Pokémon Legends: Arceus Sold 1.43 Million Units In Japan In Just Three Days

I’m still not sure that’s good enough by Pokemon standards + install base.

@Lord It’s the second best selling switch game in it’s first weekend in japan beating all other pokemon games. I doubt TPC and GF are dissatisfied with these numbers.

I really hope this game does very well (compared to other Pokemon games, not games in general) cause I really want more games like this and not lackluster games like Let's Go, SwSh and BDSP

Pathetic, Nintendo should just close up shop.

I think it's a really good think for Nintendo and Gamefreaks, it proves players can play, and want to play, something different and not only the "base" formula of Pokemon.

Great game, love to see all these pokemon in the wild, love to be able to battle every one of them OR just throwing pokeballs left and right. Love the new pokedex, like the system of quests, really a great game, everything I wanted Sword and Shield to be!

Not gonna lie, I miss the gym a little haha

@Lord Sounds like you need a heavy dose of Copium. This game is selling like gangbusters.

This game ended up being so surprisingly fun to play. I had zero expectations for a Pokemon game but I wasn't able to put it down once I got out onto the maps. Fun going around and catching what you can.

So probably 2 million with digital.

@Lord This is the biggest Pokemon launch on Switch. With digital it's way higher. Launches and software sales don't scale linearly with hardware sales.

I am really enjoying the game. Glad it is doing well, hopefully they will start building on top of this instead of going back to the old tired formula.

@BTB20 no, should be around 20% of hard copies sales. based roughly on historical number.

@Croarus No, should be at least 20% of the total sales, not of the physical sales. Digital is also growing in Japan, especially since 2020, that's why I assumed roughly 25% digital.

Edit: Pokemon BDSP shipment in Japan including digital up until Dec 31st is 3.79 million. Physical sales were 2.394 million. That's 63% of the shipment. Even when counting unsold stock it's almost definitely at around 30% digital. There's no reason to assume a much lower digital share for PLA.

@Madao I do hope they will make it more modern, add in multiplayer battles and more NPC battles in the next games. And the should reduce the mission system and make the area's more connected with multiple towns.

@BTB20 You're right but haters are gonna grasp on straws even if it means the game is slightly less extremely successful than it is. This game is going to be the best selling Pokemon game of all time, mark my words.

@Troll_Decimator I hope you're right, but 31 million is a high bar and for Japan alone that would be over 8 million.

@BTB20 This game has such positive word of mouth that it's going to absolutely explode, it has already broken all Switch records on Twitch, which I definitely wasn't expecting.

I'm really rooting for this game. Both my kids love it, which isn't often the case as one is 8 and the other 17. I've mostly watched them play it, but I love how much it mixes up the formula.

Very impressive. I had a lot of fun with the game so far.

I wasn't too sure how it'd do releasing so early in the year but if BD/SP can do 14million in Nov+Dec. And this is outperforming them I seriously think this game is gonna be 20million+ by the end if the year.

So Pokemon sold massive 1.424.657 units and second best selling game (Mario Party Superstars) sold just...19k. Arceus won't sell as much as Animal Crossing but Pokemon franchise in total outsell all other games (except Mario+Mario Spin offs)

Game Freak has really been knocking it out of the park with their shake ups. Let’s go, Sw/Sh and Legends have brought me back. Will pick up SP later today.

@dimi
"So Pokemon sold massive 1.424.657 units and second best selling game (Mario Party Superstars) sold just...19k."

Did you magically expect Mario Party to get some massive sales boost for no reason?

Really hope Legends: Arceus has strong legs. I'd love to see it outsell Sw/Sh. They need to get the message that people want fresher experiences like this going forward.

@Ryu_Niiyama Let’s Go was hardly a shakeup. And you’re going to be disappointed with Pearl if you think that brings any kind of innovation to the series.

@PessitheMystic I am happy you feel that way. I’m super happy about my original post too. Thank you for expressing your opinion. I have expressed mine in my initial post and it remains unchanged. Have a fantastic day!

