Just yesterday, the initial sales numbers were in, for [GAME=/game/pok-mon-sword.37382]Pokémon Sword[/GAME] and [GAME=/game/pok-mon-shield.115653]Pokémon Shield[/GAME] showing that the pair had sold 1.3 million copies in their first three days of launch in Japan. While those numbers alone already broke a sales record for the best opening week for a game on the Nintendo Switch, Sword and Shield aren't done yet. The Pokemon Company has announced that in the United States, over 2 million copies were sold during the weekend, marking the highest-grossing launch of any Pokemon game. As of today, Sword and Shield have sold 6 million units worldwide, with the massive sales figure taking both physical and digital sales into account. This puts the eighth generation of Pokemon games ahead of 2013's Pokemon X and Y, which sold four million copies in its first week, and just a bit below Sun and Moon's highly successful launch week sales of 7.2 million.

Source (USA)
Source (JP)

Tags: [GAME=/game/pok-mon-sword.37382]Pokémon Sword[/GAME], [GAME=/game/pok-mon-shield.115653]Pokémon Shield[/GAME], [PLATFORM=/platform/switch]Nintendo Switch[/PLATFORM], [COMPANY=/company/nintendo]Nintendo[/COMPANY]

 

[jahrs]

All I got to say is that I've played it for the past week and beat it in under 10 hours with over half the dex completed. I was looking forward to the wild area but it was smaller then I expected and lacked the variety I think it needed to make the game worth the dex cut. Sorta feel like this is a step back since they removed so much and added in very little to make up for it. But if they can some how add back megas,z-moves I'd be fine with the game as is. But for right now it sits as a 6-7 ish on my personal ratings.

 

[DarthDub]

Can't wait for Pokemon Ultra Sword and Ultra Shield to come out.

 

[phillyrider807]

It's really sickening when compared to other franchises on the switch

Mario Odyssey=Amazing
BOTW=Amazing
Fire Emblem=Amazing
Smash Bros=Amazing
Mario Kart=Amazing
Luigi's Mansion=Amazing

Animal Crossing is looking to be amazing. Metroid was delayed because it wasn't shaping up to be of quality.


Pokemon=Half the pokemon/Twice the money.


Like what???

 

[codezer0]

Or maybe that you're the one who has lost touch with reality.

Stupid people are why nobody makes a good phone anymore. Stupid people constantly cause accidents and road closures that negatively affect my job. And stupid people are also why several of my preferred items of the past aren't around.

Stupid people are why stuff like fallout 76 happen. Or why there are big data breaches every week on the clock.

I was hoping for a decent pokemon game for the switch to succeed the let's go games. Instead, what we get is idiots eating up a game that's twice the price for less than half the content. In a franchise that was built upon being so personally invested in your favorites ( or to get them all), it would be unnatural *not* to be upset about this alteration. Even though it wouldn't have been ideal, it would have made more sense to simply omit *all* of the previous gen pokemon and start over if this is what the chosen option was going to be, because then maybe more would have been looking forward to the new options rather than wishing their favorites would've been part of the action. But, I digress...

 

[jesus96]

Confirmed we aren't going to get nice things ever

 

[Agusto101]

Confirmed we aren't going to get nice things ever

True.

 

[anhminh]

Confirmed we aren't going to get nice things ever

What do you mean? The last time genwunder protest in gen V make Chalizard and Pikachu staple in every gen since then is a nicest thing you get right?

 

[shadow1w2]

Hopefully the sale numbers dont blind them from why the backlash happened.
No reason they cant make spin offs while taking more time on main game development and maybe updates.
Also wish they'd stop this addiction to making new pokemon if they gotta cut them anyway. If they never made new ones they could always make new forms and added evolutions on occasion.
Could add more depth to pokemon if regions had different versions that act more differently like we've kind of already had.
Cross breeding new versions could be a thing to.
Lots of things tbey could do if they stop adding more and start focusing on quality layers. Plus time needed to develop quality.
Sales might not be affected but they'd atleast embaress themswlves and make themselves look bad. Least I think they pay attention to that.

Oh well I hear Digimon is making good games lately. Always other creature training games.
Maybe this could inspire more indie devs to make quality creature games.

Fingers crossed they learn from wvwnts though.
Maybe the next main game will just have ten pokemon and 32x graphics just to apite us? lol

 

[YeezusWalks]

Fucking disgusting.
I lost my fate in humanity.

I hope a WWIII occurs to cleanse the Earth of these foul and mindless sheeps :^}

>This mad over a video game
KEK
It's real five-head hours.

 

[blindseer]

I don't really care about pokemon anymore either way but I have to ask, is this truly units physically sold to customers or units sold and shipped to a store waiting for sale to a customer? Because when I went to best buy on Wensday they had like 30 copies of each game sitting there... I know some companies like to inflate their sold percentage this way and have to wonder...

 

[raxadian]

Still not buying it, maybe in a few months.

