Since the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield on the Nintendo Switch last November, both games have appeared at the top of the Japanese charts every single week. The latest chart data from 6th - 12th January, was no different.
Pokémon took out the top spot for the ninth week in a row. If that wasn't already impressive enough, it's now been revealed this is the longest a game has ever been in first place on Famitsu's sales charts. The previous record-holder that stayed in the #1 spot for a total of eight consecutive weeks was Pokémon Diamon & Pearl when it was released back in 2006.
Before Sword and Shield arrived, no other game had really come close to the existing record. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate apparently had one of the better chances to dethrone Pokémon when it managed to stay in first for five consecutive weeks in a row but ultimately fell short.
The question now is, how long can Pokémon Sword and Shield stay in first? Last week, Game Freak confirmed Pokémon HOME would launch next month, and alongside this announced a new two-part expansion pass, with the first area – The Isle of Armour – scheduled to release at the end of June. Perhaps this extra content will encourage more Switch users to pick up the game and might keep these latest entries in the series in the charts even longer.
[source mynintendonews.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 49
No surprise in my opinion, but I am wondering how long they can keep this streak up until the expansions come out
It's still long to get All Expansion packs by end of November 2020.
I can take a break from Pokemon Sword after i have finished the storyline and play other games while waiting the All Expansion packs ready to be bought.
By not having a 3rd game in the future, this seals the fact that Sword/Shield will continue to sell thru-out the entirely of the lifespan of the Switchor at the very least until a new mainline game releases.
I didn’t get it at first because of the big deals it sounded like people were making about it. Another reason was that I thought I’d wait for the “inevitable” third, better version. The Pokémon Direct changed my mind with the expansion pass and I bought the pass and Pokémon Sword that same day.
I shouldn’t have waited and should have just bought it when it came out. It’s a great game and I’d challenge anyone who is in the fence because of the thoughts and opinions of others, go buy it. It’s quite good!
I imagine people now knowing that DLC is coming is going to do a lot to keep the games selling well. Better than they would have, if people thought yet another rehash title was coming.
I know a lot of people on this very site were saying things like "I'll wait for the updated version" and such because that's how they always handled it.
Having played since Red and Blue, I'm quite glad they've switched to DLC - I was quite annoyed when they didn't do DLC for Sun and Moon. Older titles in the series I understood that the tech wasn't there to release new content that way but from the 3DS on, this is how it should have been. Better late than never! Both expansions look awesome!
I don't get how DLC is a good thing but maybe i'm too old. I prefer the whole game on the cartridge.
Edit: You are all drinking the koolaid.
This games will be the second best selling pokemon games when all is said and done.
Nearing 190 hours played and having a blast. 😎
@Aurumonado if you ever bought Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, B2/W2, or Ultra Sun/Moon then you bought Pokémon DLC before.
Could technically argue every Pokémon game since Red/Blue is just full priced dlc. 🤣 I still love the series
Yeah, I bet this game is gonna sell over 20M by the time the next one comes out
This is the game that proved all the haters wrong.
@Dm9982 I guess. I only buy the third game of each set and the whole thing is on the cartridge and it's priced appropriately.
@Rika_Yoshitake or until a platinum remake topples it
@Aurumonado lol, well in that case you’re just buying “Complete Edition” every generation. Smarter than I, good sir!
Thought they were a bit underwhelming personally but happy for another exclusive title be doing well.
I’m pretty excited. The removal of the third game gimmick removes my hesitation for jumping in. I just have to figure out which one I want...
@Zach777 yeah most of the people trashing it haven’t played it and are doing so purely based on the controversies. Is it perfect? No, but it’s still very enjoyable, especially if you have friends to do things like raids with. I’d probably give it a solid 8/10. Story is poor but Pokemon hasn’t had a great story since Black and White (and X and Y were worse than these there); I’ve never played this series for the story. My only other real complaints would be no real postgame challenges (but we haven’t had those since Black and White either) and subpar animations (still haven’t had any great ones in the 3D games but at least the previous two had the excuse of being on a handheld). When it comes down to it, the animations are the one thing I’d say is an issue, but it doesn’t hamper my enjoyment too bad - at this point, I turn animations off when I’m doing things in single player, as they’re boring to watch. It’s mainly noticeable with the dynamax attacks.
