Pokémon Sword and Shield has enjoyed a massive opening week in the UK sales charts, holding off Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to claim the number one spot – making it the biggest system exclusive game of 2019.
Pokémon Sword on its own is the third biggest physical game launch of the year, trailing FIFA 20 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. However, combine Sword's sales with that of Shield and the Sword and Shield: Dual Edition, and you've got the second biggest launch for a Pokémon outing in UK history.
Pokémon Sun and Moon still holds the record for the biggest UK launch for the series, but it's worth noting that that Sun and Moon launched on a Wednesday while Sword and Shield launched on a Friday, so the former had two additional days of sales (plus, the UK charts do not count digital downloads, of which Sword and Shield will have had many more than Sun and Moon did).
Taken separately, Shield managed to hit the number three spot while the double pack came in at 7th in the UK chart. The rest of the top 10 is made of existing titles, with Luigi's Mansion 3 dropping to 6th, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sliding to 9th and Mario & Sonic At The Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 falling to 10th.
Further down the chart, Ring Fit Adventure rose from 19th place to 15th.
Last Week | This Week | |
---|---|---|
1 | POKEMON SWORD | |
2 | STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER | |
3 | POKEMON SHIELD | |
1 | 4 | CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE |
3 | 5 | FIFA 20 |
4 | 6 | LUIGI'S MANSION 3 |
7 | POKEMON SWORD & SHIELD: DUAL EDITION | |
2 | 8 | DEATH STRANDING |
6 | 9 | MARIO KART 8 DELUXE |
9 | 10 | MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES TOKYO 2020 |
5 | 11 | NEED FOR SPEED: HEAT |
9 | 12 | MINECRAFT |
7 | 13 | FORTNITE: DARKFIRE BUNDLE |
13 | 14 | GRAND THEFT AUTO V |
19 | 15 | RING FIT ADVENTURE |
10 | 16 | PLANTS VS ZOMBIES: BATTLE FOR NEIGHBORVILLE |
11 | 17 | SUPER MARIO MAKER 2 |
12 | 18 | THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK'S AWAKENING |
21 | 19 | SEA OF THIEVES |
23 | 20 | MINECRAFT: XBOX EDITION |
Ukie Games Charts©, compiled by GfK Chart-Track
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 82
Six Nintendo exclusives in the top 10 in the UK is quite ridiculously good.
Also interesting to see Luigi's Mansion 3 is above Death Stranding this week. I think now the Kojima fans have bought the game it will sink without a trace. Ring Fit Adventure will probably outsell it in the end (its sales increased this week by a third).
@SBandy As a Nintendo fan it's so pleasing to see the turnaround in their success, particularly in the UK, after the dark days of the Wii U.
That's pretty good for Nintendo. I hope we get more good game ports too.
@Rob3008
Yep, Nintendo has a real presence again in shops. Great to see.
Congratulations to Game Freak. I'm glad the game is doing well after all the nonsense in the build up. Perhaps now we can finally have some positivity?
That's awesome. Star Wars is even on the two consoles with bigger install bases than Switch AND didn't have a massive smear campaign against it like Sw/Sh did.
Despite the hate, I'm enjoying Shield. The wild area is so fun to explore.
Good, this ought to make all the haters shut up, especially since they definitely did not see it coming. Things selling well is an undeniable proof of quality, after all.
Shame Pokemon lost to even greater game series, like FIFA and Call of Duty.
Good for Nintendo, bad for us Pokémon fans. The message is clear: the Pokémon brand can get away with everything it wants from now on. Bad times are coming.
So good to see that it’s doing ridiculously well after all that nonsense that the ‘fans’ got upset about.
Unfortunately I can’t play until Christmas. My lads asked for the big jolly guy to bring it down the chimney on the special day, and he’s made me promise not to get it until then so that we can play and enjoy it together. Some things are worth waiting for I guess!
Pokemon UK retail launch sales estimates:
> Pokemon Platinum: ~60,000
> Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver: ~90,000
> Pokemon Black/White: ~135,000
> Pokemon Black/White 2: ~60,000
> Pokemon X/Y: ~125,000
> Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire: ~145,000
> Pokemon Sun/Moon: ~290,000 (Wednesday launch)
> Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon: ~80,000
> Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee: ~115,000
> Pokemon Sword/Shield: ~190,000 (if you count the double pack as 2 copies sold each)
Fastest-selling Nintendo games of all time at UK retail:
1. Pokemon Sun/Moon: ~290,000 (Wednesday launch)
2. Wii Fit: ~215,000
3. Pokemon Sword/Shield: ~190,000
4. Mario Kart Wii: ~180,000
5. Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire: ~145,000
6. Pokemon Black/White: ~135,000
7. Super Smash Bros Ultimate: ~135,000
8. Pokemon X/Y: ~125,000
Pokemon Sword/Shield is the 3rd fastest-selling Nintendo game ever in the UK, as well as the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game by far.
