In-Depth: Sonic Sales On Nintendo Platforms

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1. To not give Sonic Boom a break, the asterisk on the 620k sales number is that those are the combined figures of Rise of Lyrics’s sales and Shattered Crystal’s sales. Which means that either it’s a near 50-50 split, each of them selling around 300k, or one took the majority of that total, e.g. maybe Shattered Crystal sold 490k and Rise of Lyric sold 130k, or vice versa. Either way, one or both of those games are very possibly one of, if not the worst selling Sonic games in existence.

   1. Those games don’t deserve a break lol, even some of the worst Sonic games had redeeming qualities to them like a nice soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and an interesting story and those were nowhere to be found in the Sonic Boom games

      1. Thank you!

2. That’s pretty interesting. I didn’t expect to see such consistency either. The big teller will be Sonic Mania and Proj.17. Since they’ll be Multi-platform again.

3. It seems like it would be way better if we actually had the full sales numbers for the rest of the items. It’d be a good way of knowing exactly how big the sales drop-off between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 actually is, as well as how far things have fallen afterwards.

   By the way, notes:

   1) the cite you’ve given for Sonic Adventure 2 is for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, which either combines the sales of SA2 and SA2B or only represents SA2B. This either needs to be divided into two numbers of sales, or the other sales number needs to be found.

   2) the Mario and Sonic games should be included. It might be a crossover but it’s also a SEGA franchise and a good comparison considering the sales increase.

   3) Rarefoil above is correct – the Sonic Boom series is only combined to make it look like it’s just the average worst-seller-of-the-franchise. We need to figure out how to take it apart and show how genuinely bad it is.

   3) the In-Depth tag has been misspelled as ‘In-Deoth’.

   1. 1. I searched for better data, but it’s not there.

      2. I didn’t count the Mario & Sonic games. Outside of SEGA owning the Olympics license and Sonic appearing, it’s really not that much of a Sonic game. I only counted actual Sonic games, not games Sonic simply showed up in (which is a lot).

      3. The Boom games sales data is straight from SEGA. And even if it sold worse, it just means the whole “Sonic sells well on Nintendo” argument is even more flawed, which is the entire point of the article.

      4. Fixed the tag error!

4. It will be really interesting to see the sell for the upcoming Sonic games, I’m curious to see if the major blow that Boom have made toward the brand image of Sonic in the mind of the regular player which are not member of the blue blur fan base, will have an impact in the sell rate of the next game.

5. I’m convinced the sonic Twitter is doing a good job. perhaps even raising sales by his follower base alone.

6. Nice article, very informative!

   And this is exactly why I’m hoping the exclusivity deal with Nintendo is done for good, there are way too many PS4 and XBOne users that are Sonic fans, probably more than Nintendo in each, not to mention that Steam is always a good option for fans that don’t do consoles and for the mod community to keep expanding upon the games.

   On a side note I didn’t know Sonic Rush Adventure sold that bad, it breaks my heart as is one of my favorite modern titles, hope it gets another chance at the eShop or even in mobile if possible.

   1. Tbh, I wanna know how bad Chronicles sold. There’s no way that game could have done better than Rush/Rush Adventure.

      1. Bad news, according to vgchartz it sold 880,000. Shame I am also a big fan of the Sonic Rush series

         1. Not bad, I actually liked Chronicles story and characterization, though I prefer the Rush series way more and I’m still hoping for a Sonic Rush 3DS or any equivalent.

7. Hey, I was checking the sales for Sonic Rush Adventure on VGChartz and it says it sold around 1,100,00 million units in North America and Europe alone so where does the 378,000 number comes from?

   1. Forgot to add the source:

      http://www.vgchartz.com/game/7499/sonic-rush-adventure/

   2. I don’t believe VGChartz is a very reliable source.

      1. Why?

         1. Because they make up their figures.

         2. @Hogfather
            Not more than how you made up that response, what they do it’s more of a mix between their own estimates and the NDP numbers and even though it has been proven they’re not 100% accurate they haven’t exceed a 200 mil margin of error compared to actual numbers, as far as I know.

         3. Hogfather is right, VG Chartz has “accurate-ish” data only.They collect only from a slim selection of retailers and then straight up guess for everyone else. This has led to them being hilariously higher and lower than the actual outcome.

            There are part of the internet where it’s a bannable offense to quote them at all.

         4. @SKAI CYAN
            Well one thing is estimates and another thing is straight up making things up, I pretty much prefer your explanation good sir.

8. I love the smell of destroyed narratives in the night.

   1. Agreed. This was a fantastic article. No Nintendo exclusivity article in the universe is going to stop the Sonic brand!

      1. No Nintendo exclusivity agreement in the universe is going to stop the Sonic brand!

9. …But the only direct comparison you even have for a Nintendo Sonic Game and another system’s Sonic Game is Mega Collection and Mega Collection Plus and the Nintendo version outsold the other versions. If we’re making indirect comparisons, Rise of Lyric almost sold as much as ’06 on a console with like a tenth of the userbase (this despite being significantly worse.)

   If you have this data I don’t see how you can come to any conclusion but that Sonic sells better on Nintendo systems.

   1. Sonic 06 sold more than a million on PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively, Sonic Boom RoL sold less than 400,000.

      1. Article says different, if we’re going to talk about total sales in general then the years on market has to be taken into account (it wouldn’t matter, ’06 is going to sell more anyhow since it’s the better game, but it needs to be noted).

         1. But the article only refers to the figures of 2007 fiscal year (March 2007) and Sonic 2006 was just released on November 2006, that’s what needs to be noted.

