Nintendo has just sent word that their epic Wii fighter, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, sold 874,000 copies on launch day (March 9th) and 1.4 million units total since then in the United States alone. Apparently, this averages out to around 120 copies being sold per minute as of March 16th and it’s the fastest selling game in Nintendo’s history.

Of course this is to be expected, because it’s a really f*cking great game. This just goes to show that Nintendo should be focusing on creating more hardcore games like Brawl, instead of turning the Wii into an exercise machine. Still, I do have a strange feeling that Wii Fit is going to sell a ridiculous amount of units. I hope I’m wrong.

Full press release after the jump.

SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL SMASHES NINTENDO SALES RECORDS

Wii Game Sells at a Rate of More than 120 per Minute

REDMOND, Wash., March 17, 2008 – After just one week on store shelves, Super Smash Bros.® Brawl for Wii has become the fastest-selling video game in Nintendo of America’s history. Since its launch on March 9, the feature-packed fighting action game has sold more than 1.4 million units in the United States, including more than 874,000 on March 9 alone. It has sold at a rate of more than 120 units per minute between launch and March 16.

“Super Smash Bros. Brawl has made the leap from video game to cultural phenomenon,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Game reviewers and the public alike praise its fun game play and extensive, inventive content.”

Super Smash Bros. Brawl features a nearly limitless variety of options for players. Dozens of classic Nintendo characters like Mario™ and Pikachu® are joined by industry icons like Sonic The Hedgehog™ and Metal Gear’s Solid Snake for all-out four-player battles. The endless customization keeps players coming back for more. The previous game in the series, Super Smash Bros.® Melee, became the best-selling Nintendo GameCube™ game of all time with more than 7 million copies sold worldwide, so it’s no surprise to see this latest installment racking up record numbers.

“It’s important to remember,” Dunaway said, “that we have lots more fun on the way: Upcoming titles like Mario Kart® Wii and Wii Fit™ will keep our momentum going strong.”

Mario Kart Wii launches April 27 with the Wii Wheel™, which lets players drive their speedy karts with the intuitive feel of a wireless steering wheel. It’s another “bridge” game like Wii Sports™ that lets video game novices and veterans play and have fun together. Wii Fit arrives May 19 with the Wii Balance Board™ to combine fun and fitness. It lets users track their progress over time, and it’s an easy way for every member of the family to keep active and play together.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

For more information about Super Smash Bros. Brawl, visit www.SmashBros.com.

About Nintendo: The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.5 billion video games and more than 430 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.