E3 has come and gone, and it was filled with plenty of big reveals, shocking announcements, and exciting gameplay showcases. Among the titles,Metroid Dreadmay have been the most surprising. Thefirst all-new 2DMetroidgame in nineteen yearswill release in October. Fans appear to be quite excited about it, asMetroid Dreadhas sky-rocketed to the top of Amazon’s Best Sellers list.
Thedevelopment story ofMetroid Dreadis quite astonishing, as the nameMetroid Dreadfirst appeared way back in 2005 as a DS title and possible sequel toMetroid Fusion. But the game went completely dark until its shocking reveal during Nintendo’s E3 Direct, and its return announcement could be partially why its pre-order sales are so impressive so far.
RELATED:Nintendo Reveals What Metroid Dread’s Amiibo Do
The digital expo made for a different setup this year,but E3 2021 still gave fans some winning gamesto be excited about. Whether it be the massive list of AAA titles from the Microsoft and Bethesda show, big games likeMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxyfrom third-party showcases, or Nintendo’s Direct itself,Metroid Dreadhad plenty of competition. Yet, currently at the time of writing this article,Metroid Dreadis the number one best-selling video game on Amazon US and UK, and top 10 in Japan.
Nintendo, in fact, is dominating the top 10 with many games that were featured at E3, includingMario Golf Super Rush, Mario Party Superstars, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD,the sequel toThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Warioware: Get It Together!,andAdvance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp(all Amazon US numbers). The first new non-Nintendo game to crack the list isRatchet and Clank: Rift Apart. But still, it is themysterious and excitingMetroid Dreadthat is atop the list.
Along with the game itself,Metroid DreadSpecial Editionand Amiibos are also seeing high numbers of pre-orders. However, there is a concern among fans that bots are scooping up the items. Scalpers are already selling the special edition version ofMetroid Dreadonline for more than double the price. So some could wonder if the Amazon sales are being boosted thanks at least partially to this.
TheMetroidgames have long been beloved by Nintendo fans. However, the sales of those games do not always follow suit. WhileMario, Zelda, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, and others often put up massive sales numbers for The Big N, the highest selling game in theMetroidseries isMetroid Primeon the GameCube at under three million, and the average for the series is only about 1.65 million per game. That could change withMetroid Dread.
Because the Nintendo Switch has sold so well, Switch software continues to break records, and because theMetroid-like/Metroidvania series is very popular right now,Metroid Dreadhas the chance to do quite well. It could even become one of the best selling in the franchise–and the early Amazon pre-order numbers show that.