10. Not a very good article.

    You’re trying to dispel a meme yet your data shows that Sonic Colors (wii exclusive) outsold Generations (multiplatform except the wii). You don’t even talk about the Wii’s massive install base which dwarfs the Xbox360 & PS3 which is probably why that is.

    You bring up the sales for multiplatform games (Shadow and Heroes) but you don’t divide them to show if they were even or not among the different platforms. Whose to say they didn’t sell better on the Gamecube over the Xbox and PS2? You need that kind of data or it’s all just speculation.

    And then there’s the exclusivity deal. The origin of this dumb meme. Here’s the quote that started it:

    “Sonic the Hedgehog has performed incredibly well on Nintendo platforms and this exclusive partnership is a natural fit for the next evolution of Sonic games,” Sega Europe boss Jurgen Post said.

    It’s literally PR hyperbole. And you don’t even acknowledge it. How can you dispel a truism if you don’t tell people where it came from?

    Lastly, Super Mario Galaxy sold Ten million units on the Wii. Just felt like bringing that up as all your article shows is that the average amount of sales for a given Sonic game nowadays is little under a million units and that is pretty good with the Wii U’s pitiful install base.

    1. The meme predates that, from what I can remember it was never uttered by anyone by Sega but had been around for years before that, Webber made a very direct reference to the meme and is what is commonly remembered than the one Post made, here it is:
       “We just found historically that Sonic performs really, really well on Nintendo platforms. Sonic Colors did great, Sonic and the Black Knight did well and Sonic and Secret Rings did well — all Nintendo. When we look at the numbers, we thought — this is clearly where our audience is.”
       The meme became a absolute truth due to it never being challenged it wasn’t until Sega parroted it that it got put under a microscope.

       What Aaron states is interesting because it seems to think it was because it was a Nintendo rather than being the Wii, Wii exists as an anomaly that disrupted the sales trends of the previous two Nintendo consoles and the one that would follow it, 1st and 3rd party titles prospered significantly in ways that like many things about the Wii mirrored the NES. WII U has a pitiful install base but they have a very high attach rate for 1st party titles and tended to avoid poor quality 3rd party exclusives like Lost World and Boom. Aaron’s comment echoes the original mindset also shared by publishers like Ubisoft that Wii U would both continue Wii’s sales trends, but in 2013 it was obvious to the entire industry that this wasn’t the case. My opinion is that this was pushed out as a narrative message by PR due to the reception to the 3 game deal not being exactly positive.

    2. “You’re trying to dispel a meme” Um, it’s not a meme. Not everything is a meme, you know.

       “yet your data shows that Sonic Colors (wii exclusive) outsold Generations (multiplatform except the wii). You don’t even talk about the Wii’s massive install base which dwarfs the Xbox360 & PS3 which is probably why that is.” Because I’m referring to sales as a whole. And if the massive install base for the Wii helped Colors, than that doesn’t mean Sonic sells better on Nintendo consoles. It just means Sonic sells better when the consoles its own are successful.

       “You bring up the sales for multiplatform games (Shadow and Heroes) but you don’t divide them to show if they were even or not among the different platforms.” Because that data doesn’t exist, dude.

       “Whose to say they didn’t sell better on the Gamecube over the Xbox and PS2? You need that kind of data or it’s all just speculation.” Well, when you see Sonic games make 1,000,000+ sales regardless of what console(s) it’s on, that says a lot. It’s not just speculation when there’s 20+ years of consistent sales data.

       “It’s literally PR hyperbole. And you don’t even acknowledge it. How can you dispel a truism if you don’t tell people where it came from?” Because it’s not where it came from. People were making that argument before the PR said that. I remember seeing it a lot. It came from the success of Colors.

       “all your article shows is that the average amount of sales for a given Sonic game nowadays is little under a million units and that is pretty good with the Wii U’s pitiful install base.” Yes, and games like Riders, Rush Adventure, and 3D Blast did just as bad, if not worse, despite being on a better install base.

       You’re nit-picking quite a bit here.

11. How are the mid 2000’s Sonic’s “Dark Age” if the games sold well? Wouldn’t 2013 – the present being considered the “Dark Age” since the games are selling poorly? If you’re talking about online reputation, that means nothing if the sales haven’t declined (as you stated) and the developers are making money.

    1. It’s a matter of opinion, but the dark age is when a lot of people feel the quality of Sonic dropped.

12. Donnie, minor correction. Sonic ’06 was a platinum game because it sold over a million copies on PS3 and XBOX 360. In total, it sold well over 2 million copies.

    http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=Sonic+the+hedgehog&publisher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

    1. Your sales data from SEGA Sammy’s fiscal report only covers less than 5 months at best of Sonic ’06 initial release window. Once it was out for about a year, it easily made platinum (selling a million copies per respective console).

       1. Release date(s) Xbox 360
          NA: November 14, 2006
          EU: November 24, 2006
          AUS: November 30, 2006
          JP: December 21, 2006

          PlayStation 3
          JP: December 21, 2006
          NA: January 30, 2007
          PAL: March 23, 2007[2]

13. Sonic racing transformed sold a million across 4 platforms. This means there are a lot of sonic interested people however they make up a small number for the electronic device they group with. Basically this base is scattered. What the point of making games if you can’t get them all in one spot? Sure he doesn’t sell best on Nintendo matter of fact sonic is nearly homeless.

14. Most interesting even the hated games got more sales than even the utmost classic. Still though Sonic World Adventure”Unleashed” seems here to be the biggest winner over all out of the pack. Still kinda wondering what the resale #’s from places like pawn shops, hand me down stores, flea markets would be but alas I doubt there ever could be any real data on that although it makes one wonder how many more copies of everything made their journey around…if that makes any sense 😎

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