Yes, Going Up Against Super Mario Bros. Wonder Probably Wasn’t a Good Idea for Sonic Superstars

ign.com:

Sonic Superstars launched on October 17. Super Mario Bros. Wonder launched three days later, on October 20. Both 2D platformers went up against each other in an old-school video game rumble that rekindled memories of the Sega versus Nintendo playground battles of the 90s. Well, it seems this time around, there was a clear winner.

While Super Mario Bros. Wonder broke sales records, becoming the fastest-selling Mario game of all time with 4.3 million copies sold in just two weeks, Sonic Superstars sales failed to meet Sega's expectations. Or, as Sega boss Haruki Satomi put it in a recent financial report, Sonic Superstars had a “slightly weaker start than we had anticipated”.

Why? In an investor-focused Q&A, Satomi admitted other games had a “significant” impact. Satomi didn’t name names, but it’s clear Super Mario Bros. Wonder played a part. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nintendo Switch owners preferred Super Mario Bros. Wonder on their console, and on other platforms, Sonic Superstars failed to generate the interest Sega had hoped for. It’s worth noting that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 launched on PlayStation 5 on 20 October, also just a few days after Sonic came out, and sold millions of copies. And there will have been plenty of people still busy playing through games that came out not long before Sonic, such as Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Cyberpunk 2077 DLC Phantom Liberty, Starfield, EA Sports FC 24, and Mortal Kombat 1.

Here’s the question Sega was asked: “What do you see as the reason for the lower-than-expected start of Sonic Superstars?”

And here’s the answer: “We believe that the impact of other companies' major title released at the same time is significant, but we plan to expand the promotion towards the holiday season,