These are Nintendo's biggest failures
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- What are Nintendo's worst selling games? Today, I searched through sales data to find the WORST selling Mario game, the least successful Zelda game, and more! Let's look at Nintendo's biggest failures!
PATREON - / thomasgamedocs
MERCH - teespring.com/...
TWITTER - / thomasgdocs
SOURCES
sites.google.c...
vgsales.fandom... (I left out all data from VGChartz except where otherwise stated)
CREDITS
Animal Crossing for GameCube Footage
• Longplay of Animal Cro...
Four Swords Adventures Footage
• Longplay of The Legend...
Super Smash Bros for Wii U Footage
• Longplay of Super Smas...
Kirby’s Dream Land 3 Footage
• Longplay of Kirby's Dr...
The *only* reason I didn't expect fed force to be the worst selling metroid game is because I forgot it exists
Can a game even be considered a Metroid game without Samus?
It just feels force-fed
Which is sad. Because I feel like it could've worked as it's own thing. But alas, gotta get that brand recognition
@@thefabulouskitten7204 not even that. The real issue was timing. If it came out now that faith in meteoid had been restored people would take it for what it is. A neat spinoff.
But it came out when everyone still thought the series was dead from Other M so the game felt like kicking the Fandom while it was down.
Always just makes me think of "force-fed" or "force-feed". Then I get uncomfortable.
I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the Mario and Luigi remakes on 3DS. I don’t remember the exact numbers but I remember hearing they were “some of the worst selling Mario games of all time”
Most of the games are good though so that may be why he didn't
Shame too, I'm playing Superstar Saga right now and it's brilliant
I understand why the bowser's inside story remake sold bad (everyone had already played the og and the 3ds was dying) but I don't get why the superstar saga remake sold bad. It was so awesome!
@@londiebrondie Ill-advised advertising was the culprit as far as Superstar Saga & Bowser's Minions is concerned.
If you tease "the next step in the evolution of the Mario & Luigi Series" and then show off the trailer for a Remake...
The reaction was predictable, to say the least.
I believe that the poor sales of the Bowser's Inside Story remake caused AlphaDream to go bankrupt.
Animal Forest for N64 was the 1st Animal Crossing game & had the least amount of sales only be available in Japan
Nitpicking, as I'm sure they are the same game, and even combined would still be bottom of the list 🤷♂️
The GameCube and N64 versions were very similar but the GameCube version had tons of upgrades and features so there is a ton of differences
Also the GameCube game was actually a port & remaster of the N64 one, that's why the graphics look bad for a GameCube game
The reason why Animal Forest was never released in English was because it would've been too hard to do since a lot of things in the game only made sense in a Japanese context, it was easier once they made the GameCube version
The reason why Animal Forest sold so badly was because the GameCube was already out so it was on an outdated console, and because the GameCube version came out only a few months later!
It's really heartbreaking to me that Pokémon's lowest points in terms of sales were the two points it experimented a little more, and, in my opinion, created two incredibly appealing games.
And the highest sales numbers the series has come from when they give up and just decide to scam the fanbase.
Pokemon is in a sad state right now.
I AgReE. tHe sUpeRioR, aMazInG gEn 5 aND uNdEr gAmeS hAd mAnY lEaSt sEllInG gAmEs aNd the cAshGrAb geN 6 aNd oVeR gAmEs wItH bad gRaPhiCs anD lOw eFfOrT 3D uNlIkE tHe sUpeRioR 2D hAd hIgH sAlEs.
@@TwilightWolf032 I didn’t know they gave up since the beginning cuz if my memories serves me right the original is the best selling
@@chikobit3204 Sword and Shield are currently sitting at 2nd position, with Red/Green/Yellow at 1st, so yeah, the original titles were the best sellers. Sw&Sh are the best sellers since Gold and Silver.
The second generation on the same hardware tends not to do as well, so that probably had more to do with the sales figures for BW than anything.
I was actually expecting Channel or Rumble U to be the worst-selling game, but I guess only the main series got counted.
