Super Smash Bros. Ultimate earns title of best-selling fighting game in history

By Aaron Mamiit Updated November 3, 2019

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch has smashed its way into the record books, earning the title as the best-selling fighting game of all time.

The title was previously held by Street Fighter II, which sold 15.5 million units after releasing seven unique versions since its original launch in 1991. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, however, did not spend much time in chasing down the record,

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate holds the distinction as the fastest-selling Nintendo game of all time, with 12.08 million units sold in just three weeks after its release on December 7 last year. According to Nintendo’s half-year financial report, that number stood at 15.71 million copies by September 30, which means that it took less than a year to surpass Street Fighter II.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has overtaken Super Mario Odyssey, with 15.38 million copies sold, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with 14.54 million copies sold, to become the second best-selling game for the Nintendo Switch. The fighting game, however, is way behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has sold 19.01 million copies as the best-selling title on the console.

The performance of its latest entry also cements the status of Super Smash Bros. as the most popular fighting game series ever, with sales of 53.03 million copies across two decades. In comparison, total sales for Tekken, Dragon Ball, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat are all between 45 million to 47 million.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the penultimate evolution of Nintendo’s brawler, as it offers a roster that includes every character in the series’ history, with a variety of options for single-player and multiplayer modes. The fighting game has proven to be so popular that Jeff Kaplan, the director of Overwatch, has even offered any character from the hero shooter’s lineup to join the fighting game.

Helping Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s path to the record books was the popularity of the platform where it was released. The Nintendo Switch recently achieved the milestone of 15 million units sold in North America alone, which is enough to surpass the global lifetime sales of 13.56 million units for the Nintendo Wii U.

As of September 30, Nintendo Switch sales were at 41.67 million units.

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Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…

Entertainment

Bowser attacks in The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s first trailer

super mario bros movie first trailer bowser

Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment finally gave us our first glimpse at the animated Mario movie, which is officially titled The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The trailer reveal came during New York Comic Con and got a special Nintendo Direct of its own.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie Nintendo Direct kicks off with an introduction from Shigeru Miyamoto, Chris Meledandri, Chris Pratt, and Jack Black, who confirmed that the animation will be complete next week, although there are still other things to do, and hyped up the trailer. The trailer itself begins with Bowser attacking a city of Penguins before cutting to Mario finding himself in the Mushroom Kingdom and going on an adventure with Toad. We even see a little bit of Luigi at the end.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie | Official Teaser Trailer
Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment -- the Universal Pictures animation studio known for creating Despicable Me, Sing, and The Secret Life of Pets -- first announced a movie based on the iconic Super Mario Bros. video game series in 2018. While series creator Shigeru Miyamoto was a producer on the film from the start and Nintendo acquired a film studio during this movie's production, the announcement that really turned heads was the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, where its shocking all-star cast was revealed.
During its segment in that Direct, we learned that Chris Pratt is Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy is Princess Peach, Charlie Day is Luigi, Keegan-Michael Key is Toad, Seth Rogan is Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen is Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson is Kamek, Sebastian Maniscalco is Foreman Spike, and Jack Black is Bowser. They all felt like odd choices at the time of the announcement, and from this trailer, we learned what Kamek, Bowser, Mario, Toad, and Luigi will all sound like.
While The Super Mario Bros. Movie was originally going to come out this year, you can now expect the animated feature to hit theaters on April 7, 2023 in the United States and April 28, 2023 in Japan.

Gaming

You can play a fan-made Super Mario Bros. 5 in Mario Maker 2 right now

Photo of Mario surrounded by coins in Super Mario Bros 5

It's been a bit since we've had a brand-new 2D Mario title, but one fan has taken it upon himself to provide that to those pining for a new entry in the classic platformer franchise. After seven years of hard work, Twitter user Metroid Mike 64 has finished his unofficial Super Mario Bros. 5 using Super Mario Maker 2 on Switch -- and you can play through the entire thing right now.

Metroid Mike 64 shared the news with his followers on Sunday, pointing out that he's been working on the project since 2015 with the goal of creating "a classic Mario game that plays as if Nintendo created it themselves." This, he points out, means a complete lack of the kinds of masochistic and troll levels that are commonly seen in Mario Maker 2, instead providing players with something focused on nostalgia and old-school charm.

Gaming

Lego Brawls pushes the boundaries of what a Smash Bros. clone can be

The cast of Lego Brawls stands together in this game's key art.

Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series single-handedly created the platform fighter subgenre of fighting games. As such, a lot of games try to replicate its formula almost completely, especially mechanics like the wavedash from Super Smash Bros. Melee. While the makers of many Smash clones seem to feel like they need to be exactly like Nintendo’s classic series in order to entice players, Lego Brawls showed me that doesn’t have to be the case at Summer Game Fest Play Days.
Just as MultiVersus did last month, Lego Brawls demonstrates that games inspired by Super Smash Bros. can still have a unique gameplay identity. From being able to customize your characters and attacks to having unique modes not found in any other game in the genre, Lego Brawls looks like it's a fun Smash-like time for the whole family, even if it probably won’t be the top game at EVO anytime soon.
LEGO Brawls - Announcement Trailer
Building blocks
One way that Lego Brawls is very much like Smash Bros. is that it's a crossover fighting game where players can duke it out with characters they create using classic Lego sets. Castle, Pirate, Western, and Space, as well as more modern ones like Monkie Kid, Vidiyo, Ninjago, and Jurassic World, are all represented in character customization. The developers claim that every character and weapon piece in Lego Brawls is based on a real Lego, even if some of them aren’t available to purchase anymore.
Any kid who likes Legos will probably enjoy spending hours unlocking and customizing the pieces of their Lego character. Some of these changes have gameplay implications too, as players can customize their weapons. In addition to choosing a basic weapon, players can go into battle with a jetpack that lets them fly or a saxophone that can calm other players. Those special abilities are obtained through item boxes that appear in matches, Mario Kart-style.
Speaking of Mario Kart, some stages even have vehicles to drive, and these often provide a nice way to shake up a battle.

Lego Brawls' also has modes that players can't find in other Smash clones. A more traditional free-for-all mode lets players fight to be the last one standing on a small stage. But Lego Brawl's primary focus is actually on bigger maps that support modes like one where two teams of four try to hold capture points and another where eight players compete to defeat as many other players as possible within a time limit. These modes show just how much potential there is within the platform fighter genre outside of just competitively trying to ring out opponents.
A new era of Smash clones
Last month, MultiVersus impressed me because of its primary 2v2 setup and abilities that made it feel really different to play from Smash. With deep customization and those varied modes, Lego Brawls does the same. It doesn't seem like that deep of a fighting game, but that also means it will be easy for players of any skill level to pick up and play.