Pokémon Sun & Moon Fastest Selling Games In Nintendo History In Americas
2016 has been a stellar year for Pokémon, which celebrated its 20th anniversary. From its epic Super Bowl commercial to the unprecedented success of Pokémon Go to the monthly Legendary Pokémon giveaways, and of course now with Pokémon Sun & Moon finally on the market. They were the most pre-ordered video games in Nintendo’s history, so it’s probably no big surprise to see them shatter sales records as well.
In under two weeks, the duo of games has sold a combined total of 3.7 million copies in the Americas alone. To put that in perspective, that’s a whopping 85% increase over Pokémon X & Y during the same period when those games launched in 2013. Congratulations to Nintendo and hopefully this momentum can carry over to the Switch in March!
After becoming the most pre-ordered video games in Nintendo history, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon – the latest games in the wildly popular Pokémon franchise – have now become the fastest-selling games that Nintendo has ever launched in the Americas. In less than two weeks, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems sold a combined total of 3.7 million units. That’s an 85 percent increase over Pokémon X and Pokémon Y – the previous record holders for Nintendo’s fastest-selling games – during the same period when those games launched in 2013.
“With these huge sales figures, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon have proved themselves as two of the hottest video games to buy this holiday season,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “With great reviews and outstanding fan response, these next iterations in the Pokémon series are sure to please any player in the family.”
All Pokémon-related software has sold more than 280 million units* worldwide since launching with the Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version games in 1996. The Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Versiongames are both available for download in Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS. Other notable launches in the Pokémon series include Pokémon X and Pokémon Y (15.64 million games sold globally life-to-date), Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire(13.18 million games sold globally life-to-date).
In Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, Pokémon Trainers-in-the-making head to the game’s new Alola Region – a series of tropical islands – to catch, battle and trade Pokémon. By discovering new Z-Moves, Pokémon can unleash powerful attacks in battle. The new Poké Ride feature allows certain Pokémon to help people get to places they wouldn’t be able to reach by using human strength alone. In addition to three new partner Pokémon, players can catch a host of new Pokémon, as well as the unique regional variants of some familiar favorites.
For more information about Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, visit Pokemon.com/SunMoon.
Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.
*Total for all Pokémon-related software: more than 280 million units worldwide as of May 2016.
[Source: Nintendo]
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
