Metroid Dread Becomes Fastest, Best-Selling Metroid Game

In an interview with The Washington Post, Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser opened up about Nintendo’s financial successes of 2021, and in particular singled out the success of Metroid Dread.

854,000 copies of Metroid Dread were purchased in October, according to Bowser. This is the best launch for a Metroid game in the franchise’s history.

NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella also tweeted that Metroid Dread was the 3rd best-selling game in October, and the bestselling game on Switch for the month.

US NPD SW – Metroid: Dread debuted as October's #3 best-selling game, while also ranking 1st on Switch. Metroid: Dread achieved the highest launch month sales of any Metroid franchise release in tracked history.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 12, 2021

Piscatela also notes that Dread’s sales are nearly double that of 2002’s Metroid Prime, one of the most well-received games in the Metroid franchise and the most profitable Metroid game until Dread.

Metroid Dread is the first Metroid game since 2017’s Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS, and the first completely new main series entry since 2010’s Metroid: Other M for the Nintendo Wii.

Given Dread’s critical and commercial success, hopefully Nintendo won’t put Samus Aran back on the shelf for years at a time without another new game. Metroid Prime 4, which was announced at E3 2017, is still in development, though Nintendo has not offered much information on its progress or when we might expect it to be released.

The Super Smash Bros. roster is full of first-party characters whose franchises Nintendo has largely abandoned (F-Zero, Star Fox, and Kid Icarus, for starters), so perhaps Dread’s acclaim will also push Nintendo to reappraise the value of these dormant franchises.

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