UK Charts: Super Mario RPG Can't Jump To The Top Five In Its Debut Week On Switch

Glad to see Hogwarts performing well. Will fish around for performance reviews. 6th place isn’t a bad start for Mario RPG. Forspoken must have gotten a sale. Glad to see renewed interest.

Didn’t expect Mario RPG to do super well, about in the right spot.
It is an old game really and a bit niche.
You would pick up Mario Wonder first or if on a budget.

Bluey...!

Damn that's low for Tactica, also thought Mario RPG would of charted higher than that just with the Mario title alone.

Also what's this Bluey video game, seems like surprise of the week to be charting that well.

WB took their time with the Switch port of Hogwarts Legacy because they knew if it arrived in a playable state it would sell bucketloads on the platform.

Kinda surprised how much TOTK has fallen off. I thought it would be an evergreen, but the sales have significantly slowed.

@OldGamer999
Back when they were both announced there were people who swore it was going to the big holiday game over Wonder.

@SBandy1 Honestly, they did a good job with the port and the desition to delay it was worth it. Specially since we knew the date for a while instead of only coming out for PS5 and Xbox X|S and teasing a possible Switch port.

Looking back that was so... questionable. I remember there was a game that was released in PS4 and Xbox One and then the publisher basically asked on Twitter "we will put it on Switch if people ask tho" which is just... why? The game appeared on the Switch anyway less than a year later too so they could've just announced it at the same time as the other platforms like what happened with Hogwards Legacy, even if it released later on.

@SBandy1 And then there's Square Enix who put cloud versions of PS2 games on Switch

Man I really wish they would actually properly port the KH games to Switch

I expected the Mario RPG sales would be much less than Mario Wonder, especially with Mario Wonder so close to it, but damn. Hopefully it sold better in other places because, if we only consider UK box sales, Paper Mario the Origami King had a better launch. Which I know some people online would be worried about.

@Anti-Matter Bluey is an amazing show and very popular so the sales make sense. Kinda weird seeing a resurgence of licenced games after being dead for one generation of consoles at the very least. Also not surprised the majority of sales being on Switch either seeing we are talking about a Nintendo console here.

I was kind of expecting Bluey to see an uncharacteristically high debut in UK for a children-focused tie-in game: the signs have been pretty encouraging on Amazon.co.uk for quite a while. I'm quite honestly in the camp of the fools who think it may outsell Avatar: Frontiers of Pandoria. Yeah, I know

Also, if I may ask: would it be possible to share last week's platform splits for FC 24 and Persona 5 Tactica?

I imagine Mario RPG's going to sell worse in the UK given there wouldn't really be any nostalgia for it there.

Only just bought Mario rpg today so I didn’t help!

@SalvorHardin
Well that’s their opinion.
Mario Wonder is new and a Mario platformer and is advertised very well.
Mario rpg was never gonna out Mario Wonder.

I'm guessing Mario RPG will sell better in other regions. But the Mario RPG type games usually sell much less than the main series of platformers.

Ironically it's also competing against Mario Wonder which most people would pick that game vs Mario RPG even if it's a beloved classic.

With saying that I'm playing RPG for the very first time and I can see why people love it, it's such a fun game.

I truly hope they don't see this as a sign that the more recent Mario RPG games before this remake are the go-to standard after all. Though honestly I feel like making the box art stand out more plus giving it the Legend of the Seven Stars subtitle would've helped boost sales. The box art (funny as it is) plus non-saying title don't really help much.

P5 Tactica at 34 is lower than expected. Wasn't anticipating it to be in the top 10 but at least the top 20. Does anyone have the percentage for sales across Switch, PS and Xbox?

@Axecon To be fair, TOTK is a much more expensive game physical, so vouchers are probably doing most of the work there.

Far too many reheats, rehashes and revisions of previous old games appearing on Switch imo. All Stars, Advance Wars, Links Awakening, Mario RPG to name but a few. Nintendo is getting lazy.

i expected hogwarts to go to the top due to switch users buying the game here is the digital foundry review of the switch version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWMpPABozKo

maybe gamers are finally getting tired of remakes or remakes that are bare bones

oof. Super Mario RPG is the best switch game (and remake) I've (so far) ever played. it's a bit sad to see it didn't make top 5.

super mario rpg came out in 1996 a different game existence back then when you only had a supernes or a genesis no ps yet i played it back then and enjoyed the game why the metacritic score for the remake of 83 is a little puzzling maybe nostalgia of the past is wearing thin.. or perhaps the 60 dollar price is the issue..

@Sam_ATLUS game has a 70's metacritic score on the ps xbox and the switch..

I guess if most kids could only pick 1 Mario game in the time frame both came out, they picked Wonder.

It's a shame Super Mario RPG didn't do better but I guess this is the result of releasing almost only Mario games for several months including 2 RPGs so people would be more likely to only pick up SMB Wonder of the bunch. Currently the only 1st party Switch games scheduled from October 20th 2023 onwards that aren't Mario is Another Code Recollection in January and Metroid Prime 4 which has been TBA for 6.5 years.