Learning that a lot of Kirby haven’t hit 1mil was rly surprising since Kirby is one of Nintendo’s biggest characters
Kirby merch probably produce revenue ten more times than games in Japan
Well yeah but it was pretty niche in Europe and America
Kirby the character is definitely a lot more famous than his own series, possibly in part due to Smash Bros. Also doesn't help that releasing very late in a console's lifespan has been somewhat of a recurring problem in Kirby games ever since _the second mainline game._
The games aren't that good but Kirby himself is very cute. I personally only liked Kirby64.
That's a steaming hot take if i've seen one lol
nintendo's worst selling game still did better than I could ever imagine if I made a video game
I wish more people had your perspective
I made a free game I think 2 people played it lol.
I have a link in my channel's description if anyone's curious. It's a horror platformer. It's browser only too, fyi.
@@MoonMagicks what's it called
@@MoonMagicks what is it called man I wanna play it
But on the other hand you haven’t spent hundreds of thousands if not Millions on your bombing game
You didn't mention that Black and White suffered from a similar problem to Kirby's Dream Land 3. While it didn't come out a year after the 3DS release, it was about the same time. I wouldn't be surprised if a good number of people decided to wait for a 3ds pokemon game instead of getting the second ds generation at the same time as buying a 3ds.
I mean the 3DS can play DS games so yeah. Also Black and White 2 were also released later when the 3DS was out
@@PhantomOfficial07 While the 3ds can play ds games, there's still the desire to play games that take advantage of the 3ds' improvements over the ds before playing games that could be run on the old console. This only really has an effect right after release (since after a while the excitement over what's new dies down), so Black and White likely suffered more from that than B2W2.
@@UltraLuigi2401 No, it was B2/W2 the least popular original titles with only around 8 millions BY FAR. And is a shame, because those games are amazing and put almost every 3D pokémon game to shame.
@@N12015 B2W2 were disadvantaged not only because they were DS games, but also because the weren't the first games of the generation. The initial releases of each generation always do better than later ones. That's probably one of the reasons pokemon switched to DLC for new content, since people are more likely to buy that if they own the original than they are to buy a new version of the same game.
I'm kinda surprised you didn't talk about Earthbound as it only sold around 75K Copies
How
@@SnevilGrey "This game STINKS"
@@SnevilGrey It was expensive, and the advertising for the game was really bad
@@SnevilGrey Too obscure for the time. Earthbound is only known today because of Ness' appearance in Smash Bros since Smash 64.
@Aqua The Aquatic Raptor It's been labeled a sacred cow in gaming. Its reputation has gain significant acclaim over the years.
Wouldn't really call most of those as certified 'failures' tbh
That’s kinda the point
big company is big
The sales are only bad compared to the others in the series
Signed, a Nintendo Fanboy
There are some that feel like failures, like Kirby's Dream Land 3, Federation Force, but many of them just seem like underwhelming sellers.
It depends really Smash 4 Wii U, Mario Kart Advanced, Legends Arceus & Black & White weren't failures and sold well over a million copies. Other games like Metroid Federation Force The Tingle Game & Kirby Fighters Deluxe & Amiibo Festival wich only sold 1k are failures.
I don't know if the first Animal Crossing game is a failure or not however. The GameCube flopped as a console but as a new IP Animal Crossing still managed to sell 2 million maybe I'm wrong but sounds like it was a modest success.
The two blurred games in the beginning I was able to tell what they were, just because I have seen their failure first hand.
00:29 animal crossing
01:05 all animal crossing games
01:36 mario kart
01:55 all mario kart games
02:25 zelda
02:54 all zelda games
03:13 smash bros
03:45 mario party
04:36 all kirby games
05:25 kirby
05:58 pokemon
07:08 if legends arceus is a spin off
07:30 metroid
08:13 super mario
08:52 excluding mario 2
09:32 outro
you made vs sussy bowser mod
@@JaxRetroGamer y e s
the fact that legends arceus hasn’t even been out for a year and it still has 12 million copies sold is insane. one of the best pokémon games imo
"I'm gonna only talk about physical games" immediately follows up with a digital exclusive
1:10 I can't believe he brought up Gex
Honestly, I’m surprised if anyone brings up Gex nowadays. Gex was just such a stain on nintendo’s history.
@@litningman06 whys that?
Aw, man. I love Gex!
