When Nintendo finally revealed Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl back in February, the anticipation was already through the roof. Being remakes of the critically acclaimed 2006 Nintendo DS titles, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl had lot to live up to, especially since it was launching for the absolute powerhouse that is the Nintendo Switch. Now that the titles have been released, which occurred on November 19, Japanese publication Famitsu has reported that the remakes are doing very well in terms of sales numbers. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining sold roughly 1.4 million units in just under three days of release, which makes them the second biggest Switch title launch in the region of Japan.
To put this in perspective, and just how much hype and anticipation were building around this, the original Pokemon Diamond and Pearl sold roughly 1.5 million units within four days in its native Japan. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining nearly made those numbers by a mere fraction with a one-day difference. It’s also important to note that all of these numbers are from physical sales and not digital ones from the eShop. Nintendo does not regularly disclose sales numbers for digital titles, which means that the overall units sold are likely much higher.
As we already mentioned, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining had the second biggest Switch launch in the history of Japan. For those wondering who had the biggest launch? That would be the unstoppable juggernaut that is Animal Crossing: New Horizons which completely trounced those statistics by selling around 1.8 million units in under three days. It also went on to become the highest-selling entry in the franchise. It wouldn’t surprise us at all if Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl increase those sales numbers exponentially before the year is done, and well into 2022. Either way, Nintendo and the Pokemon Company have another major hit on their hands.