Pokemon Sword and Shield has been out for nearly a week now, and despite the recent controversies surrounding it, the newest generation of Pokemon seems to be doing very well within the Pokemon community. We knew that the games would move some huge numbers when it launched. In fact it already had an impressive showing on the U.K. charts, but how about the rest of the world? It turns out that everyone wanted piece of Sword and Shield as Nintendo has announced that the games not only shipped more than 2 million units in the U.S. within the first two days, they also shipped more than 6 million within the first week. This makes Pokemon Sword and Shield the highest grossing launch sales in the franchise. On top of that, they are now the fastest selling Nintendo Switch games in history.
To put these numbers in perspective, the previous record holder, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, shipped more than 5 million within its first week and has gone onto sell over 13 million near the end of March. Sword and Shield has eclipsed those initial numbers by 1 million, which is an impressive feat in an of itself.
Last years Pokemon games for the Switch, Let’s Go Pikachu and Evee, have sold close to the 12 million mark themselves in their lifetime sales. While the former were the first main Pokemon games to be released on home console, Sword and Shield is essentially a complete reinvention of the franchise that’s taking it in some new directions with how players enjoy the game.
Things didn’t look so good when it was revealed that not every Pokemon in the Pokedex would be in the game, basically ruining the “Gotta Catch em All” gimmick. It got worse when the #GameFreakLied started trending over the company’s apparent reuse of the Pokemon wire frame assets for the new in game models. It may have gotten out of hand for a while, but from what we can see in the past six days is that most of the fans have bought into the hype and are enjoying Sword and Shield.
In short, Sword and Shield look like they’re going to dominate the gaming market for a long time, especially with more content in the coming years. Nintendo has done it again, with the franchise that continues to be successful no matter the odds. Pokemon Sword and Shield are available now on the Nintendo Switch.