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People all over the world are buying Super Mario Odyssey (opens in new tab) at a record-breaking rate. Nintendo revealed via a tweet on its official Twitter account that Odyssey is now the fastest-selling Super Mario game of all time. Earlier, Nintendo estimated (opens in new tab) that Super Mario Odyssey sold more than 2 million copies in just its first three days. Maybe it’s that catchy jingle (opens in new tab)?
Thank you to everyone for taking this amazing journey with us and making #SuperMarioOdyssey the fastest selling game in Super Mario history! pic.twitter.com/UEeqQ0ebRoNovember 2, 2017
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Here are a few reasons that this is really impressive:
Super Mario’s kind of a big deal
No duh, right? But it bears calling out nonetheless. If anything among Nintendo’s vast and varied collection of games could be called its “flagship franchise”, it would be the Super Mario series. We’ve been buying and loving Super Mario games for more than 30 years, ever since the original Super Mario Bros. on NES. Note that this doesn’t count spinoff games like Mario Kart, but according to a press release from Nintendo, it does include the New Super Mario Bros. series.
Nintendo Switch hasn’t even been out for a year
Switch is still a very young and hard-to-find console. It only came out in March and the supply of systems for would-be buyers remains relatively unstable 8 months later. Despite all that, the Switch-exclusive Super Mario Odyssey has still become a faster seller than all the games before it. I’m particularly impressed that it’s selling faster than Super Mario Galaxy did, even though Galaxy came out nearly a full year into the wildfire sales of Wii.
It’s a game about possessing cute animals and human beings
Oh no, I’m not ready to forget about how weird it is that Mario can take control of a person (opens in new tab) by throwing his hat onto them. Like, Super Mario Sunshine’s gimmick is a talking water cannon, sure. In Galaxy you jump around tiny planets and make friends with chubby star creatures. Then in Odyssey you casually SUBSUME CREATURES’ WILL, like an ancient demon in an exorcism movie. Admittedly, it’s a lot more fun being possessed by Mario than Pazuzu.
It’s still early days in the holiday shopping season. I wonder how well Super Mario Odyssey will do once the Black Friday 2017 gaming deals (opens in new tab) go live?