At the very least, they’re not as bad as people are making them out to be. And I consider DLC a huge positive compared to them releasing a third version for the same price. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a year or two they release a version that simply has it all on one card, similar to past gens anyways.
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot and Yakuza 7 are bug enough to dethrone Pokemon this week in Japan.
But Pokemon will retake the #1 spot soon afterwards.
@Aurumonado the whole game is on the cart. This is simply additional game you now get on top of the full game you already bought.
@Shadowmoon522
Unlikely, remakes don't usually sell as good as main games.
But I really hope that platinum remake is coming, I just love that game.
My son asked for, and I quote from his Santa list, ‘a random Pokémon game’, and Santa brought him Pokémon Sword... it’s his first proper Pokémon game beyond Quest... and he is absolutely loving it. He is constantly calling me to show me something, talking about it, telling me who he’s gonna battle, telling me when he’s got a new Pokémon.
@Kaori-chan correct. It is subjective. And based on sales, enough players still seem to subjectively enjoy it. If sales drop enough next gen, they’ll adjust accordingly, but as it stands, they’re likely going to continue down their current path, which is great for those that enjoyed it.
People speak with their wallets and it seems people spoke pretty loudly here. The games are selling great. Ultimately, you have to remember that despite the large adult community, the target demographic for Pokémon is children and children are how the franchise has been one of the highest grossing franchises in history. What they care most about is keeping that demographic happy, and that’s an easy task by brand power alone. The older fans are fickle enough to turn to emulators, romhacks, and other competing monster battling games. They cost more to please and no matter what, there will always be parts of the community that are unhappy with their choices. It’s easier and more profitable for them to appeal to the kids. And enough of the older community is still remaining around anyways to play competitively, shiny hunt, and more. It sucks for fans that aren’t happy with their decisions but I was sure these games would be hits. The ones complaining are primarily adults and older teens, and those are only a smart part of their consumers.
@Aurumonado expansion packs have been around for a long old time now and, when done well, can extend the lifespan of a game significantly. DLC, as a term, lumps them in with micro transactions (which I agree can get in the sea) but I see them as a positive.
Let's not forget that ps4 and xbox aren't releasing anything big now that could dethrone pokemon because of the next generation coming. And neither did Nintendo. To really compare diamond and Pearl to sword and shield you'd have to look at absolute sales nummers.
Also I imagine that if sword and shield released without the controversies it would have sold more in the first week and the sales in the weeks after wouldn't remain so high.
I myself hold off buying the game until I was sure i'd enjoy the game. And allthough it could have been more I am really liking the game.
@Aurumonado then....wait for the GOTY edition.
What I find interesting, and at least mildly annoying, is that sales data for the pokemon games always get reported as a single title yet when it suits the publisher they’ll treat them as two releases. Specifically the fact that anyone that owns both will also have to purchase the DLC twice. It honestly feels like the publishers being allowed to have their cake and eat it too by having sales reported as if it was a single title, even if many customers will get both, while treating digital content as seperate releases.
I mean it’s not the end of the world I guess, but I do find it odd that they cherry pick when the games get treated as one vs treated as two releases.
@mother_brain_85 honest question: what makes you think it won’t be the top selling Pokémon game?
@Smigit “ Specifically the fact that anyone that owns both will also have to purchase the DLC twice.”
I have both and don’t have any plans to buy the DLC. I got the second one only in case my partner decided to play, but they didn’t. I use it just to quickly do trade-evolves and nothing else.
Even my plan of “potentially catch all version exclusive Pokémon” was a bust, I can gotten most exclusives via surprise trade or by hopping onto someone else’s Dynamax raid and catching them myself.
Only reason to buy the two packs (and the DLC for both) is if you have someone else to play with in your household. And that would be true for any game, so nothing wrong about counting both versions.
