Metroid turned 40 this year, but Nintendo has remained silent on the milestone, a contrast to its celebrations for The Legend of Zelda. While Zelda has soared with Breath of the Wild, Metroid remains a prestige series whose influence outweighs its sales.
Sales and Recent Releases
Metroid Dread is the best-selling game in the series at 3.07 million units, far below Breath of the Wild's 34.06 million or Tears of the Kingdom's 22.71 million. Yet the Nintendo Switch 2 will host two Metroid games within its first two years: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and the recently announced Metroid Ravenous.
Since Dread in 2021, Nintendo has released the Metroid Prime remaster in 2023, Metroid Prime 4 in 2025, and now Ravenous in 2027—a welcome cadence compared to the seven-year gap between Other M and the Metroid 2 remake. Ravenous comes from Dread developer MercurySteam, greenlit before Nintendo knew Prime 4 would be a critical and commercial disappointment.
Position in Nintendo's Hierarchy
Two Metroid games in two winters is unusual, but it doesn't signal a push to make Samus a household name. Ravenous wasn't the big closer of the last Nintendo Direct; that honor went to Kirby and the World Beyond, with Nintendo teasing big plans for Kirby's 35th anniversary. Ravenous looks similar to Dread, with Samus gaining a new power to feed on enemies, but no evolution of the formula.
Prime 4, while not bad, sits awkwardly—too Metroid for casuals, not Metroid enough for core fans. A Nintendo rep said it sold over a million units, but that figure combines Switch 1 and Switch 2 sales, suggesting neither version did especially well. The game's changes, like an obnoxious band of ally characters, suggest a misunderstanding of the series' appeal.
Future Directions
Nintendo may hesitate to greenlight Metroid Prime 5, so the best path for evolution could be a new type of 3D game. A third-person adventure seems obvious, as Batman: Arkham Asylum proved the formula can work in third person over 17 years ago. It wouldn't need to be open world, especially after Prime 4's boring attempt.
Alternatively, Metroid could remain a 2D series, but that would admit the formula has nowhere else to go. Ravenous' reveal trailer accrued more views than Dread's on both UK and US Nintendo channels, and Dread reportedly shot to the top of the Switch 1 eShop sales charts in the US. Samus has evolved over 40 years, becoming the titular Metroid, and it would be disappointing if the series itself didn't follow suit.
