View Full Version : How many copies did Turtles in Time sell?
Prowler
12-13-2023, 06:39 PM
I have always seen people praising Turtles in Time online. It's certainly not an obscure game. It came out in the 3 major video game regions back in 1992(Japan, Europe and North America).
But how many copies did it sell? Does anyone know? I've never seen it mentioned when it comes to high selling SNES games. But I've seen NES TMNT getting mentioned on highest selling NES games lists before. I remember reading mnay years ago that it sold about 4 million copies. Granted that game came out in 1989 right around the height of TurtleMania while Turtles in Time got its console release in mid-late 1992 which was the time when Turtlemania was starting to lose steam, from what I gather. But considering Turtles in Time was a port that surpassed its arcade version that came out a year before, you'd think it would be a commercial success, no?
I wouldn't say it sold more copies than NES TMNT. Seems like everyone had NES TMNT when they were kids, my brother and I included. But considering how praised Turtles in Time is to this say, a lot of people must have grown up with it as well, right?
Well.... Video Game Chartz (https://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=teenage+mutant+ninja+turtles&publisher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200) has no sales figures for how many were shipped. For whatever it's worth, Wikipedia says (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles:_Turtles_in_Time) "Following its release, Turtles in Time became Konami's best-selling arcade title.[27] In the United States, the home console conversion was the top-selling Super NES game in September 1992."
Wikipedia also says "As of 1993, the first eleven TMNT video games had sold 18 million units worldwide, earning nearly $450 million in sales revenue." So that is fairly telling at least because Turtles In Time would fall under that banner somewhere in the 18 million copies sold across all TMNT games up until that point.
Prowler
12-14-2023, 06:26 PM
Well.... Video Game Chartz (https://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=teenage+mutant+ninja+turtles&publisher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200) has no sales figures for how many were shipped. For whatever it's worth, Wikipedia says (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles:_Turtles_in_Time) "Following its release, Turtles in Time became Konami's best-selling arcade title.[27] In the United States, the home console conversion was the top-selling Super NES game in September 1992."
Wikipedia also says "As of 1993, the first eleven TMNT video games had sold 18 million units worldwide, earning nearly $450 million in sales revenue." So that is fairly telling at least because Turtles In Time would fall under that banner somewhere in the 18 million copies sold across all TMNT games up until that point.
If I had to guess, the first 3 NES TMNT games, Turtles in Time and one or two of the Game Boy games were the highest selling TMNT games in history. The NES sold very well and also was the system whose life coincided with the Turtlemania fad. Game Boy only because every kid had one back in the 90s. Fall of the Foot Clan came out in summer 1990. 1990 is considered to be the peak of Turtlemania so I'm sure the first ever Game Boy TMNT game sold like hot cakes.
Wikipedia is hardly a bullet proof source, but I don't find it hard to believe that NES TMNT might have sold 4M copies worldwide and made it into the top 20 highest selling games for the system. The first ever home console Turtles game for the hottest video game system of its time right around the height of Turtlemania in 1989?! I'm sure most kids had that game at some point. There's a reason why AVGN's review of it is his most iconic episode to this day. A ton of people grew up with that game.
Yeah the 4 million copies sold of the NES game seems to be ubiquitously agreed upon....
Prowler
12-14-2023, 08:04 PM
Yeah the 4 million copies sold of the NES game seems to be ubiquitously agreed upon....
It's probably the NES game that made kids suffer the most in history. Most people who played it never managed to beat it. Impossible to know but I'd wager around 80% of the people who played that game haven't managed to beat it ever. I made it to the Technodrome in the Cowabunga Collection last year. I probably got farther than 80% of those millions of people who played the game. So can't say I feel too bad for never having beaten it.
Original TMNT Cartoon Fan
12-15-2023, 04:53 AM
Most people who played it never managed to beat it.
Most players died in the Hudson River Dam.
Prowler
12-15-2023, 11:32 AM
Most players died in the Hudson River Dam.
I never got past it when I was a kid either. But the thing is, that level isn't even that hard. I've managed to beat it several times as a teenager and an adult. I think the time limit just made people nervous when they were kids and they rushed through it without properly cycling between Turtles in the electrical seaweed part where you're gonna take a few hits no matter what.
vBulletin® v3.8.7, Copyright ©2000-2026, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.