Nintendo Omits Metroid Prime 4 Sales from Financial Report, Sparking Fan Concerns After 18-Year Anticipation
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Nintendo’s recent financial report notably omitted any mention of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, raising concerns about the game’s performance and its implications for the franchise’s future.
In the latest financial results, it was revealed that the Switch 2 surpassed the Wii U’s lifetime sales in under seven months, while the original Switch has officially become Nintendo’s best-selling console. Additionally, the best-selling Switch 2 games list was updated, showcasing strong sales for Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Kirby Air Riders, with 3.89 million and 1.76 million copies sold, respectively. However, these weren’t the only first-party titles released since the last report.
Missing from the report were two major holiday titles: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Nintendo usually highlights games that have sold over one million copies, but Koei Tecmo confirmed last month that Hyrule Warriors has indeed surpassed that mark. Since Koei Tecmo published the game in Japan, it’s possible that the Nintendo-published versions haven’t reached that milestone yet.
As for Metroid, despite having less than four weeks to chart before the financial report’s cut-off of December 31, 2025, it was completely absent from the report, indicating that the highly anticipated sequel may not have launched successfully on either console. However, it’s possible that combined sales of both versions exceeded one million, as Nintendo tracks them separately, similar to Pokémon, but it seems neither version achieved that independently.
Fans on the Metroid subreddit are understandably anxious given the franchise’s history of delays, with one user lamenting, “This might be it for Prime. Sad to see, man.” After all, fans have been waiting 18 years since Metroid Prime 3. Yet, due to the mixed critical reception of the game, some believe this outcome was expected, with another user commenting, “Sales numbers reflect the general sentiment people have about that game.”
Historically, Metroid titles haven’t been massive sellers, with Metroid Dread being the series’ best-seller at just over three million copies as of 2022—less than 1-2-Switch for context. While the years of anticipation and presumably high development costs make this a tough situation, it’s hard to believe this would mark the end of Metroid unless the sales were exceptionally poor.
The success of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild played a role in shaping the open-world elements in Metroid Prime 4.
