A year ago, Ubisoft reported that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope sold worse than expected at the start. Nevertheless, sources of the Video Games Chronicle portal claim that sales of the game for the debut year are comparable to sales of the commercially successful original.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
According to their information, Ubisoft has sold about 3 million copies of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope to date.
The Video Games Chronicle does not exclude that Ubisoft hoped that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope would be more successful than the first part of the series. The following month after the release, the original Mario + Rabbids was able to become the best-selling game for the Nintendo Switch, which was not developed by Nintendo. By August 2022 - five years after the release — the number of people who played the first part of the series reached 10 million.
Last summer, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz said the company probably rushed the release of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. In his opinion, it was worth waiting for the release of Nintendo Switch 2. Due to the rush, two similar games were available on the same console, and this hurt sales.
Ubisoft still hopes that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope will achieve better performance over time.
"Although Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope did not meet expectations at the launch, we are confident that its sales will grow over the years. The game was very, very warmly received by both the press and gamers. We just need to give her time and continue talking about her," said Kristina Nava, producer of the Mario + Rabbids series, in an interview with Video Games Chronicle in August 2023.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope currently has a critical rating of 86 out of 100 on Metacritic, and a user rating of 7.5 out of 10.