Can you explain this one? The original was an XBLA game that broke out pretty nicely. The second was on Game Pass and still hit #1 on the NPD revenue chart at $30 (and doubled the sales of the original in its first month). You must have a very interesting definition of "tanked".
I'll concede it had a great launch as a $30 retail offering (although that NPD rank doesn't account for Nintendo's digital sales, which to me means DKC: Tropical Freeze may have actually outsold it; we may never know). But if NPD is what we care about, it dropped like a rock by June (down from #1 to #20 on NPD), vanished by July. More relevant to me: Microsoft refuses to disclose concurrent/MAU numbers for the game. Won't say how many of its total players came as a result of Game Pass, and whether they stayed. "Five million players" is not the same as five million MAU.
"Tanked" might be erring on the side of harsh. Game Pass is obviously keeping people finding and installing it. Does that mean it's a sticky game? I'd love harder confirmation on that front, at which point I'll go ahead and eat this hat.