What’s the reason behind companies who track saleS no longer reporting units sold?
The power of Pokémon. Amazing after more than 20 years . Unfortunately they aren't the best games, but also not the disaster people make them out to be. Quite in line with the last two gens, but not close to the greatness of Platinum, HGSS, and BW(2).
I live in the UK and bought one on launch day for my wife then after seeing it was actually good fun bought one for myself the next day!
Yes it does look like a scaled up 3DS game with some quality of life improvements but the gameplay is what matters most and I am enjoying this much more than I did sun/moon, a lot more freedom and not anywhere near as much mollycoddling. I think the next one will be upgraded graphically and hopefully 3D camera the whole game, absolutely love the wild area.
@AlexSora89 We all knew it was coming. Pokemon is a series that will continue to sell well game after game regardless of quality. If they released a game that was at least half decent they could even sell a lot more but I'm sure Game Freak is probably happy to just settle for what they have now rather than actually striving to create something great.
Of course it was going to be No 1, it's a juggernaut of a franchise! That doesn't reflect the quality of the games however so I don't understand the "that should shut up the haterz" comments.
@Preposterous I missed the satire at first, bravo!
Was there any doubt lol!
I approve.
Seems I am not alone.
@BarefootBowser
Yeah my comment about Death Stranding is only about its sales performance rather than its quality as a game (it's not for me but to each their own). You make a good point about the second hand market, thats where people will take a risk on it and buy it cheap.
@Sciqueen @Preposterous
Same lmao. So many people are saying "take that haters" as if:
1. The people criticising the games actually want them to be bad.
2. The people criticising the games weren't pokemon fans to begin with.
If anything the "haters" are very much more than aware of the games inevitable success but that's exactly what makes this depressing.
Just to reiterate, this does not mean "you're not allowed to enjoy things". If you genuinely enjoy SwSh: Great! But there's people out there who are actually defending the low effort with complacency and excuses like "well I expect this from pokemon games so I'm fine with it" or "well it's too much work for a studio of their size".
Basically it means, great you "win" what you thought was a petty competition between who thought the game would sell and who didn't (for some reason) but unless I see some major improvements next gen, all it means in the end is that it's cost us a truly great generational leap for this wonderful franchise.
Ignore that if you want. What can I do about it? It's just depressing that there's people who don't want better.
I’m surprised by those Pokémon sales. It’s been wall to wall criticism wherever I’ve looked about Pokemon and thought that would filter into the sales of it. Guessing most of those people bought it or has Pokémon go grown the franchise out?
@Galenmereth lol. Really? I made zero comment about opinions being invalid. I said that some of the upset was nonsense. I’ve read up on a fair bit of it, so I feel I have enough insight to pass comment on THAT at least.
It has nothing to do with the incredibly subjective opinion of whether I, you or anyone else likes the game, so my experience in that regard is irrelevant.
I’m just glad it did well despite the loud, Ill-informed, verbal minority.
That's a good week for Nintendo in a Xbox and Playstation lead country. But the fixtures still dont represent any Nintendo dominance.
In most UK shops the fixtures are playstation 5 of every 10 Xbox 4 of every 10 and Nintendo 1 of every 10.
And in Tesco UK last week the Nintendo fixture was reduced from 2 to 1 very odd indeed.
Who needs better. When you have OK.
If OK sells then why improve things.
@Mr_Pepperami
Think it’s just another example of the complaints of gamers on the internet not being reflected in Mass Market sales
@Galenmereth can't help but feel the behaviour of the vocal minority does little to motivate Game Freak to improve either to be fair.
6 of the Top 10, 9 of the Top 20 are Switch exclusives.
In the UK.
I feel like I’ve entered a different timeline.
I'm really enjoying it. Put in nearly 15 hours without even realising it. I've not even had much of a look at the wild area yet. Two thumbs up from me. Glad it's doing well, not that its surprising it is Pokemon after all. All the controversy came from a vocal minority who care about national dex, fps and shadows.
