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Pokémon Sword/Shield/Diamond/Pearl are all breaking records

 Pokémon is the biggest media franchise of all time, and part of that success is due to the immense sales that each video game title manages to achieve. As with many Switch games, the most recent entries in the mainline franchise, Pokémon Sword/Shield and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, are likewise seeing this success, with both sets of games breaking Nintendo records.

Nintendo recently updated its list of lifetime game sales. Since the last Quarterly update, Pokémon Sword and Shield have managed to knock Gold and Silver off their silver podium to become the second best-selling Pokémon game of all time with 23,900,000 copies compared to Gold/Silver’s 23,700,000 copies.

Of course, Sword/Shield have a long way to go if they want to dethrone 1st place, however, because with 31,380,000 copies sold, Pokémon Red/Green/Blue continues as the best-selling game in the franchise. Pokémon Sword/Shield certainly has the potential to take first place, but with how many Pokémon games are released each year, the games don’t have quite as long tails as some other Nintendo properties.

One of the other recent Pokémon releases is Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. With just under 14 million copies sold, the remake, which was only released in the 3rd week of November 2021, is on pace to become the fastest selling Pokémon remake of all time. Currently it is in 3rd place, with Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevie selling 14.33 million and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire reaching 14.46 million copies sold in their first month and a half on the market.

While no data is currently available for the newest entry in the franchise, Pokémon Legends Arceus, early impressions are positive, and so it is safe to say that Pokémon is currently having a strong moment. Hopefully Game Freak is able to carry this momentum into the future.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of these sales figures? Are you surprised? How many copies do you think Arceus will sell? Let us know down below.

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