Virtual Console

There were 234 Virtual Console games at the time this research was performed, and out of them a sizable chunk of 213 had pages in the Nintendo Channel. Unfortunately, a much smaller sample of only 45 had associated statistics. Some highlights:



Biggest Blockbusters: A certain famous plumber unsurprisingly rules the Virtual Console, as it is estimated that the top five best selling games on the service are Mario franchise titles. Of these, the big winner is the original Super Mario Bros (2,335,192 play sessions at 13.17 sessions/person), which has been downloaded over 177,000 times. Super Mario Bros 3 (1,290,426 sessions at 7.75 sessions/person) is the second biggest mover at over 166,000 estimated players. The other Mario franchise titles topping the list are, in order, Super Mario World (1,278,154 sessions, 9.94 sessions/person), Mario Kart 64 (1,179,355 sessions, 9.47/person), and Super Mario 64 (1,138,461 sessions, 10.1 sessions/person). These five titles were the only Virtual Console games estimated to have over 100,000 polled players.



Biggest Time Sinks: Despite the huge sales of the Super Mario games, they are usurped in overall generated unproductive man-hours by two much longer games: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1,556,640 hours, 18 hours 46 minutes/person) and Paper Mario (1,369,763 hours, 18 hours 32 minutes/person). The Super Mario games fill out the rest of the top five, ordered by game length: Super Mario 64 (1,182,986, 10 hours 30 minutes/person) comes in at number three, followed by Super Mario World (1,075,673, 8 hours 22 minutes/person) and Super Mario Bros 3 (1,018,690 hours, 6 hours 7 minutes/person).



Low Points: It’s worth remembering that these are just the low points of the games polled, and it’s almost certain that there are many, many worse performing Virtual Console games that we know nothing about. That said, the game with the lowest estimated user count among polled Virtual Console games is Shining Force (66,999 sessions, 7.18 sessions/person) with around 9300 estimated players. Capcom’s Breath of Fire 2 (69,180 sessions, 6.6 sessions/person) closely follows with just under 10,500 estimated players. Both these games turned out to be good time investments for the players who bought them however, with each one being played for an average of over 12 hours per person. Surprisingly, the polled VC game with the least total invested play hours is Street Fighter II’ Turbo: Hyper Fighting (53,049 hours, 2 hours 54 minutes/person), with Bubble Bobble (54,003 hours, 2 hours 43 minutes/person) following close behind.



VC Imports: Although there are only two data points available on which to gauge the success of the “new in America” Virtual Console titles, they’re the two of the highest profile: Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels and cult darling Sin & Punishment. Of these, Sin and Punishment (55,011 hours, 2 hours 5 minutes/person) is actually the third least played game of all polled Virtual Console titles. The Lost Levels underperformed the rest of the Mario franchise by a considerable margin as well, with an estimated reporting player base of under 46,000. That’s not a bad number by the standards set by the rest of the data, however, and Sin & Punishment’s estimated sales of just under 26,500 is probably also all right when you consider how badly some of the not polled games must have sold. Still the numbers aren’t exactly inspiring, so it’s no wonder Nintendo doesn’t pursue this project with any sort of gusto.

NEXT: Retail Games