Mario Party games are, thanks to their very nature, pretty much guaranteed to sell every time they release, and being on the Switch, it was no doubt that Super Mario Party’s sales would be even more impressive. A month ago, Nintendo announced that the game had hit sales of over 1.5 million units worldwide within just a month of its release, and now, they have announced yet another milestone.

Over on Twitter, Nintendo’s official account has confirmed that Super Mario Party has now sold over 1 million units in the United States alone, and in the process, has become the highest selling game in the series- all around a pretty impressive accomplishment, especially considering the track record the series has had in the past.

With the Holiday season in full swing, it seems like a given that the game will continue its impressive commercial performance. In our review of Super Mario Party, in spite of the game’s flaws, we called it a “conservative return to form”. You can read our review through here.

More than 1 million #SuperMarioParty games have been sold in the U.S.! Thank you to all the party-goers for making this the fastest selling game in the Mario Party series. If you’re late to the party, it’s still a great time to hop in and enjoy the fun on #NintendoSwitch! pic.twitter.com/6wW5NVdu43

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 28, 2018

In spite of what everyone under the sun may have assumed (except for those analysts who were vindicated in hindsight), it seems like, at least in their launch month, Call of Duty ended up winning the sales contest against Red Dead Redemption 2. That’s right, according to the new NPD sales report for video game software sales in the US in the month of October, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was the best selling game in the country, coming in ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2, which came in at second place.

Now, to be fair, Red Dead Redemption 2 ended up launching later than Call of Duty did; that said, given the sheer enormity of RDR2’s launch, some may have assumed that it would beat out Black Ops 4 regardless, which does not seem to have happened.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ended up in a very healthy third place, while NBA 2K19 took fourth place, and Super Mario Party took fifth place (which is great performance for an exclusive game that already had a portion of its sales tracked last month).

You can check out the full software charts below, courtesy of VentureBeat. In October, $1.5 billion were spent on video games, making this the highest October on record; $965 million of those came from software sales alone.

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII^
2. Red Dead Redemption II
3. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
4. NBA 2K19
5. Super Mario Party*
6. Soul Calibur VI
7. FIFA 19^
8. Marvel’s Spider-Man
9. Madden NFL 19^
10. WWE 2K19
11. Forza Horizon 4
12. Lego DC Super Villains
13. My Hero One’s Justice
14. Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
15. Mario Kart 8*
16. Grand Theft Auto V
17. Super Mario Odyssey*
18. Diablo III*
19. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
20. NHL 19

* Digital sales not included

^ PC digital sales not included

That is… an incredible forecast. It’s very ambitious, and especially for a console in just its second year, it would be almost unprecedented  With the cadence of releases Nintendo had for the Switch last year, there was reason to believe that the console might actually hit those numbers this year, when then Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima first brought the notion up. If Nintendo could keep up a similar pace of releases as in 2017, after all, the console’s sales would surely keep along their then current path too, and we could expect the Switch to sell a lot. Especially since some of Nintendo’s biggest heavy hitters were yet to launch.

"There haven’t been many major releases for the Switch this year—a smattering of great ports, from third parties and Nintendo alike, and some incredible indie games, but not many major retail releases."

The thing is, that didn’t happen. The Switch has continued to sell well, but the pace hasn’t accelerated along the trajectory one might have assumed at the end of last year. This has largely been because of a very quiet year two for the console. There haven’t been many major releases for the Switch this year—a smattering of great ports, from third parties and Nintendo alike, and some incredible indie games, but not many major retail releases. Octopath Traveler and Fortnite are probably the biggest mass market launches the Switch had until October the entire fiscal year. And those are great games, but Octopath is ultimately a turn based JRPG with a cap on its sales, and Fortnite runs on a toaster at this point. They won’t push sales like Mario, Mario Kart, Splatoon, or Zelda would.

The result of all this has been that in the first six months of this fiscal year, the Switch has sold 5.03 million units—up year on year, yes, but that means Nintendo now needs to sell an eye watering 15 million units in the next six months. Yes, those six months include the upcoming Holiday season, traditionally when Nintendo does best, but they would have to have a literally record setting Holiday shopping season, selling more than any system, handheld or console, has done, to be able to reach that lofty 20 million number.

