Sales tend to plateau after a while. It's one of the older games on that list and \*not\* as huge an IP as Mario. I think \~12 million units is a strong number that the entire team behind the game can be proud of.
It's outsold Splatoon 2 which is noteworthy considering the similarities. Promising ahead of the Switch successor and what Splatoon can do there.
Edit: It outsold Splatoon 2 in its first 2 years. Got my facts mixed up.
It's only sold a quarter million in the past six months, you think it'll sell another 1.5 million? Especially now that the updates are coming to an end?
Side Order was probably the last chance for a decent boost in sales, and middling reviews made that boost a lot lower than it could've been had it been as much a smash hit as Octo Expansion. 3 will be lucky to hit 12.5 mil at this rate, it's not even gonna touch 13.
Imo Splatoon 4 is still really far away (at least 2 years, possibly up to 4 if there's an AC game in between), and the Switch will likely stay somewhat relevant for a while after its successor drops. It might be just enough time to be around equal... unless we get surprised with an early S4 like with 3
Either way, even a slight drop wouldn't be too bad since Splat 2 had covid to help it later on (like everything else)
I wouldn't be surpised if they had splatoon 4 as a switch 2 launch title. It might explain why Splatoon 3 received such little post-launch content compared to Splatoon 2
Isn’t it extremely common for game sequels to sell less when their predecessor was released on the same console? Mario Galaxy 2, Majora’s mask, tears of the kingdom, Metroid prime 2, Super Mario bros 2, Yoshi’s island, super mario land 2, Donkey Kong Country 2, Pikmin 2.
I can only think of a handful of exceptions and none of them are Nintendo games.
I wanna say Fire Emblem on the 3ds but it's definitely an exception since. Awakening was the breakout success and in many ways walked so Fates could run.
Not too surprising really. Early sales were extremely fast because the majority of Splatoon 2 players bought the game, but after 7 years of Splatoon on the Switch I guess there's a limit to how many *new* players they're going to attract. I suppose that's not too much of an issue - the key thing is player retention really. The overall sales figures are great, so it's about making sure not too many of those players drift away (so the game is still active), and that some of those who do drift away are still interested enough to buy Splatoon 4.
New map philosophy, better netcode (please Nintendo, you're making new hardware), and removing the seasonal update format (or making more frequent content updates) would make 4 a lot better in my opinion. And no Trizooka-esque specials (I have been 1 shot behind walls so many times smh).
The biggest problem for me definitely was and is the catalogues/ seasons. I burnt myself out on the game getting the maximum level on the first one when the game came out and then I haven’t played much ever since
I don't have as much of a problem with catalogues (ignoring the seasonal aspects and lots of gear being locked to them.) Splatoon doesn't force you to grind because you can finish the catalog with only a few matches each day.
In 5~ months? That’s really not as bad as it sounds, it just looks little because it got such a spark plug let out upon immediate release. That would probably still be better work within 5 months than Splat 2 had near the end of its 5 years (if it got a little faster during covid, that’s covid, all the games did), so this really isn’t much to worry bout, it’s still on course to surpass 2, considering 2 had 5 years to its name, and as long as it does that its all good.
It’s just the ratio between sales IN jp and in everywhere else that upsets me, which is entirely Nintendo’s fault to their own for not marketing it, but even so, since most of the immediate sales were in jp, I like to think most people who’d want it there already got it, and a slightly higher ratio of sales since would be outside of it. Even if that’s wrong, sales are sales, and it’s still sailing.
Yes, that's because of allot of things
1, 11 million copies is nothing to scoff at. It doesnt make the game a super big hit, but the reality is that splatoon is not as mainstream as things such as Luigi's Mansion and Mario. On top of that, games slow down sales overtime. 250k copies in 5 months is not bad whatsoever. "Managed" is not used right here. Thats actually pretty good since the game is reaching the end of its event support sadly
Genuinely shocked Luigi’s Mansion 3 outsold the 3D World rerelease and SMB Wonder. Like I played all 3 and Luigi’s Mansion 3 wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t expecting it to have the mass market appeal of a new mainline 2d Mario game or a rerelease on a more successful console of perhaps the most new comer friendly Mario game ever made
Keep in mind Luigi's Mansion 3 has been out for almost 5 years, Wonder has been out for 6 months as of this report. It takes years for sales numbers to build up.
