Pokemon Legends Arceus Key Art
Image: Nintendo / The Pokémon Company

We know the Pokémon series is always a big seller, but we're always surprised when we actually see the numbers. As part of Nintendo's latest financial results, published today, the company revealed that Pokémon Legends: Arceus has sold over 12.64 million units worldwide up to March 2022.

Despite being a different take on the Pokémon formula, the brand itself is infectious — as are those glowing reviews, of which we have one of our own — but over 12 million sales between its 28th January release and 31st March is a heck of a lot.

Breaking it down even more, Arceus sold an impressive 3.46 million copies in Japan, while the rest of the world gobbled up 9.17 million units. Not only that, an Alpha-sized 11.4 million of those sales came in just 10 weeks!

It's not the Champion of the Pokémon game sales on Switch yet, of course — that honour goes to Sword and Shield — and last year's Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl sold almost 14 million copies in a shorter period of time. That's perhaps not surprising as it's a more-traditional Pokémon game (and a remake). But Pokémon Legends: Arceus is proof that the series' formula can indeed be shaken up and still produce results.

The game is only about 2 million sales behind the remake duo, and it's not that far away from joining the current ten best-selling games on the Switch either. Do you think it'll crack the list eventually? Let us know in the comments.

[source nintendo.co.jp]