Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury was comfortably the biggest game in UK boxed retail last week and is the fastest selling release of the year to date.
The Switch platformer is an updated re-release of the 2013 Wii U title, complete with a new side adventure. The launch is nearly three times the size of the original game, which debuted at number 14 in late November 2013 (on the same day as the PS4 launch). It’s worth noting that the Wii U’s installation base was small at the time compared to the Switch .
It’s actually the third biggest launch for a Mario platformer 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 the 3D titles – – Super Mario Odyssey (October 2017) and Super Mario 3D All-Stars (September 2020), which seems somewhat fitting for a game that is a cross between Mario’s 2D and 3D adventures. The title’s physical sales are more than 2.5 times that of New Super Mario Bros U, but a third smaller than that of Super Mario 3D All-Stars.
Overall, it looks like a solid performance. There are a number of Mario games currently being released that compete with each other, including last year’s All-Stars game. The 3D collection (No. 12) even saw an 11% increase in sales this week and Super Mario Odyssey (No. 14) saw a 28% increase in sales. 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 box Top 20.
It wasn’t just Mario this week, 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%), then Xbox One (18 %) and PC (2%). This chart does not take digital sales into account.
Elsewhere, FIFA 21 rises five places to No. 3 after a 140% increase in sales, driven by discounts that brought the game below £ 30. The arrival of new PS5 consoles also boosted Spider-Man: Miles Morales, moving eight places to number 4 with a sales peak of 264%. PS5 exclusive Demon’s Souls also hit the charts again this week, with sales up 401% from week to week, reaching number 17.
In total, 270,000 boxed games were sold in the UK in recent weeks, which is 44% more than the week before.
Here’s the GfK 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 |