Pokémon breaks own sales record for Nintendo of America
The current iterations of the Pokémon franchise, Sun and Moon, have proven to be "super effective," especially in the American market. In a recent announcement, Nintendo of America stated that the games have sold over 3.7 million copies in two weeks - the fastest-selling in the region to date.
Regarded as having the most pre-orders in the history of Nintendo, it overtook its predecessor, Pokemon X and Y, which previously held the record, with an 85% increase. And while X and Y are still holding on the title of the best-selling game for the Nintendo 3DS (with 15.64 million games sold as of September 30th), it may not take long before this position is taken from them as well.
Japan has sold over 3 million copies of the game, and in Europe, the game has 1.5 million copies out of store shelves. Even the demo of the game was positively-received, being one of the most downloaded games when it was released in October.
Gamespot suggests that the increased sales could be attributed to the release of Pokémon GO around the middle of the year. While Nintendo's statement did not mention anything about the Niantic-developed mobile game, statistics show that there sales for the 3DS rose significantly in July, the month the game was officially released.
Nintendo, however, acknowledged that as a whole, the Pokémon franchise has sold over 280 million units in the region, starting from 1996's Pokémon Red and Blue. With the success of Sun and Moon, eyes are now focused on the possible third entry for the seventh generation of Pokémon games.
Dubbed as "Pokémon Stars", this game, according to Tech Radar, may be coming out on the upcoming console, Nintendo Switch. This would mark the first time a main-titled Pokémon game would be released on a console, rather than a handheld.
Released on November 18, Pokémon Sun and Moon takes a fresh take on the game by bringing a new region (Alola), replacing Gym battles with Trial Challenges, Pokémon that evolve into a Legendary, and Ultra Beasts, to name a few.
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