Super Mario Odyssey was a huge success for Nintendo and by far the best selling 3D adventure for the plumber yet at almost 22 million copies sold (Super Mario Galaxy is second with 12.8 million sold games). Nintendo has previously had a hard time selling as much of 3D Mario as they have of 2D Mario, with the New Super Mario Bros. series being incredibly popular and considered a title that fits all gamers.
During the Q&A after Nintendo's latest financial report, Shigeru Miyamoto had a couple of things to say about the success for Super Mario Odyssey and what this means for Mario going forward (transcribed by VGC):
"Let me explain by describing the background for the development of the Wii game New Super Mario Bros Wii, which was released in 2009. At the time, it felt like each time we created a new installment in the Super Mario series - which by then had expanded into 3D - it became more complicated.
After the release of Super Mario Galaxy in 2007, the goal was to develop a more accessible 3D Super Mario game, and the result was New Super Mario Bros Wii, a basic side-scrolling Super Mario game that even new players could easily play. That later led to the release of the even simpler Super Mario Run game (a mobile application released in 2016.)
When we develop software, we strive to incorporate new elements, but at the same time we want to make it easy for even first-time players to have fun. Recently, people of all generations have been enjoying the 3D Mario game Super Mario Odyssey (released in 2017), so for 3D Mario going forward, we want to try expanding further in new ways."
As we really like Super Mario Odyssey, we look forward to see where Nintendo is taking Mario next and how they will expand the concept of 3D platforming. It was actually four years since Odyssey was launched - so we believe it should be about time to announce the next Mario game in a not too distant future.