Amiibo festival was actually pretty fun... for like a few hours, and then it got repetitive. It's basically Mario Party with with AC characters. The problem is that there's only 1 game board so it got tiresome fast. There's a couple of mini games, and I really enjoyed the island survival one (which I think was the precursor to the crafting system in ACNH)
0:57
Tbf, the "so-so graphics" are because it was an N64 game in Japan that got released in the US the same year
Great to have you back!
Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love was actually one of my favorite DS games. It's quite unique, and you need to dump most of the Zelda game expectations to fully enjoy it though lol
Taken as standalones and not Zelda games, the Tingle games are definitely weirdly fun.
"Game mechanics that sounds more like chores than fun" Yes, and I'll keep buying newer games so I can chore everyday again.
I can't believe you forgot about donkey kong. was waiting the whole video for it. it's one of nintendo's biggest series and my personal favorite.
Since you didn’t bring it up, I’m gonna talk about Fire Emblem. Prior to Awakening, not a single game in the series sold more than a million copies, at least from confirmed sales numbers. Part of the reason was because a lot of them were only released in Japan, but the games sold overseas didn’t do that much better. Thracia 776 is the worst-performing one at only about 110K copies, probably because it was a Japan-only SNES release in 1999, long after the N64 came out.
The funniest part about Mario Kart Super Circuit being the lowest-selling mainline Mario Kart game is that it's the highest rated on metacritic, beating out even Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Overall it is really enjoyable for it's time
@@MarioKartSuperCircuit I fucking belly laughed when I saw your name
To see failures for Pokémon you really have to look at spinoffs, because all of their main series titles have sold absolute gangbusters
Aside from some exceptions like the first two Mystery Dungeon games, Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Go & Pokemon Stadium a lot of the spinoffs only sell at most 1 or 2 million most of them are below that however. I think a lack of advertising the spinoffs especially the more recent ones is partially why Pokémon Spinoffs aren't incredibly successful.
They should really bring Ripened Tingle’s Balloon Trip of Love outside of Japan. It’s a really interesting game, and you’d be surprised about the emotional attachment you can have for characters in a Tingle game.
It has a fan translation in English, too!
Ripened Tingles Balloon Trip of love is certainly an experience. I'd def recommend playing the fan translation, or watching Vincent Vinesauce's playthrough of it.
"hey there tingerrrr it's me pinkerrrr~"
This is the moment Walter White became Heisenberg
This is the moment Breaking Bad memes became repetitive
unrelated, even though i like breaking bad
Why the hell is this getting likes
I am the one that Nocs
@@mandyb7277 5 year old
It makes me sad that most Kirby games didn’t sell well. There’s definitely some gold Kirby games
I think 2d kirby is too easy for pros that the 2d super mario playthough is more ornamental than kirby such as no death run. I died a lot in smbu but died less than 5 times in star allies. So somes star allies might quite boring for pros.
I am surprised you assumed we hadn't heard of the tingle game haha.
Chances are you've heard of the game the one mentioned in this video is a sequel of, Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. That one actually released outside Japan in Europe
@@SB2749 The real tingle fans have heard of both
Glad to see you making another video!
I always look forward to your content, thanks for uploading again
I think what really kept the sales figures for Four Sword Adventures so low where the hardware requirements. That game was sold with the assumption that people and their friends that are interested in playing it would already have multiple GBA´s and Gamecube Link cables available or at least where willing to invest in that stuff, and that on a console that wasn´t really a selling like sliced bread in the first place. I have no doubt that if they where to make a Switch Port of it that supports Online and Local Multiplayer with multiple system that could be a success this time around.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who knows FSA has a single-player mode. Multi-player is cumbersome, but not required.
I noticed there's a theme of worst selling games being those that required additional peripherals. Amiibo Festival required specific Amiibo, Four Swords Adventures required multiple Game Boy Advances and Link Cables for multiplayer, Mario Kart Live required the remote controlled kart toys, and Japanese Mario 2 required the Famicom Disk System.
You could also argue that the same thing applies to Metroid Prime Federation Force, as it was a multiplayer game that required all players to own their own 3DS and copy of the game in order to play.
I bought amiibo festival + two amiibo for a fiver about two years after release. They were really desperate to get rid of that stock.
