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Mario Kart 8 is an curious example to cite. The game was sold with a free download of another game - and choices included many top tier first-party titles. That's a very unusual tactic. It's a great game, but I'm sure this will have been a big driver for sales.

I wonder if the tallies for the other games (e.g. NSMB-U, Nintendoland, Z:WW) include those sold as a pack in, or free download?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Wii_U_vide...

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You're right, I forgot about the fact that it was "bundled" with an additional game. Personally, I only found out about this after I bought it; I'm not sure how much the bundling helped Mario Kart's game sales. But it's a fair point.

I didn't want to pick Nintendo Land because the way it was sold is not entirely straightforward. For example, some copies were bundled with a controller.

I didn't want to use NSMB or 3D World as examples because Mario platformers are often outliers when it comes to sales. I guess The Wind Waker HD would have been a good example, because it sold really well despite being an HD remake of an older game.

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