Metroid Dread did mark the best launch ever for the series in Japan, where it sold 87,000 physical copies, outperforming Metroid: Samus Returns for Nintendo 3DS, which sold approximately 29,000 copies in September 2017. Note that the data does not include digital copies.
Let’s see the sales data Japanese of the various Metroids in comparison:
It should be emphasized that the data of Metroid 2 and Super Metroid are missing, which, however, we imagine cannot alter the situation too much.
Reporting the Japanese result of Metroid Dread was David Gibson on Twitter, who also anticipated the sales of Nintendo Switch OLED in its first week at home: approximately 138,000 units. Considering that in total the Nintendo console has sold around 180,000 units, this is a very good result for the latest model.
In reality Nintendo Switch Lite it sold approximately 178,000 units at launch, but the price difference to the OLED model and the fact that it was included in some lotteries should be considered.