"Pokémon Sword and Shield" at 18M Sold, "Let's Go" at 12M Sold, Nintendo Switch at 61M Sold!

Hey fellas: I thought would address this as I continue work on my other posts, since another big sales milestone has been crossed.

As of their recent quarterly report, “Pokémon Sword and Shield” have sold over 18.22 million copies as of June 30, 2020. This is just under two weeks after the launch of “The Isle of Armor” chapter of the Expansion Pass; but even more significantly, this marks another record for the franchise. Though one of my associates, who shall remain undisclosed suggested things have finally given way for the series; the opposite has happened instead: not only have games outsold the games released on 3DS in a fraction of the time they had on the market, they’re now in the top 3 bestselling games in the entire franchise to date. Number one is still the original Red, Blue and Yellow at 31.4 million copies, closely followed by Gold, Silver and Crystal at 29.5 million copies. At this point, it’s less of “if” and more “when” the titles will move further up the list. “Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee” have also sold a respectable 12.2 million copies to date. The titles have managed to remain among the bestselling titles on the Switch, alongside other big names such as “Animal Crossing New Horizons” at 22.4 million copies, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” at 19.99 million copies (with Sakurai all but confirming the game just passed 20 million in a column for Famitsu), “Super Mario Odyssey” and “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” at well over 18 million copies and “Splatoon 2” at 10.7 million copies. The top game on the system still remains “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” at 26.7 million copies.

On that note, the Nintendo Switch itself has further proven successful, with the console now having sold 61.44 million units to date across all its versions; less than 500,000 away from surpassing the 61.91 million the original Nintendo Entertainment System sold in its entire lifecycle. Talk persists of an upgraded model with new features in the near future; much as has been done with the company’s previous systems (part of the reason I let other people get a new console at launch first). If you were to ask me what I would want out of an upgraded Switch, my answer would be simple: longer battery life in portable mode and finding a solution to Joycon Drift. I love my Switch and the Pokémon games released for it so far, so those two features would make it even better as we head towards the 25th anniversary next year. That will be all for now, take care.