If anything, I disagree with the charts that list game sales of these games individually, but I understand since they are just tracking SKUs and don’t even care much about the title in the box.
@Tharsman "Only reason to buy the two packs (and the DLC for both) "
Well ideally if multiple people were sharing the same Switch you could have people sharing the game while still only needing to grab the DLC once. That and I'm sure some people will just want to run through the entire thing twice given there's always been a subset of users that play right through both titles. We own two copies and it'd be nice to have the content there for both.
Just rubs me the wrong way that they report sales generally as one title but when it comes time to get customers money they're happy to split the titles out.
Ohh well, such is life.
@Tharsman because no game ever topped gen 1 sales. Over 30M. Gen 2 was the closest with around 23M. The rest never surpassed 18M, if I'm not mistaken
@Kaori-chan Sorry, I wrote that at 3 in the morning and was a bit overtired, I meant to say subjective. That’s on me, I completely used the wrong word. I fixed it now.
@Aurumonado I wonder if there will be a version of the game with the DLC included. Hardened Sword and Hardened Shield.
@Aurumonado well, the whole game is on the cart. People who seem to think DLC is "cut content" clearly haven't opened their mind to how game development actually works. You got the whole game, as it was intended, with a beginning a middle and a climatic end. There's nothing missing from the game. DLC, or expansion for the old folks like myself, is a love letter from the developers to the fans who want more. Very few games, as in I can count on one hand, the amount of games that actually had content cut with the intention of selling it later.
@Ryu_Niiyama I always saw the in-between games as new extra entry points for people, okay on their own, but generally not worth it when you have the original. I even got back into the series thanks to Omega Ruby. That being said, I'm not sad to see this approach to adding additional content gone-it just felt like I was missing out on cool stuff that I'd have to replay a lot of content to see.
@Kaori-chan yeah my bad, that was a pretty insignificant typo and I didn’t intend to argue or dismiss your feelings. And I 100% agree with the lack of difficulty. The games really at least need post-game challenges like the Battle Frontier. Maybe the new DLC will have it though it might be too little too late for many fans. I don’t see them doing heavy changes for next gen either given these titles performed fine, but then again maybe they’ll decide it’s the gen they want to implement changes, especially if they already established a gen on the Switch (honestly, I’d be surprised if gen 9 isn’t on Switch). Or maybe they’ll finally take a little longer between gens (which would alleviated the limited dev times). After all, this year seems focused on the expansions and they could skip a couple years to do gen 4 remakes and gen 2 Let’s Go games - even if the latter doesn’t excite you, it buys them time for their main team to polish the next mainline games. Honestly, I think the biggest problem is TPC demands new games every couple years and good games need more time than that to develop. GF is being rushed, and whether the blame is with them or TPC, we likely will get rushed games until their timelines are spread out.
But you know what’s just considered? DLC expansions might be the long needed solution here. No, seriously, they take less resources than republishing the same game with minor tweaks, they give the team extra time to work on an expanded pokedex, and they add more potential revenue for each gen. This turns them into evergreen titles that only have to be released once a console generation with an expansion or two throughout its life, which can make up for the “lost” sales of squeezing two gens onto one console. Once again, using traditional remakes and Let’s Go remakes to fill the gaps. It maybe won’t appease everybody but at the very least, TPC’s greed could be satiated while the games could get proper development cycles. The quality of the games improve, along with the amount of content (allowing for a challenging postgame). Just a random thought. You can’t please everyone but they still probably could please more people. While I did enjoy these games, it’d be great if they could appeal to more of the older fans.
Who'd have thought it. People can cry until the cows come home about how disappointed they are with a game on a site where about 40-50 people comment, yet it makes zero difference. It's amazing what you learn.
@Aurumonado The alternative is buying Sword for $60 and then buying “Super Sword” for another $60. $30 DLC packs at least avoid that issue.
@mrmememan The way I see it, it's streak is already excellent. And it doesn't have to remain a "best-seller of the week" every week to still produce a trickle that will continue to add up.
