Nintendo’s Splatoon, a multiplayer shooter that replaces guns and gore with squids and paint, seemed promising from the start, but whether that promise would be fulfilled with actual sales was up in the air. Now that question has been answered.
Less than a month from its May 29 release date, Splatoon has sold over one million units worldwide, Nintendo announced. This includes over 476,000 copies (both physical and digital) sold in the Americas, more than 368,000 in Japan, 230,000 in Europe, and over 20,000 in Australia and New Zealand.
While Splatoon does include a single player experience, the focus lies squarely on multiplayer. The game pits teams of four against each other doing everything they can to cover the map in paint. The team with the most paint on the ground at the end of the match wins.
Starting with the concept of an online shooter and then taking out the violence might sound like a questionable idea, but in practice it actually works. In our review of Splatoon we praised the game’s aesthetics and fast-paced gameplay, but couldn’t get past the limited matchmaking and the fact that the game included no voice chat.
“Ever since Splatoon launched on May 29 in the United States, we’ve seen thousands of people go online to have fun in this colorful, chaotic competition,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said in a statement. “This milestone puts us in a nice position as we prepare to launch 11 more exclusive Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games before the end of the year, plus amiibo, digital offerings, and games from our third-party partners.”
Nintendo isn’t done with Splatoon yet either. A new weapon was added to the game earlier this month, and Nintendo has promised that the game will continue to receive updates throughout the summer that could add new game modes, weapons, and more.
