Super Mario Galaxy Sells 500,000 In First Week

Officials from Nintendo have announced that Super Mario Galaxy has had the strongest one week debut of any Wii game to date in the U.S., becoming the fast selling Mario title ever with more than 500,000 units sold, based on the company’s own internal figures. "Super Mario Galaxy had the strongest one-week debut of any Wii game to date and has also become the best-selling Mario title ever in its first week," said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "It makes an easy gift choice as the holiday shopping season kicks off." In a press release Nintendo also point to the title’s universal critical acclaim, with the game now the highest ranked title on review tracking site GameRankings.com and listed with a score of 98 out of 100 on Metacritic.com. Despite similarly enthusiastic reviews in Japan, where the game received 38/40 from influential magazine Famitsu, the game’s sales have been more subdued with a first week debut of around 251,000 units – less than that of fellow Wii exclusive Mario Party 8 from earlier in the year. As usual, sales figures are not available in Europe, but the game also became the fastest selling Wii game ever in the UK, with a debut at number three in the individual formats chart and at number five in the combined formats chart.