I hope this game’s strong sales set a precedent going forward and that we see more in this style.

It has some issues but its easily the best PM game since Gen V, it does so much i've wanted for in a PM game and its very addictive. I would even say its an early GOTY contender for me.

I admit, even if this isn't "great" by typical Pokemon release standards, considering the install base of Switch, this is an early on victory that may generate a sequel. If so, hopefully they can tighten up the issues found in this one.

@Troll_Decimator While I certainly think this game will be one of the most successful entries in the series, I doubt it'll be the #1 best selling, especially with only a single version. The other main series entry have the additional benefit of having two games essentially lumped into one for their sales numbers. I'm sure it'll break the top 5, but #1 would be a tough battle to win.

This game is so much better than expected.

Awesome! Such is the Power of Pokémon!

After trying it, I'm personally disappointed with the game and I hope this game doing well doesn't send them a message that cutting corners everywhere will keep making them big bucks anyway.

Instead I hope that this game doing well sends them the message that doing something new with the franchise that fans have been wanting sells, and that they'll also improve on all the lesser aspects of the game to improve future titles. Because damn this game is rough around the edges and it's hampering my enjoyment. Really hoped it would be good, but unfortunately for me it's just not as good as I believe pokémon deserves to be.

Ah well. If I really want to play a good pokémon game I can always boot up a previous generation sometime down the line again.

My copy is coming today.

Only played Pokémon Go but this game looks perfect for me.

It sells better than past Pokemon spinoffs I could say that, hopefully it gets better moving forward. Nintendo could easily throw in some expansion packs later on for the game too so to prolong the longevity of the game.

@Yosher this comes from a minority whom never liked Pokémon games to begin with from the start and is known by their making excuses saying they will play other older Pokémon games later. These people are probably the same one saying the same about the BOTW graphics when it came out so their words are only passing thoughts.

@Specter_of-the_OLED I believe that expansions are planned for it. Could be wrong though 🤷‍♂️

I’m happy it’s selling well as I think it deserves it! I’ve been enjoying it immensely even though I am the dude who’s wife has to deal with him belting out the og Pokémon theme song with the wackiest dance moves this side of the east coast whenever I’m intoxicated 😂

That's roughly 344,766,994 Pokemon worth of complete Pokedexes!

@MeloMan @Lord

This is flat earth level delusional. I guess you have a lot invested in telling people Pokémon sucks and just can’t accept facts?

It’s beat Sword/Shield first weekend sales, and that went on to be the 3rd best selling Pokémon game of all time.

Based on projections uses Sword/Shield again, it should beat Gold/Silver and become the second-best selling game in the series.

It is also likely to become the second-best selling game on Switch.

It’s also important to note that everything I just said … isn’t technically true and is there for sceptics. The TRUTH is, this will without question by the best-selling Pokémon game of all time, absolutely destroying red/green/blue. Based on even the most conservative projections, it should sell around 50% more then any Pokémon game ever, while some having it selling DOUBLE the best-selling Pokémon game to date.

BECAUSE IT’S A SINGLE SKEW. The only other single skew Pokémon release is Yellow. And while it’s unlikely to pass the COMBINED sales of Red/Blue/Green, it’s going to outsell each of them individually.

You can also look at how Blue sold in Japan when it was released later as a special edition (Green was a JP only Sku and Blue was released in the rest of the world) despite being the almost the exact same game as Green/Red AND only available as part of a magazine promotion and realize that if GF really wants to milk this games success they can release a minor update with one new Pokémon in 6 months and expect around a 30% sales jump out of Japan. It's hard to say how well that would sell globally because none of the Japanize only games have been released world wide, but just the Japanese sales would mean the combined skus should outsell the combined skus of Red/Blue/Green to make this the best selling game of all time by that matrix as well,

So ... best selling Pokémon game of all time by a MASSIVE margin, regardless of what you “think”

@Madao I beat this game in 5 days because I was having so much fun. I still need to finish the Pokedex, but that's a post-game task. It's a refreshing break from the formulaic Pokémon games of the past. I hope GameFreak strives to create a game with these mechanics in a modern Pokémon setting. I'd love to see the Player Character as a Pokémon Breeder or Gym Leader.

