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Nintendo recently saw the release of two games from long running, big name franchises: Mario Tennis Aces is the latest in the long line of Mario’s sports spin-off titles, while Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a compilation of remastered versions of the mascot’s first three titles. While there was probably little doubt these games would succeed, both had factors working against them: Mario sports games generally don’t carry the fanfare of mainline titles while Crash’s collection has already been out on other platforms for a while. Regardless of this, both games have found very strong early sales in a couple of the industry’s most significant markets.
First, Mario Tennis Aces released on June 22 and Japan has apparently been quite keen on the game. First week sales figures came out to 123,774 units, which is about 75 percent of the initial shipment. What’s more impressive is how the game has performed compared to other entries in the series. Despite the 3DS having a larger install base, Mario Tennis Open only sold 102,000 units in its first week and poor Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and its 55,000 copies sold were utterly crushed.
Moving over to the UK, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy saw a major boost thanks to its release on Switch, pushing it up to the top of the weekly sales chart. It’s also worth noting that these strong sales have already made it the best selling Switch game of 2018 in the region. Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also appeared on the top ten, taking the fourth and sixth spots respectively.
If anything, these numbers not only further highlight Switch’s success, but the level of excitement gamers have for the system. The speed at which Mario Tennis Aces outsold its predecessors and the fact that a Switch port reinvigorated a compilation that’s already been available on other systems for a year are both quite telling- not only did a lot of people pick up Switch, but they are still playing it and hungry for more games.
Sources: Nintendo Life 1, 2