Many think that it should not be out of reach for Nintendo. After all, their Holiday lineup is strong—it is strong. While the front half of the year has been barren as far as meaningful new releases go, the last few months are going to see Super Mario Party, Pokemon Let’s Go, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and New Super Mario Bros. U DX one after the other. It’s an enviable slate of games, all of them with immense mass market appeal, and more importantly, it includes Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. The former is the biggest media franchise of all time, while the latter is one of Nintendo’s biggest hardware movers. Obviously this means they are set, right?

"While the front half of the year has been barren as far as meaningful new releases go, the last few months are going to see Super Mario Party, Pokemon Let’s Go, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and New Super Mario Bros. U DX one after the other. It’s an enviable slate of games, all of them with immense mass market appeal, and more importantly, it includes Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. "

Well, no, not really. There are caveats to the whole thing. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is, of course, looking to be an extraordinarily strong title so far, but Pokemon this year is not the Pokemon. It’s a smaller scale, pared back spin off coming while we wait for the true Pokemon 8 to come out next year. Pokemon Let’s Go’s design decisions, which have included culling wild Pokemon battles, excluding any beyond the original Pokemon, and several other choices which make the game far less nuanced than the mainline games, have evoked a vicious outcry from fans. All of this has been done in an attempt to go after the Pokemon GO playing crowd.

Now, in the end, Pokemon Let’s Go looks to be a great game for what it is, and will obviously sell well by virtue of being Pokemon. But unless a significant number of people who play Pokemon GO casually on the smartphone they already own for free are convinced to spend $300 on a Switch, and then $60 on the game, it’s not going to induce people to pick up the system. Hardcore Pokemon fans who do not yet own the Switch won’t be getting it for Let’s Go either—as mentioned, the game has done everything it can to alienate them, and they’re probably waiting for next year’s title before they jump in.

So Smash looks great—but it can’t carry the Switch to this target by itself. While Mario Party, NSMBU, and Pokemon will all contribute some to the overall sales, they aren’t enough to take the Switch to 20 million. If this was a mainline Pokemon  game coming alongside Smash Bros., I would have easily argued that this target can be met without issue. But it’s not, and that means the target is now more out of reach than it otherwise would have been. The situation is further exacerbated because there were at least two major games that were due to hit the Switch in 2018–Yoshi’s Crafted World and Fire Emblem Three Houses. Both got delayed to 2019. I don’t know how much they individually would have managed to sell the Switch, but their delay can’t have helped, as it puts even more pressure on Smash and a very divisive Pokemon game to perform.

"Smash looks great—but it can’t carry the Switch to this target by itself. While Mario Party, NSMBU, and Pokemon will all contribute some to the overall sales, they aren’t enough to take the Switch to 20 million. If this was a mainline Pokemon  game coming alongside Smash Bros., I would have easily argued that this target can be met without issue. But it’s not, and that means the target is now more out of reach than it otherwise would have been."

It is also clear Nintendo was hoping for Labo to take off, and expand the Switch’s appeal among the expanded, casual audience, the kind who originally picked up the DS and Wii. That has so far not happened. The Labo has sold a few million across the multiple kits Nintendo has put out, but it has failed to broaden the Switch’s appeal beyond the core gamer, and failed to drive hardware sales too. There is every possibility the Labo suddenly takes off this Holiday season, as parents look to buy consoles for their children—in which case all bets would be off. But would they do that when they could, for instance, get their kids a PS4 for $200 with Spider-Man included?

Which brings me to the next point. Nintendo does not have any meaningful Black Friday deals lined up, which are what primarily drive spending in the Holiday shopping season. Yes, they have a $300 bundle with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and that’s fantastic, it will sell a lot. But there’s no price cut here. Sony is offering one of its newest games and their console for $100 cheaper than Nintendo is offering the Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has far more market appeal than Spider-Man, of course, and that helps immensely, but in the end, price is king on Black Friday, and $200 is a better price than $300 is. Unless Nintendo announces a price cut, the PS4 will poach a lot of their sales this Holiday season.

The counter argument to all my points so far is that Nintendo has not reduced their financial forecast this year so far. In fact, during the financial statement they released just this week, they reiterated the 20 million units projection. Surely, then, they expect to be able to sell this amount, even with the extenuating factors I have identified? The answer to that is, no, not necessarily. Projections are made to investors, and investor confidence is paramount to keep your stock price high. If Nintendo were to reduce their projection right on the eve of the Holiday season, investors would panic and off-load Nintendo stock, leading to a catastrophic contraction in their trading price. Traditionally, this is why Nintendo has not revised its guidance downwards until after the Holiday shopping season. Even in the Wii U era, they would not revise their targets until the final quarter of the fiscal year, if it was necessary. I fully expect to see Nintendo similarly revise targets downward in their January report.

