Pokemon Sword and Shield continues to fill gaming headlines this week. In the run up to its launch rumours and leaks kept fans talks and speculating on the game. Now the game has out there’s been a steady stream of discoveries. The biggest news so far though is to do with sales. The game has become the fastest-selling Switch game.
Fastest-selling Switch game must be a pretty competitive category at this point. From Zelda: Breath of the Wild‘s powerful start, to the steady stream of Mario games, the Switch has had its fair-share of hits. At time of writing, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best selling Switch game with 19 million copies sold. Sword and Shield’s 6 million puts it at 8th – nestled between Super Mario Party and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe. I’d expect it to rise up that list in the run up to Christmas.
In other ways, Pokemon being the fastest-selling game isn’t so surprising. Pokemon has a huge fan base. Its followers span a huge age range, from the young to the not so young. From nostalgic 30-somethings to school kids embarking on their first Pokemon journey, this is a day 1 purchase for a big cross-section of the Switch’s audience. While many of Nintendo’s titles are ‘evergreen’. They persist in terms of sales (and fun) for months and years. Apart from the online-arenas in Splatoon, perhaps, there’s no real reason to run out and buy them at launch. With Pokemon’s heavier focus on online trading and battling, even with just your friends, its much better at providing a reason to buy it immediately. That’s before you start factoring in the probability of online spoilers and continuing marketing campaign. 6 million people started their journey in Pokemon Sword or Shield last week. Its not hard to see why anyone waiting a while might feel a little left out.