Any news on when we can expect a hogwarts legacy review?

Nice to see Hogwarts Legacy doing so well! Picked a great year to become a Harry Potter fan lol. I think Mario RPG has still done a good job hitting the Top Ten, considering we had Mario Wonder not long ago. Two different genres of course, but they're both still Mario games which may confuse some (my father gets them mixed up a lot, for one).

@Lizuka I was curious how it would do given that there's less familiarity but that means probably more curiosity. Perhaps they cancel out.

@Olliemar28 could we please have the platform split for the other multiplatform titles, if available? Also is there chance we’ll see an @NintendoLife Hogwarts Legacy review?

What a beautiful number one spot!

@Olliemar28 thanks for the reply, appreciate it. No review though?! Whose decision is that? That’s not gonna go down well.

I am waiting for my salary lol, will be this week.

@Bower227 @NintendoLife aren’t doing a review for Hogwarts Legacy, according to @Olliemar28.

@OldGamer999 I don't have either yet, but I agree that Wonder is more of a priority for me than RPG.

This game deserves better sales.

@AmplifyMJ weird, have they said why?

@Olliemar28 what's the reason behind no review for hogwarts legacy?

@Bower227 no, I asked when we’d see their review and that was the answer, ‘unfortunately we won't be doing a review for Hogwarts Legacy.’ I know I wasn’t the only one extremely interested in this particular review, @NintendoLife could perhaps clarify?

@AmplifyMJ ok thanks for letting me know, been checking on here daily for the review and thought it was strange there wasn't one. And yeah shame I would of been interested in the review, suppose I'll have to look elsewhere

Forspoken was £9.99 on Amazon at one point this weekend. At that price I bought it haha.
Played and completed Hogwarts Legacy on PC, but I did pick it up on Switch as I was curious what dark magic they used to get it to run. It's playable but with the expected downgrades considering the target hardware.

I'm guessing they're not going to review Hogwarts Legacy because the comments would just get closed anyway.

@johnedwin You had to realize when the original Super Mario RPG released, the PS1 is already on its second year in the market. The PS1 launch in mid 1995 and Super Mario RPG released in late 1996 so yes people were playing PS1 already when Super Mario RPG released. The only thing is Square Enix didn't work exclusively with Sony until late 1996.

I was waiting for a Hogwarts Legacy review also - I appreciate there is some controversy around JK Rowling, but I think a review that covers both the the game itself and acknowledges any caveats is the best way to go, thereby better informing all and allowing them to decide for themselves. Or if it's a different reason (no/late interview copy provided etc.), then say so.

I'm playing and enjoying SMRPG. But there was never going to be any competition between it and Wonder.

Even NSMBU Deluxe on Switch did 16million, which is several times what the average Mario RPG does. So a brand new 2D Mario was always going to be the better seller.

@Macarver nothing I hate more than cancel culture. There’s plenty of controversy about many, many developers and publishers, and individuals, and there’s no need for acknowledgment of any ‘caveats’. @NintendoLife should address and clarify this.

@AmplifyMJ I really hope the lack of review isn't because of cancel culture too. Awesome MJ avatar you have there!! Kudos!!

@Lightsiyd thank you. Jackson effectively cancelled culture in 2019 as far as I’m concerned. The lack of any review at this point, and no proper acknowledgement or explanation of why other than the good @olliemar28’s reply to me in this comment section, is really concerning @nintendolife

@AmplifyMJ He should have been long dead by then, I made an art tribute for him around that time. How did he cancel culture in 2019?

@Lightsiyd he died in 2009, in 2019 that’s when the global media made a concerted effort to cancel and erase him for good. His legacy has survived that, and is thriving again, so it’s just something I like to say, Jackson cancelled cancel culture. Sorry for the confusion 😅

Hard to have nostalgia for a game that DIDN’T COME OUT IN THE UK
#neverforget

That's a shame for Super Mario RPG fans. I'm not too surprised, though, I'm afraid.

I really hope that TTYD's remake somehow sells really well. Nintendo needs to understand that classic Paper Mario is what people want. (although, if the sells don't pan out, I guess that's not true. =( )

Honestly, #6 isnt too bad. I don't know where previous Mario RPGs have debuted in the charts previously but I can't imagine they've hit the #6 spot in thier first week. After a little research, the original SMRPG sold 2.1 million copies (whether that includes digital sales via VC, I don't know). Considering it looks like it's had good reviews and great word-of-mouth in the lead up, surely it'll beat that.

For a spin off series (yes, I'll clump SMRPG, M&L and PM together), #6 isnt too bad of a start. Granted, it was never going to do Mario Kart numbers but it looks promising

@electrolite77 thread is locked but NL already answered this.

