Paper Mario: The Origami King had the best launch of any Paper Mario

Paper Mario: The Origami King was the third best-selling game of July 2020, and it's quickly become the fastest-selling Paper Mario of all time. 

The Origami King sales were revealed in the latest NPD report, and researcher Mat Piscatella shared some highlights on Twitter. The report explains that The Origami King's launch month was more than twice as successful (by dollar sales) as Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the GameCube. 

In a follow-up tweet, Piscatella clarified that the original Super Paper Mario is actually the second fastest-selling Paper Mario, but The Thousand Year Door is still a useful reference because it's often held up as the gold standard for the Paper Mario series. The success of Paper Mario: The Origami King is partly down to the popularity of the Switch, whereas the GameCube's limited market share hampered The Thousand Year Door, but these figures are also testament to the game being great. 

In any case, it's encouraging to see a new Paper Mario do so well. The previous entries in the series, particularly Sticker Star on the 3DS and Color Splash on the Wii U, never found the same critical or commercial success as the so-called mainline entries, nor did they earn the cult popularity that Paper Mario is known to attract. Many had begun to wonder how long Nintend would continue the series, but the success of The Origami King cements Paper Mario as a fun IP with plenty of life left in it. 

How The Origami King came to be, and how it celebrates Super Mario as a whole.