Despite the backlash leading up to Nintendo and Game Freak’s Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield release, the two games’ sales seem to have topped six million units worldwide. According to a tweet from the official Pokemon game account, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are now among the fastest-selling Switch titles in the wild.
About that tweet, here’s the post on Twitter relaying what the controversial pair have achieved within launch week:
Nintendo Switchソフト史上最速・最多！ 『ポケットモンスター ソード・シールド』が、発売初週で世界販売本数600万本を突破したよ！ https://t.co/5Qp4uTJbeT #ポケモン剣盾 pic.twitter.com/Vlb5HJSBcw
— ポケモン公式ツイッター (@Pokemon_cojp) November 21, 2019
Thanks to website businesswire.com, we learn that of those six million units, Japan accounts for two million sold. Additionally, Nick Chavez — Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing — had this to say:
“This past weekend, millions of people began their Pokemon journeys through the new Galar region. With such a momentous launch, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield have proven to be two of the must-have games this holiday season.”
Website Business Wire continues about the two games and their first-week performance on the market, but I should note that the following asterisk (*) means “reported sell through internal Nintendo sales data” and applies to both physical and digital sales, while the double-asterisk (**) means total for titles in the “core Pokemon RPG series as of September 2019” as per internal Nintendo sales data:
“Nintendo of America announced that after selling more than six million units worldwide during launch weekend*, the Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield games are among the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch games of all time. Additionally, the games sold just over two million copies in the first two days in the U.S., making it the highest-grossing launch of any Pokemon game.”
The report continues:
“Games in the core Pokemon RPG series have sold more than 240 million units** worldwide since launching with the Pokemon Red Version and Pokemon Blue Version games in 1996.”
So what does this all mean? Well, it means that Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are the “highest-grossing launch period” for any Pokémon game in the U.S., and it also means the two are “among” the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch games of all time.