I think the reduced dex is actually a benefit it makes it much more interesting to see what Pokemon turns up next. I might actually try to catch them all this time! The whole experience feels fresher than it has in years.
@Galenmereth "Don't tell other people their opinion is invalid when you haven't even played the game" Haha, so then are you agreeing that the angry minority who've spent every waking moment complaining since June should have maybe held fire until they played the game? Or are you just a massive hypocrite?
Also I find it hard to believe that you hate a game that much if you've played it 22 hours. That's like what? Half the time you've been awake since Thursday?
I've found Sword a mixed bag so far. It's really beautiful and I love the music so much. But if Hop could just leave me alone for five minutes I'd enjoy it a heck of a lot more.
I'm glad Ring Fit is still in the chart though, I'm enjoying that so much more than I thought I would, I don't even notice I'm exercising!
@Galenmereth “ I’m just glad it did well despite the loud, Ill-informed, verbal minority.”
I’m not a fan of lynch mob tactics/ mentality, especially when they’re based on a misunderstanding. It’s good to see a victim of such behaviour prevail.
Plus... 81 metacritic rating based on 21 critic reviews. Plus, a lot of the complaints levelled at it don’t require me to have played the game (such as the visuals). Call it an informed opinion rather than an experiential one.
Nintendo’s handhelds have been a constant for them and it’s where Nintendo has always excelled, and Pokemon leads the pack in their game line. I just hope that with the next Pokemon they can build on some of the mistakes they made with this one and give us something that can make more people happy. There sales would be thru the roof.
@Heavyarms55 you are not. Awsome game so far 👌
@BenAV
Which, given how the series pretty much peaked with HeartGold and Soulsilver as well as Black 2 and White 2, is honestly disheartening.
@Ajent
I'm currently going through a Let's Play, and I'm holding my horses until the playlist I'm watching reaches the endgame. Will I spoil myself the entire games? Absolutely. Will I know what I'm getting into when I fork out no less than sixty euros, if I decide to buy the game? Of course I will.
This type of caution on my part is pretty much unprecedented from a fan like me. It says a lot about how bad my fear of a bad investment is.
@outsider83 It was ok as long as Sont and MS werent getting dominated by Nintendo. Sony and MS are worried about mindshare if ppl see them losing in sales to Nintendo week after week
I couldn't care less about the model/animation issues. While it's not amazing, it does the job.
My problem is really silly. It's way too easy and Hop is annoying as HELL. I know it's typical to JRPG to add cutscenes every few steps but come on... let me skip these if I don't want them.
Both issues could be easily fixed. Disable shared XP, bump up some pokemon levels, and make sure important fight have 6 pokemon ready to fight against you.
I know it won't happen, but damn, it's like they forget that the first generation of pokemon players is over 30 now...
@Deihnyx I very much doubt that they forgot that the first generation of Pokemon players is over 30 now. I think they remember that very well. The problem is, Pokemon isn't made for the first generation of Pokemon players. It's made for the current generation. You are not the target market.
To be honest, I really think this is the root of all the outrage that we see here. Older Pokemon players think the games should be made for them. But it never has been, and never will be. No matter how much we older people love the games, they're made and marketed for pre-teen children (the same age you probably were when you discovered Pokemon). That audience absolutely dwarfs the older audience, even if the online discourse is dominated by salty Gen-Wunners.
A bit surprised Sword is #1 given the 2 Pokemon game structure usually splits the sales such that an Activision or EA game takes #1.
Haven't picked it up as there's so much backlog though the whole exFAT issue concerns me as all microSD cards over 32GB seem to be default formatted as exFAT.
@SBandy Ring Fit Adventure is an incredible workout. Love being able to pop my switch in the dock and have fun while working out!
@JasmineDragon I mean, I don't disagree. But you can still make a game for kids and get it right.
Luigi's Mansion 3 is a good example. It's not hard especially with the golden bones, but you have the option not to use them. Overall the game can be attractive to both older players and younger players.
Pokemon Red/Blue which some of us started with wasn't really hard either, but if you were taking Charmander, you still couldn't rush into the first gym without a little bit of prep. The final league (forgot their name) wasn't exactly press A to win either, even though you could still win with minimum preparation. Kids today aren't more dumb than we were back then. They could still finish Mario 64 or Sunshine if it was released today. I don't get trying to dumb down everything to an extreme.
Yes there are specific self imposed challenges you can do in Pokemon, but it severely affects the overall experience if you wanna do it in your first play-through.
