had during the Gamecube/GBA and Wii/DS generations.
Great to see! I just hope for any future entries in the franchise they put far more effort into the music. That was the one negative aspect of Dread and frankly was an utter failure, especially when compared to how great Metroid music has been historically. Other than that, thoroughly enjoyed the game.
For the sake of order in the universe, I really hope Metroid Dread can surpass 1-2 Switch (3.45 million).
Yes! My favorite game from my favorite franchise deserves all the sales!
I loved the game, but the music was severely lacking, which is odd for a Metroid game.
No surprise there.
Good to see. It's not the best, I have the game behind Hunters, Federation Force, Super and maybe Other M, but is definitely a great entry within the Metroid Series. It's the best traditional Metroid game since Super Metroid.
Worst Metroid ever made even worse than other M... I'll stick to Zero Mission, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. But i do love the Prime games really well
@Gtask025 Its not been a year yet.
@Gtask025
October 2021 was when the game released. So it still has 5 months to go to get 100,000 more in sales.
It made 2.9 million in 5 months...I'm sure it can make another 0.1 million in the next 5 months...
@F_Destroyer Lol beat me to it.
A solid game for sure but Prime will always be my favourite and nothing will convince me otherwise.
@moodycat I agree. While Dread was a good game in its own right the E.M.M.I just killed it for me. I like to explore at my own pace playing a Metroid game and the frequent encounters with those annoying pests rendered it impossible, well until you finally managed to destroy them anyway but you know what I mean. I died many times during my playthrough thanks to them and because of that I have no desire to play it ever again.
Removed - trolling/baiting; user is banned
I picked up the game recently, and I LOVED it. So fun! Dread mode is also just as fun as it should be.
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