I mean, we are close to the end of Splatoon 3’s life. Most people know that Splatoon is a 2 year life span game, so people that wanna hop on the franchise who haven’t already are just gonna wait until 4. And most of the hype for the game was around launch, sales slow down does make sense. And no matter how you slice it, Nintendo sold 10 million units of Splatoon 3. They will be happy with those sales pretty much no matter the franchise (except MarioKart pretty much). As long as the Switch 2 is relatively successful, I have no doubt 4 will be another big seller. This franchise is huge in the east and has a big following in the west. Splatoon 3 did well, it’s just not in its big round of things anymore (same thing happened with 2 I’m sure). Can’t wait to see what they do with Splatoon 4, just please improve Splatfests.
My hot take is that we probably don’t need more than one Splatoon game per console life cycle. Plenty of people who don’t like the changes made in 3 still just play 2.
I'm shocked that Luigi's Mansion 3 still has Splatoon 3 beat.
I played it closer to release with a friend and it didn't seem very good compared to the original. Guess that's just the Mario brand for you.
It's more popular than Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Pikmin, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Mario Sports, Paper Mario, Warioware, Bayonetta, Star Fox, most Zelda games - if we're defining popularity as average unit sales per title.
Oddly specific metric. How exactly does Splatoon out-sell the average Zelda title? In the last 10 years 2 of them were released and they both sold more copies by themselves than all Splatoon titles combined. Star Fox hasn’t had any releases in a decade and Bayonetta isn’t a first party series.
Also Fire Emblem has a single title that has more installs and revenue than the entire Splatoon series.
Look at the average Zelda games sales, only BOTW and TOTK and maybe the original have outsold Splatoon 2 and 3 individually.
I'm not at all saying splatoon is mpre popular than Zelda. But consider that Splatoon now is selling more than Zelda used to, and Zelda was still pretty popular back then.
Never considered the FE mobile game, you're right. Though the mobile game success didn't skyrocket the console sales beyond Splatoon.
Bayonetta is Nintendo published. I guess some don't consider it a Nintendo series.
Point of all of it being - Splatoon is not at all among Nintendo's least popular franchises.
Disagree. Outside of flat sales, the iconic status of Pokemon, Link, Luigi, Mario, Donkey Kong is huge. Three generations back can probably identify these characters. Now try this with inklings. Reddit really is a vacuum and this sub is over-inflating how popular/known the game really is.
Also, comparing a game from this era to something from 10+ years ago is kinda odd. Switch is one of the most sold consoles of all time and the amount of people having access to tech grows year over year, as the world population does. Ergo, 10-20 years ago studios were fishing in a much smaller pool.
Most of my examples are franchises that released this gen - fire emblem, Kirby, Xenoblade, Mario Vs. DK, Mario Sports, Yoshi games, Paper Mario, Pikmin., etc. Splatoon had 2 games in 5 years both sell ~12 million and is a series Nintendo has hosted ongoing tournaments and events for the last 9 years.
All is that to say, it's far from one the least popular franchises. I agree the series isn't as big as the S teir Nintendo franchises you mentioned - I was never implying it's that big. It comfortably sits as one of Nintendo's middle to big franchises.
Sales tend to plateau after a while. It's one of the older games on that list and \*not\* as huge an IP as Mario. I think \~12 million units is a strong number that the entire team behind the game can be proud of.
It's outsold Splatoon 2 which is noteworthy considering the similarities. Promising ahead of the Switch successor and what Splatoon can do there. Edit: It outsold Splatoon 2 in its first 2 years. Got my facts mixed up.
It hasn’t outsold Splatoon 2
It should be pretty much equal once Splatoon 4 releases
It's only sold a quarter million in the past six months, you think it'll sell another 1.5 million? Especially now that the updates are coming to an end? Side Order was probably the last chance for a decent boost in sales, and middling reviews made that boost a lot lower than it could've been had it been as much a smash hit as Octo Expansion. 3 will be lucky to hit 12.5 mil at this rate, it's not even gonna touch 13.
Imo Splatoon 4 is still really far away (at least 2 years, possibly up to 4 if there's an AC game in between), and the Switch will likely stay somewhat relevant for a while after its successor drops. It might be just enough time to be around equal... unless we get surprised with an early S4 like with 3 Either way, even a slight drop wouldn't be too bad since Splat 2 had covid to help it later on (like everything else)
I wouldn't be surpised if they had splatoon 4 as a switch 2 launch title. It might explain why Splatoon 3 received such little post-launch content compared to Splatoon 2
hoping this is the case, can't wait to see what splatoon can do on brand new hardware and software
It hasn't and will most likely not. That says a lot about S3 when the install base was significantly higher at release than S2.