And here's the thing. Difficulty modes is not hard to implement. It doesn't even affect the meta down the line.
@Grumblevolcano That's a big part of why I'm holding out. And now with the Roku stick issues, I need somebody to provide some definitive updates that Pokémon won't wreck my 200gb SD card nor my roku stick.
The biggest issue for me is the difficulty. As soon as you find out a gym leaders type you can beat them with 1 pokemon. I was heading towards the first gym last night and as soon as I found out what type it was I equipped my counter element and trashed his 2 pokemon with my 1 which was 5 lvl's below his. Also why do these gym leaders not fight with a full deck of 6 pokemon like I do. Throw in a little curve ball like an alternative element etc. They are supposed to be the best so make it a challenge to face them or atleast make the battle seem like a battle and not like the 30 second battle I had with "youngster Tom" in the middle of route 2.
@NotoriousWhiz
For the Roku it's probably because when playing pokemon it activates local wireless in the game. (the wireless icon with the little L)
9 in the top 20 are Switch Exclusives! Holy mackerel that is impressive.
@KryptoniteKrunch,
The smear campaign was only the internet posting minorities, so the main mass buying Pokemon fans would have been none the wiser.
Putting the drama aside!! The game is really beautiful and deserves totally these numbers! Bravo Nintendo, congrats Gamefreak!
@Ooccoo_Jr eh no positivity for you floating head thing
@Kidfunkadelic83 they have never had full teams except for maybe the final gym leaders. Even in the Pokemon league in gen V the elite four would have 5 Pokemon which is something I forgot until replaying white recently.
@gamer89
Oh yeah, true. Good point.
Yay... now Gamefreak will never care to improve, and will just keep cutting even more content in the future.
Nobody should be praising this.
A great game and impressive first attempt at a console. I can only see Gamefreak learning and improving from this experience. It’s a shame some were so unduly negative prior to release, but that’s the bandwagon effect the internet tends to have, and sales show how little it really matters when unwarranted.
I am a much bigger SW fan than a Pokemon fan but this article brings a smile to my face. I am sure it has nothing to do with EA publishing.
Not played Pokemon, but My niece called me on Saturday because she got her copy and was super happy with it. She loves it!
Love Jedi: Fallen Order. Could not put it down over the weekend. Great news for Respawn/EA. It did not even get review bombed from the EA haters 😅
Been playing Pokemon and I love it. The wild area is exactly what the series needed. Also love the access to your box from anywhere. Got my Pikachu and Evee from playing the Let's Go games, and the Meowth from mystery gift. With Grooky that's 4/6 for my permanent lineup.
Game sold 60% + more than Let's Go at launch. Beat X/Y and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. Didnt beat Sun/Moon launch but 1 That game was boosted by Pokemon Go rage, 2 a large percentage of Sword/Shield sales will have been digital, and 3 Sun/Moon sales ultimately tapered off despite a strong start, whereas Sword/Shield, I believe, will keep selling all the way to 20 million +
Goes to show the only thing Gamefreak is "getting away with" is providing a fun game the vast majority of people love.
@Agramonte
Jedi Fallen Order is excellent. Couldn't believe it's an EA game. Haven't got a solid single player experience from them since Dragon Age Inquistion, and this game got me actually playing my X1X again, which I haven't played in quite some time (but now that I fired it up I also grabbed Trials Rising- already played 100 hrs on Switch but for $5, I'll take a nicer graphics option with analog triggers).
@Agramonte I’m a pretty big EA hater, but I have to give credit where it’s due. Respawn made a really good game.
well technically nintendo has nothing to do with sword and shield and any blame on the flaws on sword/shield that goes to gamefreak themselves and besides im glad sword and shield are selling well.
@JaxonH i understand gamefreak did drop the ball on a few things on sword and shield but some of these haters need to stop whining over the lack of national pokedex cause i do understand wat gamefreak stated they couldnt fit all 1000 pokemon in this game plus it would been extremely bloated the game up like on the past entries and besides not every manages to 100% on catching all of them.
Kratos for Smash!
@Snaplocket Disagree, this is a time thing. You give BotW as an example so the BotW equivalent to the Sword/Shield dev cycle would probably be if Nintendo's investors forced Nintendo to release BotW in 2015, now imagine how that would've affected the scope of the game.
Yes but wil it cause the Brexit to accelerate ?
@Anri02 Yeah. Respawn from day 1 said they were not using Frostbite for their games. Maybe they also said NO to a bunch of other dumb EA ideas.