 

[Pipistrele]

Most people on the industry already know that every vocal minority calling boycott is mostly that: a vocal minority. Negative people on the internet tend to be loud and obnoxious to what they perceive to be a problem - honestly, people in real life are like that, too.

For every grown-ass adult crying wolf about how they won't buy a game because there are not enough virtual monsters there are hundreds of people who simply don't care. They just wanna play their Pokémon game and have some fun.

Many devs actually steer away from internet discourse because they know it does not resemble real life and it takes a toll on their mental health. It's not sane.

Yeah, I understand that, and in many ways, you're right -u- I suppose it's just that: 1) People blaming other people for personal purchases ("You're part of the problem for enjoying things I don't like!" and all that) is a big pet peeve of mine, and 2) I generally expected more level-headed reaction from GBATemp community - it's just frankly discouraging to see so many people being assholes to each other, especially when I know they're capable of adequate interactions.

But hey, in the end result, they're the ones who suffer in juice of their own hatred and self-importance, while everyone else either has fun with the game or moves on to more enjoyable things, so maybe I shouldn't invest emotionally into this shishow as much as I end up doing. I'll probably close the site and go do some more catcherinos now. Thanks a lot for much-needed reality check!

 

[Kioku]

Decent sales numbers, but how many of them lead to regret? This was sized up to be a huge release on the Switch, but all we get is a luck luster performance. I overlooked the lack of a national dex and even some of my favorite Pokémon missing.. But the overall quality of the game is less than desirable by today's standards and really shows that gamers are learning to settle. Which, in turn, leads to developers half-assing it all. To think I defended them not too long ago.

 

[xdarkx]

About the whole national dex not being in this game, rumors say the tool Gamefreak used failed to import all the Pokemon to the Switch games and they pretty much worked with whatever Pokemon that were successfully imported.

 

[Axido]

It's pretty easy to become the highest-grossing Pokémon launch if you sell the games for 1.5 times the price of any prior release.
They only need two thirds of the sales of whatever they are competing with.

Though I understand all the rage about Dexit and Gamefreak not caring as much about the plot as they could have, I don't think that Sword and Shield are essentially bad games. Just not as exceptionally good as most other entries.

I'd say it's still better than Sun and Moon, which did include all Pokémon.

 

[CactusMan]

I'm not crazy about Pokémon but I love Game Freak's catalog, style and creativity. Drill Dozer, HarmoKnight, Jerry Boy 2, Tembo and Pocket Card Jockey are all games that range from great to excellent. I wish them all the best.

Great for the developers on the success, but I really do hope Nintendo and The Pokémon Company give them more time for development on their next game. I'm not following news on the game (and don't plan to) but it's plain to see they were given a somewhat rushed schedule. Early Pokémon games were given very generous development times - spanning almost six years (!) from conception to release on the first one and three and a half years on development of Gold and Silver. This strive towards rushness is not good for productivity and development and it shows.

Also people back then were less demanding. Nobody needed a openworld nor 1000 pokemon.
But there are 6 milion people people enjoying that game, that´s nice.

 

[goldensun87]

Sore over a children's equivalent of call of duty,with less content than the previous game.Boy,I must be aching all over.My point was that people will praise the game anyway early on since they spent 60$ on it,and then change there minds once the game ages out after a few months.Success financialy doesnt protect the games from criticism.

And criticism does not mean shit, if the brainless fans keep throwing their money at Game Freak. Because at the end of the day, as long as the money flows in, Game Freak will not care about anyone's complaints.

 

[SonicRings]

It's disheartening and discouraging to see this game be so successful with all its blatant flaws. I worry they'll never fix it in a patch or sequel due to the positive sales numbers :/

 

[Skelletonike]

People complaining about the price and I bought the Dual Pack for the 84€.

Nintendo were always expensive, this game is just following the Switch priceline.

 

[Godamit]

Seeing a lot of bashing each other from both sides about this. As someone who doesn't care but at the same time sits on the side saying this game is trash and this is bad for the future of games such as this, I just want to give my two cents about people who are upset this is selling well.

The concern is, that with games like Pokemon and Zelda (Yes, bringing up BOTW which is not quite the same story but I was still disappointed overall) selling so well on the Switch, only leads us to believe the developers will continue with more of the same. This may seem fine to the people who still manage to enjoy what is happening to these games, but for those of us unhappy about what is happening, it mainly comes down to this:

We grew up on these games and had vague enough expectations that the games could be developed as they saw fit but would also be done well for us to enjoy them, this way whenever we knew the next game in the series was coming we could get excited. But now with the changes that have been made, we can no longer look forward to the next game if it feels like the developers are just going to cater to what people liked in the most recent installment. Sure there are people who are enjoying the new direction of these games and more power to them, but for those of us who can't get onboard with what is happening, these games that always had a strong place with us, we can no longer look forward and trust that the next game will be worth the wait for us.

In short, and I believe I can speak for others in my situation when I say, I won't be buying these games anymore if this is what is happening, but in saying that, I really want to want to buy them.