Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the biggest launch for the series in Japan

The Kirby franchise is one of Nintendo’s mainstays. It’s never quite gotten the recognition of core franchises like Mario or Zelda, but it is still one of Nintendo’s most noteworthy and longest-running properties. Luckily for developer HAL Laboratory and its fans, Kirby and the Forgotten Land has been a massive success in its country of origin.

According to Game Data Library, which tracks Japanese game sales data, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the most successful entry in the series to date. It topples previous record holder Kirby Super Star Ultra by almost 120,000 units, marking a total of 380,060 copies sold in Japan during its launch period.

Its worth keeping in mind that this sales data refers only to retail copies. Digital sales are not tracked because Nintendo rarely makes this information known to the public. Considering digital sales wouldn’t have even existed with the Nintendo DS installment sitting at second place, these sales figures paint an incredibly positive picture.

To make matters even more impressive, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is also the country’s most successful game launch of the year so far, toppling Elden Ring. Only Pokemon Legends: Arceus was able to surpass it on the launch charts for 2022.