Luigi U was fantastic, but it was also DLC for Mario U, and I don't know a single person who bought it on it's own... Which is partly because not many people had Wii U's but they all also all got Mario U often with it in a bundle so it made no sense not to get it as DLC...
I got it on it's own! I actually didn't even play Mario U because I already had Luigi U
I agree. I do not believe that Wii U Luigi U sold 3m+ individual copies as a stand alone game. In addition to the DLC that you mentioned it was also included on the disc of the Nintendo Selects New Super Mario Bros U physical release as a bonus game and I believe that both of these numbers would have been included in the final sales figures. I would suggest that Green Case Luigi U's would be lucky to represent 25% of that number but its only an assumption. Maybe one of the viewers has the actual breakdown...
Fun fact: Mario and Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story 3DS sold less than 35,000 copies worldwide, which ultimately led to the developer filing for bankruptcy in October 2019.
I still have my Wii U, and I play Animal Crossing Amibo Festival and Smash Bros on it with my little siblings every now and then (despite having New Horizons and Ultimate), as well as some other games and some on the Wii too because it gives me nostalgia and my younger siblings like to see how older games uses to look like. And it always leaves with a positive feeling, despite not being the best games.
Can you do a similar video, but talk some of Nintendo's other IP's?
Like Donkey Kong, Wario, Star Fox, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi?
Fire Emblem could probably go on the secondary list as well.
@@bigtree5076 Oh, forgot about Fire Emblem!
Xenoblade
A small detail throughout this video everyone else has probably ignored that I deeply appreciate is your inclusion of the currently modern logo of each franchise. The Kirby logo used is a prime example of this, being the one introduced in Forgotten Land onwards.
Thomas, I love your vids so much. I’ve watched every single video of yours hours after the release. I was scared when you didn’t post for over three weeks,
I enjoyed playing games on the wii u and never experienced any issues with the console.
Oh , finally someone agrees with me
it wasn’t systematic issues per se, just many things kind of dragged it down during this time.
- bad marketing (people thought the gamepad was just a wii exstension)
- mostly making 2d games that had 3ds counterparts
- strange controller
- had some REALLY bad games... (tennis ultra smash, amiibo festival)
- barely anybody seemed to know of its existence (i can say for sure i owned a 3ds but had no fkn clue about what a ‘wii-u’ was at the time)
- didn’t have any stellar, stand-out launch titles
- games like new super had already been milked dry
the games ran fine and their quality was decent. and it brought us the ‘draw her giving birth’, aka the legend of miiverse. Most people just complained about the wii-u due to what a massive failure it was sales-wise, or feeling betrayed by like every good wii-u title eventually ending up on switch. (e.g, mario kart.) Oh, and the constant post-poning of BOTW. ofc, it produced my favourite game of all time and subsequently the game that’s considered one of the best of all time/has made EVERYONE think their games MUST be open world due to its success, and also was the inspiration for my other favourite game, genshin impact.
The wii-u walked so the switch could SPRINT, essentially.
I hope you do a part 2 please of this for these Nintendo Franchises like Xenoblade Chronicles, Punch Out, Star Fox, Splatoon, 3D Mario, Paper Mario, Mario and Luigi and Pokemon Mystery Dungeons Games to name a few.
No mention of Paper Mario: Color Splash or the Bowser's Inside Story remake?
Color Splash only sold under 100,000 copies - making it the lowest-selling Paper Mario game and all time - and less than 1/10 of the second-worst selling Paper Mario game, seeing as though every other game in the series sold at least one million copies
The Bowser's Inside Story remake performed even worse, selling at most under 50,000 copies. This makes it the second-worst selling Mario game of all time, and it absolutely served as a driving factor in the bankruptcy of its developer AlphaDream, which occurred just one year after its release
To be fair New Super Luigi U was DLC for the game it was built on during the year of Luigi
I'm kinda glad and disappointed F-Zero wasn't mentioned because calling F-Zero a failure is a sad thing to hear, when it was really underrated and overshadowed by Mario Kart.
Seeing the worst Nintendo games flop hard gives me a sick sense of joy
I mean Amiibo Festival is *terrible*
"here are the worst selling pokemon games"
*lists the 2 best pokemon games ever made*
Only black and white legends arceus doesn't count cause Is still on store shelf
@frying panda
A scientific fact.