"Do I mean to imply the Switch is doomed? No, of course not. I foresee it doing very well regardless. It will probably sell 17-18 million units all said and done, which would be right in line with the PS4’s second year, and within very close distance of the forecast. I imagine the 20 million units sold forecast is something Nintendo is well primed to meet next year too, with a better lineup."

What does all of this mean? Do I mean to imply the Switch is doomed? No, of course not. I foresee it doing very well regardless. It will probably sell 17-18 million units all said and done, which would be right in line with the PS4’s second year, and within very close distance of the forecast. I imagine the 20 million units sold forecast is something Nintendo is well primed to meet next year too, with a better lineup. On the whole, the Switch is doing great and will continue to do great, even if the 20 million target is not met.

And, of course, there’s a possibility it is. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Pokemon Let’s Go takes off. Maybe Labo sales explode. Maybe Smash Ultimate drives more sales than anyone could have anticipated. Maybe Animal Crossing for Switch launches by early March, which means it gets a sudden last minute boost before the end of the fiscal year. Who knows? You can never tell with Nintendo. As things stand right now, though, based on what we know, 20 million this fiscal year seems unlikely.

That doesn’t mean the Switch is doomed. It’ll do fantastically well anyway. It just means Nintendo overshot a bit with how much they expected to sell.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

You might not have been paying much attention to it, owing to its more casual bent, but Super Mario Party appears to have been a pretty big and successful launch for Nintendo. Launching in early October, the game has already managed to cross 1.5 million units sold worldwide, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa announced in Nintendo’s briefing to investors.

Given the Switch’s unique nature, emphasizing more casual play as well as local multiplayer on the go and spontaneously, as well as the distinct hardware which is used in interesting ways in Super Mario Party, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Even more so, the game, while having its own raft of issues, is a return to form for the series from the poorer instalments we got in the Wii and Wii U eras—so it makes sense players have responded well to it.

Owing to its status as a fun party game, it is likely to continue selling well going forward, especially in the upcoming Holiday season. Super Mario Party is available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch.

After ceding the top spot on the software charts to PS4 games for the last few weeks, the Switch has reclaimed the mantle of the bestselling game in Japan in the newest Media Create report for the best selling video game hardware and software in Japan. Super Mario Party, the newest entry in the long running party game series, topped the software charts with almost 143,000 units sold in its debut week.

Elsewhere, Mega Man 11 sold well as well, with the Switch version outselling the PS4 version (although the difference was minimal), while Astro Bot sadly had a poor showing. Spider-Man, the top selling game in Japan last month, is now out of the sales charts. Showing good legs, however, are Switch games including Splatoon 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Odyssey.

On the hardware side of things, the Switch topped charts with a little over 40,000 units sold, the PS4 came in second with under 15,000 units sold, and the sun setting 3DS rounded out the top three.

You can see the full charts below.

Software

1. [NSW] Super Mario Party (Nintendo, 10/05/18) – 142,868 (New)
2. [PS4] Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Limited Edition Included) (Ubisoft, 10/05/18) – 45,166 (New)
3. [PS4] Warriors Orochi 4 (Limited Editions Included) (Koei Tecmo, 09/27/18) – 24,005 (124,836)
4. [NSW] Mega Man 11 (Limited Edition Included) (Capcom, 10/04/18) – 14,650 (New)
5. [PS4] FIFA 19 (Limited Editions Included) (Electronic Arts, 09/28/18) – 13,426 (71,197)
6. [PS4] Marvel’s Spider-Man (Bundle Version Included) (SIE, 09/07/18) – 12,276 (279,078)
7. [PS4] Mega Man 11 (Limited Edition Included) (Capcom, 10/04/18) – 12,052 (New)
8. [PS4] The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV ~The End of Saga~ (Limited Editions Included) (Falcom, 09/27/18) – 12,032 (97,193)
9. [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 11,071 (315,616)
10. [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 10,381 (2,654,977)
11. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 9,953 (1,788,666)
12. [NSW] Dragon Ball FighterZ (Bandai Namco, 09/27/18) – 8,186 (31,388)
13. [NSW] Warriors Orochi 4 (Limited Editions Included) (Koei Tecmo, 09/27/18) – 7,022 (30,682)
14. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 5,896 (1,129,097)
15. [NSW] FIFA 19 (Limited Editions Included) (Electronic Arts, 09/28/18) – 5,238 (21,438)
16. [NSW] Sumikko Gurashi: Atsumare! Sumikko Town (Nippon Columbia, 10/04/18) – 5,221 (New)
17. [PS4] Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (SIE, 10/04/18) – 4,963 (New)
18. [3DS] Pokemon Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon (The Pokemon Company, 11/17/17) – 4,637 (1,738,872)
19. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! (Bandai Namco, 07/19/18) – 4,472 (209,827)
20. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 3,890 (1,825,226)

