Metroid Dread has beaten the UK launch sales of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption to become the fastest-selling entry in Nintendo’s fan-favorite series.
Even more impressive is the fact this is all just boxed sales – not digital, which Nintendo does not disclose and was not a concern when Prime 3 launched for the Wii. Dread will have sold many more copies via download versions not counted here.
Metroid is still a markedly smaller series in terms of reach than Mario or Zelda, but one which is clearly growing. GamesIndustry.biz reports Dread shifted more than three times the number of copies at launch than Metroid: Samus Returns on 3DS in 2017.
All of this stands the series in good stead for whenever Metroid Prime 4 finally arrives. The last we heard of that was the game being rebooted from scratch by Retro Studios, back in January 2019.
I spoke with Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe back in 2015 about his ideas for a fourth Metroid Prime game – including which story arcs and characters from the original trilogy might crop up again, and which he now considered concluded.