I have Luigi U but it came as a bonus with my copy of Mario U
You should do one on nintendo's biggest hits/successes. Like Metroid's best selling game is Metroid Dread at 2.9m sold.
Honestly it will most be either NES/Gameboy titles (Mario, Pokémon, Kirby) or Switch titles (Zelda, Fire Emblem, Metroid and Pikmin)
One thing I find interesting are franchises that explode in popularity several games in. Mario Kart went from a wacky spinoff to a tent pole franchise starting with the DS and Wii versions. Similar story for Animal Crossing.
@@pokepress Mario kart series became mainstream at the Wii era
@@therealjaystone2344 more so from the DS
You know a console is at the end of its life cycle when the Kirby games start coming out
lol
Hey Thomas! You are currently my favourite RUclipsr because your videos are great to listen too when I’m doing something else like homework for example. Your videos are relaxing yet informative and you uploading again made me super happy!
Hey, Thomas! I would appreciate it if you were to make a video on the history of Pikmin! I am a Pikmin fan and I’m sure others would like to see Pikmin content too!
Been a weird trend recently on RUclips of people discussing Nintendo's failures or the worst things they've done. But I've got alot of respect of how they still support their low selling franchises. We still get Warioware, Rythym Heaven, Famicom Detective and Pikmin games. Where a company like Sony shut down their whole Japanese development studio due to low sales. Nintendo is great at appealing to and retaining its core fans.
I feel like they're modest sellers on a modest budget. They're still very important games, but far from heavy hitters or juggernauts.
Let's all be very thankful that the Kirby franchise is still alive and well because HAL Laboratory probably would've gone bankrupt. AlphaDream wasn't so lucky for pulling a similar stunt by releasing a remake of a game on a console that's already dying which is the same console that have backwards compatibility with the original game.
Splatoon: am I a joke to you?
it’s probably 1
You don't need to round up ANY other players to start a game of Four Swords Adventures. It is fully playable in single-player. A mode which you show footage of.
Right. I was like wtf you talkin about.
I did not even know Luigi U was sold apart, at some point they just bundled Mario and Luigi U togheter.
Hey it’s that guy from twitter that was asking if you could do a video on this topic and you said you’re working on it and it’s already out thank u! U never disappoint!
For a second, seeing the Luigi game being the worst selling, I got very scared that it somehow got worse sales than Mario Clash lol (Mario Clash sold under 700,000 copies. If our boy Weegee underperformed THAT, I would be astounded)
You're telling me Rainbow Curse outsold another mainline Kirby game?
That was a good video! Can you do a video on why Jessie and James don’t sound like they used to?
The sales of Tingle spinoff games because Americans hate Tingle being labeled as a middle-aged manchild and having to pay a lot of rupees for his maps while at least beloved in his home country of Japan and why he still still appears in the main games. May have been based off the gag Pokemon character Imakuni.
Explains why his games weren't released in North America and all the games not in Europe.
I beg you please post more regularly! I love you content so much
1. Legends Arceus isn't a spin-off
2. Black/White 2 count because they're sequels
3. Third versions aren't part of a pair, and are listed as separate to the pair they're associated with, so they also count
4. Remakes are also separate
So, you either do only the first pair of a generation, or the entire main series
Meaning the answer is actually either Black/White 2 or Black/White
If they ever remake or put four swords on switch it’ll do really good
This was a great video! Thank you
If i worked at Nintendo, this video would've been all about me
Nintendo's worst reviewed games would have been much more interesting. (User score or critic score)
Thomas, please bring back the piano endings, I miss them
Ok, but what if I don’t count Luigi U, because it doesn’t even have Mario in the title? I certainly don’t count that game as a mainline Mario game. More like a spin-off.
The Wii U is way too underrated like I have one in my house and it's my second most used console I think. I literally have it hooked up and I'm waiting for it to charge
It failed because the name but the Wii U is pretty good I would say it’s like top 25
I liked Pokemon Black & White for forcing me to use new pokemon which led to me discovering some new favorites like Darmanitan and Leavanny, and I'm playing through Legends Arceus right now and not hating it even though I usually stay away from open-world games.
