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Nintendo's latest financial results did not mention Metroid Prime 4: Beyond at all, leading to worries about the game's performance and what could that mean for the series going forward.
In the latest financial results release from Nintendo, it's revealed that it took Switch 2 under seven months to overtake the Wii U's lifetime sales while the original Switch officially became the best-selling Nintendo console ever. And alongside console sales, the best selling Switch 2 games list was also updated with Pokemon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Kirby Air Riders' first sales coming in strong with 3.89 million and 1.76 million copies sold respectively. However, those weren't the only first-party games released since Nintendo's last report.
Notably absent were two of Nintendo's biggest holiday games Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Nintendo typically includes games when they pass one million copies sold, however Koei Tecmo confirmed last month that Hyrule Warriors has sold over 1 million copies (via Nintendo Life). Koei Tecmo published the game in Japan, so it's possibly a case of the Nintendo-published versions of the game having not sold over one million.
Metroid – despite having under four weeks to chart given the financial report's cut-off of December 31, 2025 – was not mentioned at all, suggesting that the long-awaited sequel did not get off to a great start on either console. However, it's possible the game sold over one million copies between the two versions – as Nintendo counts them separately as seen with Pokemon – but seemingly neither did it independently.
Fans over on the Metroid subreddit are understandably a bit worried given Metroid's multiple hiatuses, with one user saying: "This might be it for prime. Sad to see man." After all, fans had been waiting 18 years since Metroid Prime 3. However, given the extremely mixed critical reception to the game, some see this as a given, with another responding, "Sale numbers reflect the general sentiment people have of that game."
Of course, Metroid has never been a massive seller in the grand scheme of things, with Metroid Dread being the best-selling title in the series at just over three million as of 2022 – which is less than 1-2-Switch for context. While the years of hype and presumably expensive development make this a rough one, I don't see it being the end of Metroid unless the sales were extremely bad.
