Metroid Dread Passes New Sales Milestone

Metroid Dread was a big critical success on Nintendo Switch last year, earning numerous awards, including Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards. The game has also performed well commercially for Nintendo, breaking previous records set by the series. According to GamesIndustry.biz's Christopher Dring, Dread is now the third best-selling Metroid game in the UK, accounting solely for physical sales. Metroid Dread's physical sales are still behind Metroid Prime, and Metroid Prime 3, but it is the best-selling 2D entry in the series. That certainly bodes well for future 2D Metroid games! 

It's worth noting that Nintendo does not release digital sales data, so Dring leaves open the possibility that Metroid Dread has already overtaken Metroid Prime and Prime 3. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing for sure. The Tweet from Dring can be found embedded below.

Metroid Dread is now the third biggest Metroid game in UK history, behind Metroid Prime and Prime 3. It’s already the UK’s best-selling 2D Metroid. This doesn’t include digital sales, so it’s quite likely it’s now, or will soon be, the No.1 Metroid overall (GfK data)

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) March 20, 2022

During a Nintendo Direct last month, the company revealed free content for Metroid Dread, including a new Rookie Mode for newcomers, as well as Dread Mode, for those looking for a stiffer challenge. The new modes are available now, and more free DLC is coming soon. In April, a Boss Rush mode is slated to be released for the game.

Hopefully these strong sales for Metroid Dread will show Nintendo that there's still a lot of interest in the 2D Metroid games! For those that never tried the series, Dread has served as a compelling introduction to the 2D games, but there are still quite a few of those games that aren't available on Switch, including Metroid: Samus Returns. Developed by MercurySteam, the team behind Metroid Dread, Samus Returns would seem like the perfect game to bring to Nintendo Switch. Perhaps we'll see the 3DS title ported to the system at some point, or other games like Metroid: Zero Mission. For now, we'll just have to wait and see!

Metroid Dread is available now, exclusively on Nintendo Switch. Readers can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.

Are you a fan of Metroid Dread? Are you happy about the game's success? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!