Pokémon Sword and Shield Sales Surpass 25 Million Copies Marking 2nd Generation Ever to Do So
Nintendo’s quarterly updates yesterday caught us up on all the sales statistics for the Nintendo Switch Pokémon games, again revealing that the franchise is continuing to do its best numbers since the first generation of games. Alongside the numbers for the newer Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Legends: Arceus, Sword and Shield marked a milestone for the long-running franchise by being the second generation of Pokémon games to surpass 25 million copies worldwide.
The only other generation to do so was the first generation of games (not including Yellow, but including both Blue and Green), which sold over 31 million copies back in the 1990s. As of September 2022, Pokémon Sword and Shield have sold 25.37 million copies, topping Pokémon Gold and Silver as the second-best selling Pokémon games of all time.
Earlier this year, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were revealed to have been the highest-selling remake Pokémon generation of all time, with updated number bringing sales up to 14.92 million copies, just a little above Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!’s 14.81 million copies.
Meanwhile updated numbers for Pokémon Legends: Arceus has finally been announced, confirming that the single-title game has sold 13.91 million copies. This means Legends: Arceus has surpassed the total number of sales for Pokémon Heartgold and Soulsilver and is only 600,000 copies shy of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
With these updated numbers, we can surmise that despite being a year older than the two newest games in the series, Pokémon Sword and Shield continue to be a dominating force in the Pokémon space. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Pokémon Scarlet and Violet releases on November 18.
Source: Nintendo Investor Relations
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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.
