UK Charts: Pokémon Legends: Arceus Accounted For Almost Half Of All Boxed Games Sold Last Week

I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being the best selling Pokemon game of all time. It's got it's rough spots, but it sure is fun.

And it deserves the spot. The game isn't perfect at all, but it's incredibly fun and provides so much quality of life.

Hope this sells really well and that this becomes the new standard for opcomming Pokemon games, if not continou the spin-off Legends.

Breath of the Wil ?

Guess they don’t really have to improve the graphics Imagine the board meeting. Director: “So for the next game I’d really like some budget for graphics, with that it can surely top the… how many copies of Arceus did we sell? Sigh nevermind.”

Will be interesting to see how much Legends Arceus sells in the weeks to come. It managed to exceed the launch sales of Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl despite the unusual launch period, so that is excellent.

Outside of Japan, Pokemon has been Nintendo's perrenial holiday quarter title since 2012, so it's 2nd through 8th weeks of sales have always corresponded with the Black Friday/Christmas period. Legends Arceus is the first Pokemon game in a decade not to launch during the holiday quarter, so it won't get any early holiday boost.

On the other hand, its WoM and strong social media metrics have been strong (i.e. it is by far and away the most popular Nintendo game on Twitch based on peak concurrent viewer count).

Poor visuals aside its pretty fantastic and well deserving of its success, its easily the best PM game since Gen V by far and i really hope we see Legends become a new sub series, like imagine Johto and Kanto done like this and exploring their past it would be so awesome.

I imagine it would be even higher if it came in two flavours as is often the norm for Pokemon.

Well I'm glad PLA is a step in the right direction for the series in the very least.

I wonder how it'll sell compared to SwSh and BDSP though.

@CowCatcher I found his comment more interesting than your rude and unnecessary response at least.

What are the top three? I'm unsure if it's listed somewhere in the article and I'm just blind...

But yeah, game deserves it for sure in my opinion. A lot of people who haven't played a Pokemon game in years have been picking up this one and it's for good reason.

Hopefully it shows GameFreak that people mean it when they say they want something new.

@Varkster Top 10 Pokemon retail launches are:

1. Sun/Moon
2. Sword/Shield
3. Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
4. Legends Arceus
5. Black/White
6. Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl
7. X/Y
8. Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee
9. Yellow
10. Heart Gold/Soul Silver

@Varkster
1) Sun/Moon
2) Sword/Shield
3) Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (marginally higher than Legends Arceus)

Retail-only data. Note that Sun/Moon was a Wednesday launch so it got two extra days as part of its launch week.

@westman98 @Grumblevolcano Thank you both, out of curiosity I skipped a lot of the handheld Pokemon games, are S/M considered quite good?

The game isn't perfect, no game is, Is it a masterpiece, eh, But its fun, the graphics are fine, the pokemon have new animations, the battle's actually look good, and catching pokemon has never been better.

@Varkster My personal opinion is that Sun and Moon felt the most childish of the franchise.

They tried a few things to 'shake up' the gameplay but it felt half-finished.

I preferred X and Y or Omega Ruby and Alpha Saphire if you're looking for a 3DS game.

The top one for most fans tends to be Heart Gold or Soul Silver on the DS though.

@Grumblevolcano And that doesn't account for people buying both versions of the other games.

The game is so much fun and runs pretty smooth, the graphics are very sharp and have a nice style to them, some rough edges here and there, but you hardly notice when the game is in motion, love the sky in this game, and the Pokemon themselves are very good.

Adding in digital sales would put total Legends Arceus launch sales well above that of Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and probably close that of Sword/Shield.

Sun/Moon would still remain king.

I suspect people saying things spawning next to them are victims of the time of day changing rather than draw distance.. Night falls and zubats spawn right in your face if unlucky.

If only someone had told Game Freak to tighten up the graphics on level three, imagine what the sales could be…

So much quibbling about the visuals for Arceus - just let it go already!

Unlike other pokemon games, huge fans and collectors did not brought 2 copies, so it makes those number even more impressive.

@CowCatcher I personally am always interested in @westman98’s additional chart info.

