Well, it didn’t take very long for more sales statistics to come out for Kirby and the Forgotten Land. The game already had the franchise’s best UK launch in history, and now it’s obtained the same feat, only this time in its native Japan. According to Famitsu, along with information obtained by Game Data Library, Kirby and the Forgotten Land sold roughly 380,000 units within its first week of being available.
To put this milestone in perspective, the previous top-selling Kirby titles were Kirby Super Star Ultra, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and Kirby Triple Deluxe. All three of these have done well in their own right, but none have had an impact like Kirby and the Forgotten Land is currently going through. The last Kirby entry with the highest amount of launch sales, Kirby Super Star Ultra, sold around 260,000 units and that was way back in 2008. This 14 year gap shows just how much fans were waiting for a brand new and fresh take on the Kirby series.
As far as other statistical records go, the title currently holds the 2nd spot for best launches in Japan this year, with the 1 spot currently being held by Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Both titles launched exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, which is still proving to be a massive juggernaut in the gaming industry despite having been released in 2017 and with new competitors in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
It’s also possible that the sales numbers for Kirby and the Forgotten Land will go up exponentially, as we still don’t have all of the worldwide numbers as of yet. Either way you extrapolate it, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a mammoth achievement for both Nintendo and the franchise. It’ll be interesting to see where the series goes from here, especially after Hal Laboratory stated that this might not be the permanent future formula for the franchise.