Not too long ago, Nintendo was getting a beating from Sony and Microsoft in terms of gaming consoles sales. Although it was doing a lot better in the game development segment, it was having a tough time overcoming the advantage of its two major competitors in the gaming console market, particularly in the US.
It seems that Nintendo has picked up the pieces of its disappointing years and is now making a complete turnaround both in the video game and console sales performance.
As a matter of fact, Nintendo recently announced some outstanding sales statistics for the month of June 2016 in the US, anchored on the excellent showing of the popular fighting game “Super Smash Bros.”
Nintendo reported that “Super Smash Bros” has passed two million units sales in the Wii U and surpassed three million copies sold in the 3DS. The Japanese game company also announced that the game sold 4.8 million units worldwide on the Wii U as of March 31 while the company shipped 8.12 million copies of the game on the 3DS during the same period, details Gamespot.
The Japanese gaming company also announced that the physical version of “Minecraft” on Wii U landed in the No. 11 position on the NPD Group’s bestseller list. Nintendo said that the full list would be released on July 21.
In terms of gaming console sales, Nintendo announced that weekly sales of 3DS family systems, including the 3DS and 2DS, maintained an average weekly sales increase of 39% in May this year. The 2DS also dropped in price to $80 in the US during the same month, which is also part of Nintendo’s marketing strategy for the older gaming console.
Drawing a good number of participants
The Evolution Championship Series (EVO) 2016 is currently happening in Las Vegas, Nevada and Nintendo has been very happy to announce that “Super Smash Bros Melee” has generated 2,372 entrants in the tournament.
The figure makes it 300 entrants less than “Super Smash Bros 4” which was released back in 2014.
“Melee” was released 15 years ago on a console that sold less than its competitors in the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. The game is now in its fourth consecutive year at what EVO says as the biggest “Smash” tournament ever, reports Kotaku.
Fans of the game are very appreciative of the game’s speed and play techniques like wave dashing apart from other features including exploitable mechanics that contributes to the game’s depth.
Top games in EVO 2016
Japanese game developer Capcom has dominated the EVO 2015 tournament last year in terms of the fighting video game that had the most number of gamer-participants.
Last year, “Ultra Street Fighter 4” had more than 2,000 entrants for EVO 2015.
Capcom has once again dominated the current EVO 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada as more than 4,000 fighting gamers have signed up to compete for its latest fighting video game “Street Fighter 5.”
The game developer’s dominance also trickled to its other popular fighting game “Marvel vs. Capcom 3.”
While “Street Fighter 5” is already the hands-down most popular game in the EVO 2016, the second spot has become a neck-and-neck battle between “Marvel vs. Capcom 3” and Nintendo’s “Super Smash Bros 4” on the Wii U.
As of the first week of June, more than 2,000 “Super Smash Bros 4” gamers on the Wii U have already registered to compete in EVO 2016 tournament. The event organizer subsequently posted on Twitter its congratulatory message to “Super Smash Bros 4” for finally breaking into the 2K Club.
As it turned out, “Marvel vs. Capcom 3” took the second spot, followed by “Super Smash Bros 4” and then “Super Smash Bros Melee” at the fourth spot.
Last year, “Super Smash Bros 4” generated a player turn-out of 1,900. It’s sister game in the Nintendo stable “Super Smash Bros Melee” also had plenty of gamer-participants in 2015.