@Ryu_Niiyama yeah, GF takes smaller steps than most would like but you can see the progression.

Let's Go brought the games to home console, gave us Pokémon in the overworld (scaled to size, no random encounters), and rideable Pokémon, as well as being an experiment with throwing balls to catch without battling, or at least bringing that from Pokémon GO into the games proper.

I had a blast with it. I always wanted to play Red & Blue as a kid and this finally let me without the annoyances of forced battling a million zubats and geodudes in row. I really Hate (with a capital H) random encounters so the way it was done in Let's Go really let me enjoy the game and the Pokémon in the world. I was genuinely excited everytime I saw a wild Pokémon I remembered from 25 years ago and shiny hunting is something I'd never have been into outside of Let's Go.

Sword & Shield took the step into the Wild Area and doubled down on it in the DLCs. I have it but haven't played it yet due to other games.

Legends Arceus really puts everything right from those other two games together and in better proportions. Keeping the Pokémon in the overworld but allowing a mix of battling wild Pokémon with just throwing to capture, all "wild areas", etc.

I think GF has been going in the right direction and folks just trash them because they do things methodically with a lot of safe half steps but the breadcrumbs leading to this stretch back years.

@CasualNintendonite

My wife is betting the first expansion will be you running around and setting up Gyms and the general "Pokémon trainer" culture, which I gotta admit would be stellar.

Personally I think they will leverage the work they have already done with Sword/Shield and use Time/Space to just massively increase the Pokémon count.

I very much doubt breading because unless they completely overhaul the core systems ... breeding actually has very little benefit. They are also unlikely to completely break lore, which means no ditto seeing it was created alongside Mewtwo. I guess they could just time/space that, but still, I see this as the least likely opinion.

@HeadPirate I mean, GameFreak making a game around being a Pokemon Breeder is a longshot. It's something that I've always wanted, having a ranch of Pokemon that I refine over several generations. Testing my homebrew bred Pokémon against other trainers.

As far as Pokémon Legends: Arceus DLC. I can see the first DLC about the formation of Pokémon Trainer Culture. We already have hints of that in the released game, and it wouldn't be farfetched to imagine GameFreak bringing that into Hisui.

@westman98 Comments like that come from people who have zero perspective and knowledge of the video game market. That poster doesn't know better.

@Lord Considering this is Japan only, it is insanely high by every standard

Well deserved. It's a breath of fresh air for the franchise. I've been addicted to playing it.

@ReaperMelia Let's be real though, most people by far only get a single version. Sure, having two versions can push the numbers a bit, but they are not night and day by any means. I genuinely believe this game can outsell every other Pokemon game.

I underestimed this game sales traction severely.
I initially said this game would easily sell 5 million but the lifetime sales would only be around 10 million.
It looks like Arceus will hit double digits in no time.

@Lord The numbers says otherwise lol. Especially when it’s not a traditional mainline Pokémon game that follows the usual try-and-true formula.

@Ralizah It would have to be hyped up as a single player experience then because Legends loses hard in terms of multiplayer [No PvP] and collecting [less Pokémon] that SW/SD has the edge on as THE traditional mainline Switch Pokémon game. If there is no post release dlc to prolong post-release hype like what SW/SD got then that is another handicap Legends has to deal with too. Having an excellent launch is one thing, but excellent legs is the real battle. Ring Fit should show anybody how important legs are when it launched at like 90k in Japan.

I knew it would launch at over a million, but didn't think it would manage to inch out beating BDSP.

Really impressive. I'm curious to see how this influence future games in the franchise.

It outselling BD/SP is fantastic. I wish those games had flopped altogether, but at least the more ambitious title sold better.

This game is amazing and defied all my expectations. It's truly the "Breath of the Wild" moment of the series for Pokemon and it deserves to sell well.

Who wouldn't expect those numbers since this is the only single Pokémon game being sold.