For fans of Nintendo's long-running, exploration-heavy series Metroid, last year proved to be both surprising and note-worthy for one very specific reason. And that was the out-of-nowhere -- albeit heavily-rumoured for well over a decade -- announcement at last year's E3 of a brand new, non-remake entry in the form of Metroid Dread. This, despite Metroid Prime 4 still in development with no release date in sight, the game going on to be subsequently announced and released in little more than four months. And it looks like the game is off to a strong start in the context of how well past Metroid titles have generally and historically faired.

In the span of three months up to December 31 of last year, Metroid Dread has managed to sell a total of 2.74 million copies. What's more impressive is that in such a short span of time, Dread is already around a hundred-thousand units shy of the series' best-selling entry of all time, 2002's Metroid Prime for the Gamecube. Itself having racked up life-time sales of roughly 2.84 million. But all things considered, it's rather understandable why and how Dread has managed to reach the same level of success of Prime, the latter of which often cited as one of the series' best iterations. Having received acclaim far and wide from critics -- including here, to the point it even ended up our runner-up for Game of the Year -- and fans alike, Metroid Dread felt in a way like an amalgamation of everything the series has got right over the years. On top of being a respectable, original entrant in its own right.