New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Modern Warfare 2’s Silent Killer?

We all can’t get enough of GameStop’s claim that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be (or is) the “biggest entertainment launch of all time,” but what about next week’s release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii? While Modern Warfare 2 has more hype, more buzz and probably more sales out of the gate, one analyst believes that Nintendo’s multiplayer platformer will win in the long haul. EEDAR Analyst Jesse Divnich expects that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will sell 15 million units during its lifetime, and that it’ll be the best-selling title released in 2009.

Now, that doesn’t mean Modern Warfare 2 will be outsold this year. But next year, Activision will probably release another Call of Duty title, as it did with Call of Duty: World at War in 2008, and Modern Warfare 2 sales will drop off. Meanwhile, New Super Mario Bros. Wii will stay strong, Divnich said, mimicking how New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS has continued to appear on the top of sales charts years after its release. The man makes a lot of sense, but of course we can’t count the long legs of Mario’s next adventure as a “launch,” so to speak. It’s more of an endurance run. So GameStop’s right about Modern Warfare 2’s meteoric impact as well. Everybody wins! [via Gamasutra]