EfluxMedia

It seems like Masanao Maeda, the corporate director at Sega's game software division, was right back in September when he predicted that Sega’s game, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, will sell 4 million units. In the light Even a little bit pessimistic.

In an interview given to Bloomberg during last year’s Tokyo Game Show, Maeda explained that his estimation is based on the huge success of Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS and he added that the upcoming Beijing Olympics will also drive sales of the title. Even though he declined to give a specific time period for the sales target, it seems like three months was enough, as today Sega announced that Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games has reached the five million units milestone.

This is the first title to feature both iconic gaming mascots Mario and Sonic and it was released on November 6 when the Wii version hit store shelves in the United States. The game was initially announced in March last year.

Sonic The Hedgehog is one of the most popular videogame icons of all time with over 44 million games sold worldwide while Mario games alone have sold more than 193 million worldwide.

In the spirit of the Olympic Games, the legendary mascots also brought friends from their storied franchises along, including Luigi, Knuckles, Yoshi and Tails, to compete in a variety of Olympic events.

The game offers four playing styles to choose from and players can decide their game strategy: all-around, technical, speed, and power - for example: Mario and Amy (All-around), Peach and Tails (Technical), Sonic and Yoshi (Speed), and Knuckles and Bowser (Power). Players are able to choose and try out, in both single and multiplayer mode, each event individually with Single Match mode (where players can choose their event and play until they score top marks).

They can also compete for the highest overall score in a series of events in Circuit mode (where players can create their own circuit by choosing the individual events, choose a pre-determined circuit, or randomly generate a circuit).

“With adored icons and fun game play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has shot to the top of the sales charts and is clearly resonating with the growing audience of casual gamers that want an engaging and accessible gaming experience,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America.

According to the NPD Group, which tracks sales data in the United States, the game was one of the top-ten best-sellers in the United States – across all platforms – in the critical holiday sales month of December. In January, Mario & Sonic was the best-selling video game in England across all formats.