Way to go Pokémon legends, am loving the game best Pokémon for a long time it’s just so much fun to play.

Oh I see that folks’ extra copies of GTAV broke. Gotta have at least six on hand.

@SuperZeldaFun,

You can see stuff pop in, but in all fairness I was looking for it at first, when you play the game you just do not notice it as much.

@SuperZeldaFun,

The game looks pretty good on the whole, there are some odd artistic decisions like a purple light/shadow on some rocks/cliffs etc, but nothing that put me off too much.

While we can't just accept the horrible graphics, worse than PS2 and Dreamcast games, at least the game is good where it's most important: Gameplay.

And it's also innovative, unlike the mainline series that is being criticized for being always the same thing.

@hawkylr I definitely hope this is not the standard, but for a spin-off it's good.

Unlike others, I deeply enjoyed Sword/Shield and the two DLC.

It did a lot of things right and hope with the next installment they continue it further, by adding the missing Pokemon (though I really did not miss them in Sword/Shield at all) for those that want them and maybe incorporate some good elements of Legends: Arceus to make the future Pokemon games a bit more open with free view camera and all.

Considering the franchise's history, I find it fascinating that 4 of the top 10 highest selling Pokémon games are Switch releases. Yeah the Switch has a huge user base but it's still behind the GB and DS.

If there was two versions, I honestly believe the game would have some new records. The game is the best Pokémon game I've played in a very long time. Even with some poor textures

@TCF,

They could have done better, some of the textures and logos/designs on clothes look a little poor at times, but overall still enjoying it.

I really, really hope this becomes the new standard for pokemon games and we see something similar in Gen 9, the game is so much fun and all in all is just a blast to playthrough, I've already put 10 hours in and I haven't even left the second area yet.

@CowCatcher @westman98

I thought the comment was quite interesting. You didn’t. I don’t care, you don’t care. Move on

Fantastic game, it deserves all the sales it gets. Hope it gets some awesome post-launch support.

@SuperZeldaFun I’m about six hours in and haven’t had any delayed spawns as such, just my experience though.

@Munchlax A third point is Sun/Moon released in November. All the top 10 except Legends Arceus (January), Black/White (March), Yellow (June) and Heart Gold/Soul Silver (March) launched in October/November which got extra sales because of the holiday season.

It is my favourite Pokemon game and I am loving the new style. Word on the street is DLC in April hopefully

Its very addictive. Its got that moment to moment gameplay. Im a bit of traditionalist but Ive been having great fun and if this becomes the future of Pokemon then Im in.

I found Sun and Moon suffocating and never got the praise. I think Swird and Shield are actually better for letting the reins off at least. People complain about this games tutorial but at least i can walk more than 5 feet without being stopped for some plot point.

No more random pokemon blocking me from walking 5 feet off intended progression path.

@Jeronan
Legends Arceus is not a spin-off.

I don’t know how many more times this needs to be stated honestly…

@Enigk Only the main games comes in two, spinoff games usually don't. Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Colosseum, and Pokemon XD were all just one whole game.

@Specter_of-the_OLED Mystery Dungeon games used to be split. I did say often the norm. I believe this could have been number one with a split option. I will add that I am not a fan of the dual game versions as it's a lot of messing about to fill the pokedex.

My god is this game bad. What happened to standards?

@Snatcher how are the graphics fine? Lol, the game is out. The world agrees...the graphics are bad. Also...since when is 4th highest of one brand something to be amazed about? I feel bad for people that use message boards to justify their bad purchase. Why are you not playing the game?

This is collosal for a game released outside of the holiday season. Especially the fact it outperformed SD/BP.

If this was released on November and not January it'd probably be topping the list.

@Thatsalie Thats nice (:

You don't like the game, thats just fine, but I do. And I'm not saying the graphics are perfect, not at all, but there not the worst thing ever, even tho the draw distance is, kinda jacked. but in my opinion, this is the best pokemon game in a wile, and my stay as my (Opinion) best pokemon game.

Guess most gamers don’t care about the grass/trees like usual

Crap graphics = 1st place
Amazing graphics = 5th place

Glad to see that it beat BD/SP. I hope it does across all of the board.