Edit: removed quote as the original poster has reposted in this comment section.

Nintendo life addressed not reviewing one of the biggest releases of the year on their forum. Essentially they provided no valid reason that they aren't reviewing this game, other than to say "you can read reviews and get technical analysis elsewhere." I would like a review of Bluey since kids really love the show. Mario RPGs numbers seem pretty mid but it probably has more to do with the price point than anything.

We just cant trust europeans it seems. Oh well.

I pretty much buy every mario games as it comes out, and Wonder was fun, but I was expecting mario rpg the most. I can see myself playing and replaying it for years to come (as I did with the original) while wonder, I finished it and that's all the value I got from it. To each their own I guess, but after 3 bad mario rpgs in a row I can see people who never played the original RPG how they can be a little distrusting of nintendo.

Hey, all the people here crying about Hogwart's, feel free to go literally anywhere else and see a review. There's nothing surprising about the game on Switch. It's passable, looks worse, the world is no longer open (more loading screens separate areas of the world), that's it. There ya go. You're buying it anyway. You're just trying to crusade, and it's transparent.

@Fulgor_Astral
I don't think everyone thought they were bad. From what I saw, most people who played Origami King liked it, even if it wasn't acclaimed, and there were issues with the battle system and etc.

@Axecon I don't think it grabbed people in quite the same way. I bought it but haven't bothered with it yet tbh. While I know much about the setting changed, I can't help but feel it's a bit of a 'been there, done that' vibe...

I would really love to see what the actual numbers of sales. Just ranking doesn't mean anything if the difference was 1 unit to 1,000,000 units if that is between 1 and 2.

@LikelySatan I’ve no intention of buying, I don’t have time for that sort of game on Switch, but I would like to be able to confidently recommend it on Switch to my niece. @NintendoLife is the only site i visit, I rely on and trust it, it not being reviewed here is cowardly, in my opinion. Yours, and their advice to go elsewhere is not fair and I’m genuinely surprised at that. I don’t visit the forums so that’s news to me @olliemar28

@dartmonkey yeah I’ve already seen this now thanks to another user telling me to go elsewhere, thanks. Persona5 was a known quantity, Super Mario RPG a known quantity, heck many, many games released on Switch are a known quantity. No offence, but it is my opinion nothing more than a cowardly decision. This is the only site I visit, and if you have statistics on individual user engagement and visits, you’ll know often I come here. I was looking forward to a review for this game, from this site, it’s not coming and I should go elsewhere apparently, but thank you for pasting that here! Genuinely surprised and disappointed in this decision and attitude.

@dartmonkey I wanted to know how it plays and runs from the one site I visit and trust, not gonna buy it myself, but I read most of your reviews here and I don’t buy most of those games. Don’t care about anything else, and are you calling me impolite, and abusive? It’s a cowardly decision, in my opinion, and that’s not being impolite and I’ve defended staff on here in the past from abuse.

@dartmonkey @AmplifyMJ I apologise I’m getting ready for work and I’ve read your reply wrong. I’ll not the delete the comment, just apologise

@dartmonkey it is to me, I’m sorry, thank you.

@Olliemar28 excellent, love to see that information, thank you

@Olliemar28 Thank you once again for the splits! Relatively to the PS4 and Xbox SKUs, the Switch version of FC 24 did see slight further progress (it's now ahead of the PS4 one), but the Black Friday deals boosted the PS5 version to a massive degree. Also, incredibly funny to see MK1 getting 25% of its sales coming from the Switch version; BF miracles, I guess...
Was expecting a bigger share of sales coming from the Switch version of P5T, but I could chalk this up to the UK market displaying a relative stronger Sony-favouring bias compared to others.

If I can ask for even further platform split breakdowns, would you be able to provide the ones for Lego 2K Drive and Security Breach?

Not surprised by SMR numbers, considering that its basically competing with Wonder. If it was just priced at 49.99 or even 39.99 USD, I think it would sell better considering the content is very light. However, it is a fantastic game nonetheless and I highly recommend it to any Nintendo fan

@dartmonkey I will edit my comment since you reposted your response.

@electrolite77 I feel like it's more about them shoving Mario out as much as possible due to the success of the movie but it's probably a mix of things

Not sure what people were expecting with this game as far as sales. This will sell 6 million tops. Same as the Link's awakening remake. Neither original games were blockbusters sales wise. Wonder will be a 20 million+ seller.

I'm enjoying the hell out of the game myself and that's all that matters.

@The_Blue_Mage for sure, the price isn’t warranted. Great classic game for sure. But 59.99 is the price for a game built from the ground up with years of development and millions dumped into it. This is the Nintendo tax.

@LikelySatan pot, kettle, etc.

@WOLF13 true, plus it doesn't help that Square-Enix has royalties on it too

@Coalescence I didn't say anything here to persuade anyone to get it or not, and don't care if they review it here. Not sure there's a such thing as an ethical consumer anymore.