Nintendo has declared a strong start to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, with the game nabbing over 6.5 million sales in its first week.
The company thanked fans for their support of the latest Pokémon title via their Twitter account. As analyst Daniel Ahmad noted on Twitter, this makes it the fastest selling Pokémon game so far on the Switch. Comparatively, both Sword & Shield in 2019 and last year’s Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl netted 6 million in their respective first weeks.
The game’s done well in it’s native Japan too. According to figures from Famitsu (translated by Siliconera) 1.4 million of that total were in the game’s home country in the first three days. That’s not even factoring in digital sales, and makes it the second best-selling Switch game of all time in Japan. The only title to beat it was 2019’s monster hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons with a whopping 1.8+million sales.
If you’ve not taken a look yet, Pokémon Legends Arceus shakes up the traditional Pokémon formula. Taking place in a semi-open world, it’s more about capturing the popular monsters than fighting trainers. You take on missions for NPCs with a goal to fill the first ever Pokédex. This also sees the game take a few cues from New Pokémon Snap, as you fill the Pokédex out by completing tasks related to several aspects of each monster to ‘level up’ their entry.
Thank you to the more than 6.5 million explorers worldwide who’ve already embarked on an exciting new adventure in #PokemonLegendsArceus!
Let us know how your research in the Hisui region is going so far. pic.twitter.com/PAxiuk6SxD
— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) February 4, 2022