The way I see it, Home(especially if handled remotely well but not every "neccessarily" so as long as it provides the needed functionality) might add a bit more longevity since it'll allow to transfer likely not just existing pokemons but also the likes of Alolan(and "regular" for Galar formes) formes of current pokemons. I could even see some current players using this as an excuse to start a new save altogether using low level alolan-mons for a different early team composition(since we get Alolan Vulpix among others, for example, thanks to being in the data). I know that's my own plan ^^;
Otherwise, what I can see is the DLC themselves giving this a second-wind sales boost in June and Fall.
Perhaps even a "third-wind" if they ever release a base game+DLCs bundle at retail come holidays at the end of the year.
Though that might be held back for 2021 instead so it's not "too close" from the original DLCs' releases so early adopter don't complain about "newcomers" getting DLCs for cheaper through that bundle than the "early adopters" who would have bought them separately.
Either way, it's an interesting they've done. Because even if cheaper than a fullblown releases(like Ultra Sun was a full priced gameeven though it's content might as well have been DLC for Sun)... the staggered release of the DLCs themselves are a perfect mean to keep the games in the spotlight over a much more drawn-out fashion than traditional releases(in fact, this is why DLCs/post-release content updates have become so popular. It's not just about "couldn't include it at release" but rather that with how FAST releases go in this era, the continual flow of updates/etc after release is a way for a title to remain visible AT ALL past it's release date, so that new players keep seeing the game in news/etc... and thus continue to buy it rather than immediately jump on whatever is the latest release instead).
@Coolie Yup. Plus the 30$ isn't even "per" pack, but for both expansions. So technically if they were sold separately it'd be closer to 15$ for each DLCs regions.
But honestly it's not a bad turn of thing for pokemon. Even at only s single 30$ to get both new region, the actual staggered releases of both region is an advantage not just in time given to complete the content but also specifically in "time the game remains visible" since the release of such DLCs and content updates gives gaming news sites/etc more time to discuss said upcoming content, thanks to which the game remain continually in a measure of spotlight rather than being immediately eclipsed because of other games releases. In a way I think it's the thing that surprise me from Nintendo is how they've thus really adapted to the current gaming environment where there are so many fast-fire releases it can be hard to remain visible at all past the release day.
Which is to say, I'm not sure if Splatoon 1/2 would have been such successful games if they had released with more content at release but had none of these plethora of post-release content updates to remain visible at all past their release. I wouldn't be surprise if it was their success in doing so that helped inspired other nintendo titles, be it in the additions of DLCs or even just smaller post-release content updates themselves(like Mario Odyssey for a while, leading up to Luigi's balloon world minigame/online scores and all).
Edit: Also another Sword and Shield Pokemon; while there's still the matter of "no full national dex" yet, the Galar dex is rather interesting if you compare it to regional dexes of past games. Like even at release, at 400 pokemons the Galar dex was basically the third biggest regional dex in the franchise(Biggest was XY Kalos' at 457, followed by USUM's Alolan dex at 403... even SM's was smaller at 300ish).
By the end of DLC, however, with 600+ total pokemons as it sounds it will be like just thanks to returning pokemons alone, Galar will have THE biggest regional of the entire franchise in terms of pokemons that can be caught in a single game rather than having to be transferred by past titles. And that doesn't get into if they decide to add more DLCs in 2021. With the national dex currently at 890, an hypothetical 2021 DLC expansion pass could well make Sword and Shield potentially the first game in the entire franchise to come close to allowing players to "catch"(rather than transfer) the entire national dex in a single pair of games. Something unseen before in the franchise due to how many pokemons could only be acquired through transfers from other titles.
Yep. Those dexit boycotts sure showed Game Freak.
@Yorumi Spot on man.
@WiltonRoots Same reason FIFA does so well.
@Ludovsky I really don't know if Home can rejuvenate sales really, I mean, it's a storage system. If anything, Sword and Shield could end up helping Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX
@mrmememan a decent point. I guess what I meant is I see home less rejuvenating sales than actually helping current players active a bit longer and this likely continuing to talk about the game which could get more to hop in that were still on the fence?
