Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection launches later this week, a modern port of the six Mega Man Battle Network games that originally launched on the Game Boy Advance. If you haven’t played the series before, you’re probably at least familiar with it. The long-running series spun off into a cartoon called MegaMan NT Warrior that lasted 56 episodes, culminating in a feature film, as well as a manga series that ran for nearly four years. It had its own toy line that featured collectible battle chips, a sequel series called Mega Man Star Force that had three entries on the DS, and its own Settlers of Catan retheme. You’ve definitely heard of Battle Network, but you might not be aware that it never actually made Capcom any money.
It’s hard to believe Battle Network wasn’t successful given how big the franchise became, but the best-selling entry in the series is Battle Network 4, and it only sold 1.35 million copies. The sixth and final game in the series sold just over half a million copies. The best-selling Mega Man Battle Network still falls outside of Capcom’s 50 best-selling games. The new legacy collection only has to sell a little more than 1.35 million copies to be the best-selling game in the series.
Maybe that isn’t that surprising. After all, Battle Network is a spin-off series itself, and a strategy RPG, no less. It was exclusive to the GBA, and its dual-release scheme that featured two different versions of each game was clearly trying to replicate the success of Pokemon. Maybe it’s not that strange that such a niche sub-series would fail to find mainstream success, but at least the core Mega Man games have always done well, right?
Wrong, I tricked you. There are no successful Mega Man games. It turns out Capcom’s mascot is actually one of its worst performers. Last year, Mega Man 11 became the best-selling Mega Man game of all time when it passed 1.6 million units - just 150,000 more than Mega Man Battle Network 4. It beat out Mega Man 2 which held the record as the best selling Mega Man game since it launched on the NES in 1987. It has sold a total of 1.51 million copies. Capcom reached modest success with Mega Man in the ‘80s, and for 35 years never managed to make a more popular Mega Man game. And boy oh boy, it tried.
Mega Man’s story is one of quantity over quality. Despite a long history of poor sales, the sheer number of Mega Man games out there has made it one of Capcom’s most successful franchises. It lags significantly behind Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, Capcom’s two big earners, but its total sales aren’t far off of Street Fighter, and surpass both Devil May Cry and Dead Rising. It’s easy to see why. If you add up every Mega Man game, including ports, collections, and multiplatform releases, there have been 158 games - significantly more than any other franchise Capcom owns.
It’s shocking that the best selling Mega Man game is only Capcom’s 56th best-selling game. There are Resident Evil DLC packs that sold better than Mega Man 11. Lost Planet 2 sold better than Mega Man 11. I don’t know what to do with this information, but I felt like someone had to know. It would bring me infinite joy to see Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection become the best selling Mega Man game of all time. When you buy it this week, not only are you getting a great collection of games, but you can also relish in the fact that you’re helping make something hilarious happen.