Who knows, just glad we got a SW game from the EA license worth playing.
@JaxonH Oh that is great!... Ubi needs the cash 🙄
Yeah man, When you have the little ones in the family calling you over the weekend to tell you all they have done in Pokemon (and only been out 2 days 😆)... it is time to let it go, and say they did a great job.
I will need to buy it, because it is on "low availability" at GameFly and I suspect it will be that way for some time.
@Galenmereth,
The guy never said anybody's complaints were invalid, he just stated there were many over the top things going on, sorry you do not like the game, as I recall you were always on the side of giving it a chance.
@JaxonH,
This is correct, it's all subjective at the end of the day, but I will wager there will be millions of happy fans out there, but of course to some they will be deluded and wrong for having fun with this game.
@Suicune you hit the nail on the head perfectly.
@AlexSora89 What you're doing is not unprecedented. I'm a big Pokemon fan but outside of Crystal and B2/W2 I've usually skipped the enhanced versions.
Even as a long term fan of a series it's not unrealistic for a developer to come out with a game that you don't want.
Uh to let you know its sword the first..
Been binge playing this game the entire weekend (I was struck by a cold aswell so that helped) and I think it's ... pretty good. The focus on making gym battles a lot more "grand" was a fantastic decision. It's giving such an anime vibe off whenever both players dynamax their Pokemon. I love it.The wild area and its raids are somthing that I hope will stick with the franchise in the future. The new Pokemon are pretty good for the most part. It's not flawless though. The story is pretty bad. Like super bad and there are some major performance issues when playing online, especially in the wild area.
@Kidfunkadelic83 Canonically gym leaders are actually great trainers that use a "weak" team to give trainers a chance. I think this was mentioned in the anime a long time ago & in the games during B&W2.
However, I agree with your actual point.. the gym leaders have never been much of a challenge. I'm one of those that took Charmander in Red & Blue and even then I didn't really need to grind.
The games are really fun to me !! I enjoy the new pokemon and battling catching them and the gyms are really cool . I died once in the third gym by a dynavax centiscorch lol just didnt have enough water types and played poor but other than that it's just really relaxing fun game .
Those critics where free advertising for the game.
Even those who never heard of pokemon where interested what the fuss was all about.
I am not a big pokemon fan, but i like this game and enjoy it.
@The-Chosen-one,
Like they say there is no such thing as bad publicity, although I still maintain the mass buying Pokemon fans would not have seen any of it.
@johnvboy I think due to some people going after everything there were a lot of weak, unconvincing arguments with pictures and trailers attached.
An unconvincing argument is never bad publicity. If someone posted a picture of a new Pokemon and says its a bad design, if it's actually appealing it's going to have the reverse effect of what that person intended.
Personally never played a Pokemon game myself, but I was shocked when I went online and 32 friends were online at the same time playing pokemon! I’ve never seen so many online at one time on the switch!
@Snaplocket thats bs gamefreak has majority of control over pokemon ip nintendo only has a small share in that ip so nintendo cant do jack on pokemon.
@westman98 Well the double pack is indeed two games.
As it turns out, Pokemon Sun/Moon launched on a Wednesday rather than a Friday, and its launch week also happened to be Black Friday week. Those two reason would partially explain why Sun/Moon's launch numbers were that much higher than that of all the other big Nintendo launches in the UK.
If you factor in digital sales, Sword/Shield's launch figures should surpass that of Wii Fit and approach (but still lag behind) that of Sun/Moon.
Why does everyone hate Sword and Sheild? Yes there’s no national dex, but there’s still about 400 Pokémon, which is more than enough in my opinion
@Dr_Lugae
Well, outside of Platinum I never skipped the third versions - the unprecedented thing I alluded to was me watching a playthrough instead of just buying the game: I've never been this cautious before about a Pokémon game.
And I kind of feel ungrateful at times for being like this, but I can't help it - 60 euros don't exactly grow on trees.
@TJC04
As a regional Dex, yeah, the Galar Dex is awesome, almost on par with Unima's outstanding regional Dex in Black 2 and White 2.
But after the regional Dex, you usually want to get the ones you previously spent time on back.
I'm not a Jim Sterling guy at all, but this time he was on point: some reactions were overly exaggerated, but this does not mean it's not a problem we can overlook.
But, but its the worsest pokeman game ever and gamefreak are evil and they lied and the the grafics make my eyes bleed. 😂
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