Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury was comfortably the UK’s largest retail game last week and is the fastest selling release of the year to date.
The Switch platform game is an updated reissue of the 2013 Wii U title, which includes a new side adventure. Its release is almost three times larger than the original game, which debuted at number 14 in late November 2013 (the same day as the PS4 release). It is worth noting that the installation base of Wii U was small at that time compared to the Switch.
It is actually the third largest release of a Mario platform game on Nintendo Switch, ahead of the 2D games: Super Mario Maker 2 (June 2019) and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe (January 2019), but behind of 3D titles. – Super Mario Odyssey (October 2017) and Super Mario 3D All-Stars (September 2020), which seems a bit appropriate for a game that is a cross between Mario’s 2D and 3D adventures. Physical sales of the title release are more than 2.5 times larger than New Super Mario Bros. U, but a third smaller than Super Mario 3D All-Stars.
Overall, it looks like solid performance. There are a number of Mario games being introduced to the market right now competing with each other, including last year’s All-Stars game. In fact, the 3D collection (# 12) saw an 11% increase in sales this week and Super Mario Odyssey (# 14) up 28%. With Mario Kart 8: Deluxe at number 5, New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe at number 16, Super Mario Party at number 18 and Luigi’s Mansion 3 at number 19, there are seven games set in the Mario universe in the Top 20 box.
This week wasn’t just Mario, with Bandai Namco’s Little Nightmares 2 debuting at number 7. The boxed version of the game sold best on PS4 (43% of sales) followed by Switch (37%), after Xbox One (18%) and PC (2%). This chart does not take into account digital sales.
Elsewhere, FIFA 21 climbs five places to No. 3 after a 140% jump in sales, driven by a discount that pushed the game down from £ 30. The arrival of new PS5 consoles also gave a boost to Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which rises eight places to No. 4 with a 264% increase in sales. PS5-exclusive Demon’s Souls also re-entered the charts this week, rising 401% in week-over-week sales and reaching number 17.
Overall, 270,000 cash games were sold in the UK in recent weeks, 44% more than the previous week.
Here’s GfK’s Top Ten for the week ending February 13:
| Last week | this week | Title |
|---|---|---|
| New entry | 1 | Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury |
| 1 | 2 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons |
| 8 | 3 | FIFA 21 |
| 12 | 4 | Spider-Man: Miles Morales |
| 2 | 5 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe |
| 3 | 6 | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War |
| New entry | 7 | Little nightmares 2 |
| 5 | 8 | Minecraft (Switch) |
| 10 | 9 | Assassin’s Creed Valhalla |
| 4 | 10 | Ring Fit Adventure |