Hardware Sales

1. Switch – 45,762 (42,957)
2. PlayStation 4 – 11,575 (15,322)
3. New 2DS LL – 4,788 (5,218)
4. PlayStation Vita – 2,635 (2,675)
5. PlayStation 4 Pro – 2,490 (5,084)
6. New 3DS LL – 2,073 (1,978)
7. Xbox One X – 747 (52)
8. 2DS – 535 (310)
9. Xbox One – 242 (23)

If the Mario Party series is ever going to get back on track, the upcoming Super Mario Party looks like it will be the best chance for that to happen. While Mario Party was once one of the most consistently fun multiplayer series in Nintendo’s arsenal, it’s star has fallen immensely with recent instalments all disappointing. Super Mario Party, however, looks like it brings back the fun that has been missing from newer games.

The new launch trailer for the game, which you can see for yourself below, makes me more hopeful still- it shows off the full range of modes the game will have, including online modes, which means you should be able to get some mileage out of the game even when people aren’t over. The actual mini games look like they will be fun enough as well, which further fuels my (admittedly cautious) optimism that this new game will not disappoint.

Super Mario Party launches on Nintendo Switch on October 5.

Super Mario Party was announced for the Nintendo Switch back in June, and we had learnt that, true to Mario Party fashion, it will be full of fun mini-games for players to enjoy with (or argue about) their friends. Nintendo have now announced a brand new game mode that will be featured in the upcoming title. Called River Survival, and a new video has been released which showcases exactly what this game mode is all about.

In this mode, up to four players will have to co-operate and row their raft together in order to reach the end of a river. There will also be some mini-games that players can play in the middle of their journey, of course, and this gives them a chance to increase the time they have left on the clock. If you get a higher score, you will gain more time. Interestingly enough, rowing the raft is controller by the Joycon’s motion controls.

Check the video out below if you want to see how exactly this game mode works, or to see Mario and Bowser working togetgher to steer a boat, if nothing else. Super Mario Party is set to release for the Nintendo Switch on October 5. Head over to our wiki page to get more details on the game.

As Gamescom approaches, high profile video game publishers are announcing the lineup of the games they will be bringing to the event in Germany from August 21st to August 25th one after another. Capcom recently confirmed a pretty impressive presence with some exciting games, with THQ Nordic also promising a few surprises, while Microsoft are looking to one-up everyone with a total of 25 games at the event.

Nintendo have now also revealed their own lineup for Gamescom 2018, and it’s pretty solid. They’ve confirmed eight upcoming Nintendo Switch titles that will all be playable at the event, and it’s looking like a good mix of exclusives, multiplats, first party titles, and third party titles.

The most prominent of these has to be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which was recently announced at E3 2018 and was playable there as well (and also at the recently held San Diego Comic Con). Also included in the lineup is Super Mario Party, which was also announced at E3. Meanwhile, another big title they’re bringing with them is the Nintendo Switch version of Dark Souls Remastered- hopefully they will be announcing a release date for it soon.

Meanwhile, Dragon Ball FighterZ, which is also going to be launching on the Switch pretty soon, is going to be present at the event as well, as is FIFA 19, which should be interesting if more info is released on stuff that will or will not be included in the game’s custom made Switch version. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is also part of the lineup, and hopefully we’ll finally get to see some meaty gameplay footage.

In addition to those, Killer Queen Black and Ubisoft’s Starlink: Battle for Atlas – which will feature Star Fox as an exclusive Switch-version character – will also be part of the lineup. If you want to get some hands-on time with any of these games (and find yourself in Cologne between August 21-25), head to Nintendo’s booth in hall 9.

Development

https://youtu.be/oAuNwjd4O-4

Super Mario Party was announced for the Nintendo Switch during the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct presentation. One again, it will be developed by series developers Nd Cube. Nintendo have described the game as a “complete relaunch” and “complete refresh” of the franchise, as they look to bring back popular elements from earlier games in the series, while also retaining elements from some of the more recent games in the series. During the game’s announcement, Nintendo also promised deeper strategy elements in the game.

