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A thread went up on 5ch’s “Hardware & Industry” (Geha) board reporting that the trailer for Nintendo’s new game “Metroid Ravenas” has hit 2.77 million views, surpassing the view count of its predecessor, “Metroid Dread.” Dread, released in 2021, was a hit that sold over 3 million copies — the best-selling entry in the series — arriving right as the indie “Metroidvania” genre was booming. The thread branched into comparisons of how Nintendo titles land domestically versus overseas, citing the Kirby series’ growing overseas popularity since going 3D and the high view count for “Yo-kai Watch 2,” while opinions split over how to weigh Dread’s sales against Hollow Knight’s worldwide total of over 15 million copies.
What people said
And it's still climbing
By the way, it's beaten Dread's view count in Japan too — this Metroid is getting serious attention here as well
Well, Geha's basically a retirement home for a dying minority at this point.
but it sold just fine — turns out demand's always there.
There are plenty of great indie Metroidvanias, sure,
but they still get buried under the competition.
Nintendo keeps the IP visible over the long haul, which builds awareness,
so when it comes down to the same game, the big publisher wins.
Sure, Metroidvania's having a moment, but there's still a real bias that 'Metroidvania = cheap indie game,' and it's rare for a major publisher to throw this kind of budget at one.
Dread was built out carefully in 3D even in the background, but going by the trailer, Ravenas' model detail looks like a big step up from Dread's.
With cheap titles like Hollow Knight and Ender Lilies being the norm now, selling that well at that price point is impressive.
The revenue must be substantial.
I prefer the bulkier, more armored-looking suits.
Still buying it, obviously!
Probably just setup for it to change/evolve later.
Also, turns out Yu-Gi-Oh! is quietly massive overseas lol
America being stronger is probably real,
but the North American Nintendo Direct numbers spike because "everyone in the English-speaking world watches it at once" —
the UK, Canada, and Australia are English-speaking too.
Kirby broke out with the previous game, Forgotten Land — 2 million sold in Japan versus over 7.5 million worldwide, so its overseas user base grew a lot.
Kirby's North American audience seems to have exploded once it went 3D with Forgotten Land.
This new one looks like it's scaling up even further, semi-open-world or bigger, so strong overseas reception was expected.
That's a huge breakout.
Might end up hitting 10 million lifetime.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2024/240507_3.pdf
That figure's as of end of March 2024, so it's probably grown to around 9 million by now.
So it's Ocarina of Time, then Yo-kai Watch? lol
Yo-kai Watch 2 originally sold several million, so that tracks.
Domestically, Ocarina of Time's view count and pre-order momentum are actually more surprising, since the original barely scraped a million copies and ended up in bargain bins.
It's well-known and influential overseas, and recognized in Japan too, but there probably aren't that many people with real nostalgia for it.
Re: #53
For a 3D Metroid, the bare minimum hurdle is becoming the "second game" pick for people who bought a 3D Zelda — it doesn't even get in the ring until it clears that.
Sold over 3 million, the best-selling Metroid ever.
Hopefully Ravenas ends up beating that number.
Bananza's already past 4 million, so it's definitely not an impossible target.
When you consider Hollow Knight has sold over 15 million copies…
it's hard not to feel weird that the imitator has more buyers than the originator. 🤔
Given the price difference, it's basically like Suika Game or Mecha Chameleon (cheap hit indie/mobile games) selling a ton.
Why would that even matter?
Well, Hollow Knight's list price was around 1,500 yen, and it eventually got sale-priced down to about 400 yen.
Put another way, if it took that much brand recognition and constant sales to reach 15 million, that probably just shows Metroidvania is still a niche genre overall.
It's a direct continuation, you know.
If you want to actually play it properly, you should go play Dread first.
Thanks to that, it's treated like "THE Metroid" now.
Though that status seems to apply only to the 2D games — Prime's value looks like it's dropped in comparison.
while Metroid, the hardcore fan series, does better flipped back to 2D.
Hardcore fans will buy any genre, but casual players only go for specific genres they like.
Leaning into an open-world style to match that audience seems like a smart move.
Honestly, indie games have gotten a lot more accessible lately with difficulty options and such, so casual players are buying those instead — paying full price for a 2D Kirby is basically only something diehard fans do anymore.
Planet Robobot barely sold at all, after all.
The price difference isn't as big as people make it out to be.
This is a boxed release using cartridges,
so that price also covers retailer margins and shipping costs.
Wouldn't mind a port of Super Metroid while they're at it.
IPs born on the Famicom Disk System tend to struggle carrying old fans forward and picking up new ones with each sequel.
It also hurt that Metroid was basically dormant during the N64 era, right when Nintendo's hardware audience was turning over.
Prime revived things in the GameCube era, but the 2D side went quiet for way too long after the DS games.
She can actually use that power in this game, and even though she loses her abilities every time, what she gets back keeps getting stronger — so there's steady power creep going on lol.
A Metroid game can't even start unless she loses her powers first.
Also, going by how the last game ended, didn't she get at least some control over the Metroid power by then?
2028: Prime 2 (Remaster)
2029: Prime 3 (Remaster)
2030: Prime 5
2031: Super Metroid (Remake)
That pace would be godly, but unless a movie gets greenlit, I'd guess the real pace will be about half that speed.
The whole Prime 4 debacle really stings.
The Prime side needs a serious overhaul before anything else.
Even Ubisoft couldn't pull off that schedule.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The discussion kicked off with a report that the trailer for Nintendo’s new game “Metroid Ravenas” had reached 2.77 million views, surpassing the view count of its 2021 predecessor, “Metroid Dread.” Dread holds the series’ best sales record at over 3 million copies, and the fact that it arrived after the indie “Metroidvania” genre itself had already taken off became a key point of debate in the thread. Opinions split especially over how to compare Hollow Knight’s worldwide total of over 15 million copies against Dread’s sales, with an ongoing back-and-forth about differences in list price and distribution (physical distribution costs, sale frequency). One point readers can easily misread is that trailer view counts don’t necessarily track with actual sales — the thread itself pointed out the gap between “Yo-kai Watch 2″‘s high view count and its real-world sales scale. It’s also worth noting, for anyone following the series as a whole, that the “Metroid Prime” line has seen delayed follow-ups, prompting skepticism in the thread about the pace of future sequels.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware & Industry / Geha) thread “[Great News] Metroid Ravenas Trailer Views Hit an All-Time High, Sparking Buzz as Dread Reportedly Sells Like Crazy.”
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