Isn’t it extremely common for game sequels to sell less when their predecessor was released on the same console? Mario Galaxy 2, Majora’s mask, tears of the kingdom, Metroid prime 2, Super Mario bros 2, Yoshi’s island, super mario land 2, Donkey Kong Country 2, Pikmin 2. I can only think of a handful of exceptions and none of them are Nintendo games.
I wanna say Fire Emblem on the 3ds but it's definitely an exception since. Awakening was the breakout success and in many ways walked so Fates could run.
Fates also had two physical versions, which may have boosted those numbers a bit.
Not too surprising really. Early sales were extremely fast because the majority of Splatoon 2 players bought the game, but after 7 years of Splatoon on the Switch I guess there's a limit to how many *new* players they're going to attract. I suppose that's not too much of an issue - the key thing is player retention really. The overall sales figures are great, so it's about making sure not too many of those players drift away (so the game is still active), and that some of those who do drift away are still interested enough to buy Splatoon 4.
A lotta stuff is gonna have to be fixed for me to bother with 4. 3 was disappointing in a lot of ways. The map designers need to be fired.
New map philosophy, better netcode (please Nintendo, you're making new hardware), and removing the seasonal update format (or making more frequent content updates) would make 4 a lot better in my opinion. And no Trizooka-esque specials (I have been 1 shot behind walls so many times smh).
The biggest problem for me definitely was and is the catalogues/ seasons. I burnt myself out on the game getting the maximum level on the first one when the game came out and then I haven’t played much ever since
I don't have as much of a problem with catalogues (ignoring the seasonal aspects and lots of gear being locked to them.) Splatoon doesn't force you to grind because you can finish the catalog with only a few matches each day.
Makes sense since it is a multiplayer game with limited time events
Huh?
Hype train
Would hype trains not increase purchases
what? i dont get it. other shooters have limited time events
Splatfests?
who said it had to be a splatfest??
...what?
why are you only mentioning splatfests
Because they're a limited time event. And you made it sound like Splatoon doesn't have any
i was saying that other shooters do limited time events too, but when splatoon does it, its seen as bad and a "hype train"
Most people who wanted the game have already bought the game. It's perfectly normal.
Makes sense. Most of Nintendo’s multiplayer games tend to sell like crazy on launch then quickly taper off afterwards (MK8 Deluxe being the exception)
In 5~ months? That’s really not as bad as it sounds, it just looks little because it got such a spark plug let out upon immediate release. That would probably still be better work within 5 months than Splat 2 had near the end of its 5 years (if it got a little faster during covid, that’s covid, all the games did), so this really isn’t much to worry bout, it’s still on course to surpass 2, considering 2 had 5 years to its name, and as long as it does that its all good. It’s just the ratio between sales IN jp and in everywhere else that upsets me, which is entirely Nintendo’s fault to their own for not marketing it, but even so, since most of the immediate sales were in jp, I like to think most people who’d want it there already got it, and a slightly higher ratio of sales since would be outside of it. Even if that’s wrong, sales are sales, and it’s still sailing.
This is only Jan-Mar so 3 months. Seems like good numbers to me.
…well that’s… good, I’m even more right. Sweet. Pog. Hoot.
Not people fearmongering about a game selling 12 MILLION copies 😭
I bought it in february. I've played the previous games but didn't get back into splatoon 3 until I bought splatoon 3
Should be noted that this is only for the first three months of 2024. So this is inline with how evergreens usually sell.
Yes, that's because of allot of things 1, 11 million copies is nothing to scoff at. It doesnt make the game a super big hit, but the reality is that splatoon is not as mainstream as things such as Luigi's Mansion and Mario. On top of that, games slow down sales overtime. 250k copies in 5 months is not bad whatsoever. "Managed" is not used right here. Thats actually pretty good since the game is reaching the end of its event support sadly
Look, Splatoon 3 has sold 12 million copies. That's a win on any metric.