Gameplay

Super Mario Party is mainly going to have two main modes. There’s Party Mode, which is your regular Mario Party experience, and sees up to four players in a single game, who take turns moving around a board in search of stars and competing in a variety of mini games. Mini games are, of course, the core of any Mario Party experience, and in Super Mario Party, there’s going to be plenty of good stuff going around. There will be 80 new minigames this time, spanning across free for all, 2v2, and 3v1. Croozin’ for a Broozin’ and Fish Food, for instance, are free for all games, which involve, respectively, players being chased by swarms of Broozers, and player throwing balls into a Cheep Chomp goal.

Tug of War is a 2v2 minigame (also a pretty self-explanatory name), as is Fruit Forecast, in which players catch falling fruits. There are also several other 2v2 minigames that have been confirmed, but have not yet been named. These include a minigame which is essentially a pie-throwing contest between two teams (at each other, just in case you were wondering), another minigame based on baseball, and yet another that involves players using canons to bring down opposing the team’s castles, which are built of puzzle block pieces. Then there’s the one versus three mini games- one of them is Off the Chain, a 3v1 game which involves one player riding a Chain Chomp and trying to hit the other three players. Another one is Sign, Steal, Deliver, which sees players loading packages, which are given to them by Toad, onto a truck. Yet another, called Dust Buddies, sees players vacuuming a dusty room- Luigi’s Mansion nod?

The second mode is the Partner Party, which which sees two teams of two players playing on a board with free movements, searching for stars, similar to Mario Party: Star Rush on the 3DS. One of the changes that Nintendo made with Mario Party 9 was the addition of cars, which replaced free movement across the board. Needless to say, it wasn’t very well received, but the developers at Nd Cube have definitely been listening to fans. Regular free movement for players is back in the picture. Meanwhile, Nintendo are also promising to include a layer of strategy to the game, which will come through items that will alter player movements and speed.

Strategy will also come through Dice Blocks. Each character will have different dice blocks specific to themselves, and dice blocks can have a variety of effects, from how many rolls they can have in total, to giving players extra coins, to even taking away players’ coins. However, Nintendo are going to try and balance things out to give each character a proper balance of advantages and disadvantages. For instance, while Bowser has two -3 coins on his specific dice block, he also has higher values of 8, 9, and 10. Similarly, while has two 10s and a +5 coins, he also has to contend with three 0s. Then there are also the “safe” characters whose dice blocks have very low risk, but also very low rewards, such as Daisy, who has four 3s and two 4s.

Board items will, of course, also be back, while special items are going to be included as well, which can have a wide variety of effects. For instance, there’s Coinado, which summons a special attack on a rival of your choice, allowing you to steal between 5 to 10 of their coins, while Golden Drink nets you one coin every time you move (though not when Peepa is in the way). Some other items are Golden Dash Mushroom, which rewards a +5 dice roll; Fly Guy Ticket, which lets you steal an item from a rival player; and Warp Box, which allows you to warp close to one of your teammates.

Super Mario Party will allow players to play with just one Joycon each, which will make local co-op much easier and much better than what it was on the 3DS. While many minigames will be played with traditional button controls, some will also be based on motion controls, such as one that sees players controlling a tricycle. A major new feature is called Toad’s Rec Room, which allows you to physically place two Switches together to align and synchronise their screens to display a larger area, and thus be able to play in larger, dual-screen environments- obviously, this is only available in the Switch’s tabletop mode. Also, this will only be limited to certain minigames, but further details on this are as of yet unknown.

Online multiplayer is also being included in Super Mario Party. You can play with both, friends and strangers, but the Party Mode’s board games are not going to be part of this online mode. Instead, players will compete against other players in a collection of five randomly selected minigames from the game’s total of 80 minigames. The online component will also include leaderboards and a ranking system, while Nintendo have also promised that this mode will net players some special rewards, though what these rewards might be isn’t something they have detailed yet.

As for the characters included in the game, Super Mario Party is promising to have one of the most full-featured character rosters ever in the series. Of course, there’s going to be characters like Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Peach, and Bowser, while Toad will obviously be returning as the host once again. But these are all characters we expect to see anyway. Diddy Kong and Bowser Jr., who have appeared in Mario Party games before, but only in its handheld instalments, will be making their console Mario Party debut, while three brand new characters, namely Pom Pom, Monty Mole, and Goomba are going to be featured as well.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.