New Super Mario Bros. outsells Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3

Modern Warfare 2 has been a total success for Infinity Ward and Activision. With sales in the hundreds of millions it has become one of the biggest entertainment properties ever, putting it in the same league as blockbusters like Avatar. It is an awesome action title and without a doubt one of the best shooters around, but apparently it is not the only one enjoying overwhelming success.

In an interview with GT TV, back in November, 2009, when New Super Mario Bros. came out, Reggie Fils-Aime – president of Nintendo of America – predicted that it would outsell Modern Warfare 2, when comparing sales on a single system, be it Xbox or PS3. While at that time the statement would have sounded somewhat bold, it actually became true.

According to numbers from NPD, in November, when both titles came out, Modern Warfare 2 did really well and sold more copies, but the story changed in December, 2009 and January, 2010. In those months, New Super Mario Bros. outsold Modern Warfare 2 on both of the other two systems.

Thanks to strong sales in November, 2009, the Xbox version finally came on top when counting the three months, but the PS3 version came on third, fulfilling Fils-Aime’s prediction.

That was a totally ninja move by Nintendo. Talk about walking softly and carrying a big, er, mushroom. Modern Warfare 2 has taken all the publicity, but looking at the numbers, New Super Mario Bros. did an amazing job.

I haven’t played it, but New Super Mario looks really fun and even though MW2 is one of my favorite games, I think it would be unfair to compare them. I guess this just shows that there are successful titles for all genres, and it’s not just FPS or RPGs taking all the cash. I hope that with all this success, we get sequels for both titles. Maybe this time I can take good ol’ Mario out for a spin.

Read [Ars Technica] Also Read [GameTrailers]