Nintendo: Splatoon, Mario Maker are ‘blockbusters’ for Wii U

Nintendo had a dud on its hands with the Wii U in 2015, but it still managed to sell a lot of software.

The publisher confirmed today that Splatoon, its colorful shooter for the Wii U, sold 4.06 million copies through the end of its fiscal third quarter, which ended December 31. Super Mario Maker, the console’s build-your-own Mario game, surpassed 3.34 million copies sold. This makes those two games the sixth and seventh best-selling games for the Wii U platform, respectively. Getting this kind of software performance out of the Wii U is important for Nintendo as it tries to return to steady profitability (despite missing expectations) in the multi-billion-dollar console-gaming sector.