Metroid Dread launched on Nintendo Switch in October 2021 and quickly established itself among plenty of people's game of the year lists. It also broke all sorts of launch records for the Metroid series very quickly. It would appear Dread managed to keep up that momentum over the holiday season and into 2022 as it is now the best-selling Metroid game of all time.
The acquisition of that accolade appears to have been confirmed by Nintendo's latest financial report. Among the figures for a number of Switch games, the report reads Dread has sold 2.9 million copies. According to VGChartz, that puts the newest Metroid game just ahead of Prime. The first 3D Metroid game, which celebrates its 20th anniversary later this year, sold 2.84 million copies.
Moving on down the list you'll find the very first Metroid game which sold 2.73 million copies, and then a somewhat steep dropoff for Metroid 2 at 1.72 million. Despite the success of Dread, 2.9 million is somewhat modest compared to some of Nintendo's other juggernauts. It was revealed in the same report that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl sold 14.65 million copies in less than five months.
That doesn't mean we have seen the last of Samus, of course. Metroid Prime 4 is still in development, although there's no word yet on when exactly we will see anything tangible from Nintendo on that front. Dread's sales figures also shouldn't be sniffed at even if they are lower than the numbers pulled in by other Nintendo IPs. Every other Metroid game to have come before it has sold fewer copies, but at no point has the series ever been shelved for good.
Speaking of Samus getting shelved, it felt a little like that announcement was imminent for a while there. Not only due to the radio silence regarding Prime 4, but also because Dread had technically been in the works for 16 years. The concept for the game was first dreamt up with the DS in mind. However, the idea was deemed too ambitious and it wasn't until the Switch arrived that the game could finally be fully realized.
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