7:10 tbh i think that the reason why they are the lowest is probably becouse of the comically large amount of times the game was pirated
Guessing each series before the reveal:
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
Mario Kart: The GBA one
Zelda: Oracle of Ages or Seasons (since they have to split the sales in half)
Smash: Smash for Wii U
Mario Party: One of the 3DS ones, or Mario Party Advance
Kirby: An eShop one (ie Kirby Fighters)
Pokemon: Mainline prob Black/White, spinoff some weird Pokemon Rumble garbage
Metroid: Federation Force *cringe*
Super Mario: Mainline Super Mario Land 2, spinoff prob something I've never even heard of it
It's a bit sad how poorly Star Rush sold, since it's pretty good. Easily the best Mario Party on the 3DS.
Crazy when talking about pokemon you said you were going to ignore the games that weren't the first in the generation and then went on to ignore that rule by saying arceus which is the third in its generation
Awesome video! Your videos are great! I love watching your videos!
I think, featured in Train to Busan is the reason Wii U is losing it sales. That movie also brought up the fact that the same thing was bought twice by the boy's father; as if saying that it's redundant to have 2 of the same console!
Please do the first ever game series Nintendo ever made!
I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR NEXT VIDEOOOOO!!!
Mario Party the Top 100
While the title gave us hope, the gameplay let us all down
You should have counted BW2 because it is a completely different game from the base BW
And talked how it was so overlooked on release due to being more than one year after 3DS.
A two minute trip to Wikipedia turned into 10 minutes.
I'm surprised the bowser's inside story remakes weren't mentioned. The original sold over 4 million copies, but the remake only sold 34k (in Japan) which is about 100 times fewer than the original
I have a feeling the worst selling zelda game is probably zelda’s adventure on the CDI, which was a super obscure licensed live action zelda game
7:44 I'm looking at this now, and thinking: yeah, that's a Power Rangers reference
More like super Sentai reference
@@titogaming0776 ah, cos Japanese, I see
2:34 NANI?! F.S was a bomb, it was one of my favorites
Did the N64 version of the first Animal Crossing game sell better than the GameCube version, or did you forget it existed?
I would say Federation Force should be considered a spin-off, no?
It looks like that would be Samus Returns. If you remove any of the spin-offs, which are Federation Force and Pinball. Also excluding Prime Trilogy, and Classic NES Series Metroid, mainly because they’re releases.
Four swords adventures sounds like itd be great if it had online.
That and releasing at a good time. I remember triforce heros having online functions, but it was so under the radar that it was hard to get a full team going sometimes.
"The Zelda game that only sold 108,000 copies."
That kinda puts things in perspective. Do you have any idea how many indie game developers would _love_ to see sales numbers like that?
Kirby’s dreamland 3 probably sold much better in Japan than America as the Japanese greatly appreciate the super famicom more than the snes
You really really killed that outro about breathe of the wild...
I'm quite disappointed to hear this about Kirby's Dream Land 3. It is an absolutely amazing game.
Smash bros for Wii U was really excellent.
1. Virtual boy
2. Virtual boy
3. Virtual boy
4. Virtual boy
5. Virtual boy
Ok but WarioWare VB is an amazing game
@@kirbythingys k
I'm actually surprised the CD-i games did not make it into the list.
These games where not made by Nintendo and aren´t technically their failure.
@@Soonjai While yeah the games were not made by Nintendo, Nintendo have Phillips the rights to use their characters because of their partnership after Nintendo's partnership with Sony didn't go through early on. So it's still Nintendo's fault for not checking in on Philips.
I call piracy for the ds games as the explanation for why the sales were so low, relatively speaking.
Black and white were criminally underrated bc they were isolated from the previous games
I'm just gonna assume the worst selling Zelda and Mario games were the ones on the Philips CDi.
4:35
I own Mario Party Star Rush and i absolutely love it. And i wonder how this Game did so bad.
If there’s one Nintendo game I can’t stand in a million years it’s Mario Kart 64. I can’t win a single fucking race in that goddamn game. With either character in the roster of that turd of a game. That’s why I deeply regret purchasing it…….. but thankful for pawning that waste of plastic.