Sonic Superstars sales impacted by Mario, Sega suggests

Sega has admitted releasing Sonic Superstars at the same time as Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 may have hindered sales.

In a presentation of the company’s recent financial quarterly report, sales of its mascot platformer were described as having a “slightly weaker start than we had anticipated”.

Then, in a newly released Q&A following its recent financial report, president and group CEO Haruki Satomi and senior executive vice president and CFO Koichi Fukazawa were asked for the reason for the lower-than-expected sales so far.

“We believe that the impact of other companies’ major titles released at the same time is significant, but we plan to expand the promotion towards the holiday season, especially in the overseas market,” was the response, adding: “Both the Metacritic score and user score are higher than Sonic Frontiers, and we would like to continue to sell firmly.”

Sonic Superstars released on 17th October, just ahead of both Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on 20th October.

Nintendo’s Switch exclusive has sold over 4.3m copies worldwide, making it the fastest-selling Super Mario related game.

Insomniac’s PS5 exclusive, meanwhile, sold over 5m copies.

Sega hasn’t released specific numbers yet for the multi-platform Sonic Superstars, though did note the series as a whole has sold over 1.66bn units and downloads across all games.

Sonic and Mario have long had a rivalry, but this particular battle was surely won by Nintendo – though Sega plans to spend 90 percent of Sonic Superstars’ marketing cost during the holiday season.

Sega exec Osamu Ohasi also stated he wished for Sonic “to surpass Mario” in an internal interview.

Sonic Superstars is a return to classic 2D Sonic, but it’s “undermined by inconsistent new ideas” reads our Eurogamer review.