When Super Smash Bros Ultimate was first announced via a rather cryptic teaser, many were wondering if it was a new game or merely an updated port of the Wii U entry. That notion wasn’t that far-fetched, given what happened with the Nintendo Switch both before and after that announcement. Regardless, when it was made clear by the legendary Masahiro Sakurai that the game was entirely known and that “Everyone is Here!” with its roster, gamers were pumped. The game came out of the gate racing and soon became not just a fan-favorite title but would eventually become the best-selling fighting game ever, with over 35 million units sold on the Switch.
That’s impressive no matter how you slice it, for as we noted previously, the next entries aren’t even close to their sales numbers, and it’s hard to picture any upcoming fighting games getting anywhere near it. An interesting stat about the game popped up recently, though, via Automation Media, and it’s not what you’re expecting.
One of the big retail chains in Japan, GEO, put out a list of the best-selling titles for Japan in 2024 up to the middle of November. Also on that list were notes about what the best-selling used games were, and, you guessed it, Super Smash Bros Ultimate was the top game on that list. Now, if that were it, that wouldn’t be much news. However, the group also noted that this is the sixth straight year that the game has topped such a list! Remember, the title came out in 2018, and so that means that from then to now, it’s the best-selling used game in Japan across a wide selection of stores. It’s not the “best-selling figure” that many would’ve predicted, but there it is.
So why is this case? It’s hard to say, really. It’s possible that many people just waited for the game to go on sale or be secondhand so that they could get it for less money. It’s not as unfeasible as you might think. Just as important, many gamers in Japan aren’t the big console gamers that you’d expect, so their money might have been put into other things like mobile titles, thus only getting games like this when the mood suited them.
Either way, the game is still a hit, which makes it all the more interesting that we don’t know the series’ fate just yet. Masahiro Sakurai has teased that there could be another entry coming, but Nintendo hasn’t confirmed it yet.