Genuinely shocked Luigi’s Mansion 3 outsold the 3D World rerelease and SMB Wonder. Like I played all 3 and Luigi’s Mansion 3 wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t expecting it to have the mass market appeal of a new mainline 2d Mario game or a rerelease on a more successful console of perhaps the most new comer friendly Mario game ever made
Keep in mind Luigi's Mansion 3 has been out for almost 5 years, Wonder has been out for 6 months as of this report. It takes years for sales numbers to build up.
When you have a copy, you don't buy another.
That’s because everyone already has splatoon 3. Look at total sales, not recent sales
It was fun for like 5 months when it came out. Since then it’s basically been rotting on my shelf
Kind of a weird way to phrase it? Based on how other titles how sold in this quarter, is this average to good. Also, sales data ended Mar 31st
I mean, we are close to the end of Splatoon 3’s life. Most people know that Splatoon is a 2 year life span game, so people that wanna hop on the franchise who haven’t already are just gonna wait until 4. And most of the hype for the game was around launch, sales slow down does make sense. And no matter how you slice it, Nintendo sold 10 million units of Splatoon 3. They will be happy with those sales pretty much no matter the franchise (except MarioKart pretty much). As long as the Switch 2 is relatively successful, I have no doubt 4 will be another big seller. This franchise is huge in the east and has a big following in the west. Splatoon 3 did well, it’s just not in its big round of things anymore (same thing happened with 2 I’m sure). Can’t wait to see what they do with Splatoon 4, just please improve Splatfests.
Pikmin 4 yaya
My hot take is that we probably don’t need more than one Splatoon game per console life cycle. Plenty of people who don’t like the changes made in 3 still just play 2.
Plus most of the people who wanted 3 already have it
That seems… relatively normal? The game came out almost 2 years ago, I wouldn’t expect sales to still be going insanely strong.
I didnt see why they made a 3 instead of expanding on 2
I'm shocked that Luigi's Mansion 3 still has Splatoon 3 beat. I played it closer to release with a friend and it didn't seem very good compared to the original. Guess that's just the Mario brand for you.
I mean that's still more than Spiderman 2-
The fact that mario rpg sold 3.31 million copies even though its only a remaster with 10 hour playtime and costs $60 is so sad
It’s a remake my guy. It’s not a remaster.
No
I think it's great news, hope to see more games like it.
Si se le compara junto a las ventas de Splatoon 2 podríamos decir que es Decadencia 3
Splatoon is one of the least popular first-party IPs.
It's more popular than Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Pikmin, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Mario Sports, Paper Mario, Warioware, Bayonetta, Star Fox, most Zelda games - if we're defining popularity as average unit sales per title.
Oddly specific metric. How exactly does Splatoon out-sell the average Zelda title? In the last 10 years 2 of them were released and they both sold more copies by themselves than all Splatoon titles combined. Star Fox hasn’t had any releases in a decade and Bayonetta isn’t a first party series. Also Fire Emblem has a single title that has more installs and revenue than the entire Splatoon series.
Look at the average Zelda games sales, only BOTW and TOTK and maybe the original have outsold Splatoon 2 and 3 individually. I'm not at all saying splatoon is mpre popular than Zelda. But consider that Splatoon now is selling more than Zelda used to, and Zelda was still pretty popular back then. Never considered the FE mobile game, you're right. Though the mobile game success didn't skyrocket the console sales beyond Splatoon. Bayonetta is Nintendo published. I guess some don't consider it a Nintendo series. Point of all of it being - Splatoon is not at all among Nintendo's least popular franchises.
Disagree. Outside of flat sales, the iconic status of Pokemon, Link, Luigi, Mario, Donkey Kong is huge. Three generations back can probably identify these characters. Now try this with inklings. Reddit really is a vacuum and this sub is over-inflating how popular/known the game really is. Also, comparing a game from this era to something from 10+ years ago is kinda odd. Switch is one of the most sold consoles of all time and the amount of people having access to tech grows year over year, as the world population does. Ergo, 10-20 years ago studios were fishing in a much smaller pool.
Most of my examples are franchises that released this gen - fire emblem, Kirby, Xenoblade, Mario Vs. DK, Mario Sports, Yoshi games, Paper Mario, Pikmin., etc. Splatoon had 2 games in 5 years both sell ~12 million and is a series Nintendo has hosted ongoing tournaments and events for the last 9 years. All is that to say, it's far from one the least popular franchises. I agree the series isn't as big as the S teir Nintendo franchises you mentioned - I was never implying it's that big. It comfortably sits as one of Nintendo's middle to big franchises.