This said it's not like these games have been lacking in sales at all. Plus once those DLC will be out these will be officially the games where a player will be able to catch the most pokemons in the game itself without requiring them to be transferred from a past title(the biggest regional dex to this day was Kalos' at 457 but with the DLCs we now know Galar's 400 will rise to 600+ pokemons that will players will be able to catch).
@ShadJV honestly regarding re:DLC the potential they add is for the entire gens to be a single pair of games in fact with the rest being multiple DLCs passes stretching a single game that much farther , and still capable to satiate the retail market with "definitive/game if the year/etc" bundled rerelease 1-2 years after which in themselve can give the game a second breath without invalidating the original release because they're the same. One just just come with the DLC included after enough time has passed to justify the price drop for the bundle to that of a standard release.
Interestingly if you think about the fact that the Jotho games also included Kanto as their post games, there even is the (light) possibility of even "remake regions" becoming DLC("Diamond Sword"/"Pearl Shield" expansion pass in 2021?). This could be interesting since this would mean the potential for the first game since the DS era to have two regions... if they decide ful go that route in 2021+ for any reasons.
That's just an example but it shows fire further it could be interesting if another expansion pass released in 2021. Though the national pokedex has 890 pokemons in it now, only 400 were featured in Sword and Shield. But with the expansion pass this year, that number should raise to 600+. Not only the largest the regional dex in the entire franchise, but close to 66-75% of the entire national dex.
If, as an hypothesis, they decide to have a second expansion pass in 2021... they could well decide to push things such as to make this(with DLCs) the first game in the franchise where players could catch the ENTIRE national dex if they felt they could pull it off. And that would be a first because in no games before could one fill the national dex without even needing a transfer from a past game.
Of course SwSh aren't there yet. But it's just to say that the doors of possibilities now opened by the pandora box of finally supporting DLCs means it's actually well within the realm of possibilities now for 2021+.
@Ludovsky exactly. People focus too much on the downsides of DLC here but really, at the very least this takes the place of the third entries for less money and at the most offers a lot of potential for the franchise. Ever want a Pokémon MMO? This growth was necessary. It’ll probably be an awkward transition but in the long run the series is more likely to benefit from it. We’ve had two gens on each of the previous two handhelds and honestly the strain of churning them out every 2-3 years shows. This could make them more evergreen titles and give them space to breathe. And if they wanted to be scummy they’d lock the expanded Pokedex behind the paywall but we’re getting that update for free. It’s not perfect but I prefer to be optimistic with these changes.
@ShadJV on the two gens per handheld bit I'll also add: did you also notice that the two main gens without remakes getting released(outside of the gb/gbc era of course) were also the last gen of their respective consoles?
Black2/White2 were not only the last games of gen5, but the last games of the DS gens altogether.
Same with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon if you think about it. It does make me wonder if GF had difficulties with console transitions even back then because such games were probably being released while the next gen was probably already in the work(that might even explain areas of SwSh graphics looking like they're out of a 3DS game if one recall how frosty the Pokemon Company's CEO was about the Switch)
@Ludovsky It's been reported that X and Y had content cut out from them, and those titles were definitely a big leap, being the first to go from pixel art to 3D models, I can see the company having similar problems going from a handheld to a console. Some other problems probably came from the time crunch of constantly making new games, and being risk averse since it's the first console mainline Pokemon title on a console since... well, ever, I think. Sun and Moon had a good amount of changes, which included changing up the campaign with the Island Challenge, but that was the third entry on the 3DS, when the devs had more experience and a better grasp on the console.
That's not to say I think Game Freak is blameless, just that I can see some factors being out of theirs, and anyone's hands (Game Freak, Nintendo, and the Pokemon Company all having to agree on decisions such as the Pokedex cut)
@Andrew5678 tbh I could see nintendo -still getting that in-between game effect simply but later(2021? Holidays 2020?) printing copies of Sword+Shield bundled with the DLC.
Kind of like all those later Skyrim releases including all the DLCs for the same price than when the game first released.
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