Nintendo’s Metroid Prime Remastered re-release on the Nintendo Switch has already passed an impressive sales milestone. Earlier this year, Nintendo surprised many fans during the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, where among a slew of other remaster and re-release announcements, the biggest one that took fans off-guard was the shadow-drop release of Metroid Prime Remastered. While there were plenty of rumors about the game being real for at least a year, the announcement was still quite shocking, with the game also being released the same day once the direct was over.
Once the news settled, many fans were quick to purchase the remaster. In addition, Metroid Prime Remastered became one of the best-reviewed games of 2023, faithfully translating the original game from the GameCube to the Switch while upgrading its presentation in many ways. Not only did it manage to get the same positive critical reception the original received in 2002, but it also quickly climbed the sales charts on Nintendo's digital eShop storefront. While the digital version came first, fans got a physical release a few weeks later. While there were some supply issues at first, according to Nintendo, this game has managed to pass an incredible sales milestone within its first few months.
Based on Nintendo's latest financial report, Metroid Prime Remastered managed to sell at least a million copies in-between February and March. It should be noted that this financial report was for last year, starting from April 2022 and ending on March 31, 2023. The fact the game managed to sell this many copies within a short timeframe, at the tail-end of the company's fiscal year, is impressive. According to the report, these sales were mostly coming from the digital downloads, which were for a number of other games in this report and not just Metroid Prime Remastered.
The sales success of this game is quite unprecedented, considering the other high sellers on this list like Fire Emblem Engage and Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe had a few months or even a year of promotions and ads behind it. Metroid Prime Remastered's surprise release however was near the end of the company's fiscal year, and yet it managed to cross this impressive sales threshold.
The original Metroid Prime had sold 2.8 million copies within its lifetime on the older console and was the franchise's best-selling title until Metroid Dread surpassed its sales in 2021. With Metroid Prime Remastered now having sold at least a third of the original's lifetime numbers, it's possible that this game can pass that figure in the future, maybe even beat out Metroid Dread too.
Metroid Prime Remastered is available now on Nintendo Switch.
Source: Nintendo
