By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales Discussion - Update: Pokemon Sword/Shield sells 2 million in first 3 days in Japan, doubles Switch hardware to 180k

Chrkeller on 20 November 2019

Good game, great sales. The "movement" had no impact.



Around the Network
Barkley on 20 November 2019
Chrkeller said:
Good game, great sales. The "movement" had no impact.

???

Previous 3 new gen titles:

Pokemon Black & White - 2.64m
Pokemon X & Y - 2.1m
Pokemon Sun & Moon - 1.9m

How can you say "No impact."

Regardless, even if sales had been amazing, without the "movement" as you call it, sales might have been even higher. 



RenCutypoison on 20 November 2019

What are the digital ratios of other best-selling Nintendo first party games on Switch ?



Somethingsomething on 20 November 2019

@Barkley

You cant make any comments until we see an official PR statement regarding this game. We don't know it's digital or Amazon sales and vouchers are not considered at all.



Chrkeller on 20 November 2019

Digital sales are not included. And buying digitally has increased in popularity. Fact is S/S reviewed well and is selling great. Haters can move along now. Game over.



Around the Network
think-man on 20 November 2019
PAOerfulone said:
andisart said:

The more people own a system the more potential buyers, that’s general logic. To call S/S a mediocre opening while ignoring install base is ignorant imo. 

Half the install base? The 3DS had around 14m in Japan when X/Y released, compared to 10m of S/S. 

He's asking how you can explain X/Y selling more than Sun/Moon even though X/Y released on a much smaller install base than Sun/Moon did? By your first point, Sun/Moon should have sold much more because when those games came out, it was on a significantly bigger install base and selling to more potential buyers. Especially when you consider when those games launched, hot off the heels of Pokemon GO and its worldwide takeover bringing Pokemon close to the levels of popularity and awareness it was back in its peak in the late 90s. 

You can't just multiply the Switch's install base and apply the same to Sword/Shield thinking it will sell that much more. It doesn't work that way and it never has. Every Nintendo handheld that has had 2 mainline Pokemon games, the 1st one always outsold the 2nd one.
Game Boy/Color: Red/Blue > Gold/Silver
Nintendo DS: Diamond/Pearl > Black/White
Nintendo 3DS: X/Y > Sun/Moon

Bigger install base be damned. Because a portion of the audience are usually satisfied with just the 1st set of games. Add to that, the remakes of a prior generation or enhanced versions Game Freak releases in between generations, by the time the 2nd generation comes out, those people who skip out on it do so because they've already had their fill with Pokemon on that system and are ready for the next. And this also goes for many of Nintendo's other franchises, not just Pokemon.
Mario Galaxy 1 > Mario Galaxy 2
Ocarina of Time > Majora's Mask
Twilight Princess > Skyward Sword
DKC 1 > DKC 2 > DKC 3
Wii Sports > Wii Sports Resort
Metroid Prime > Metroid Prime 2
I could go on and on.

Most of the time, a bigger install base did not equate to better sales for the next game.

Finally, someone who gets it. 



 

How to Make friends In Dark Souls 3

Barkley on 20 November 2019
Chrkeller said:
Digital sales are not included. And buying digitally has increased in popularity. Fact is S/S reviewed well and is selling great. Haters can move along now. Game over.

Damn, I've seen you actively defending SW/SH from the HATE so much, but I didn't think you were this invested!

Ok you've won the argument, Sword and Shield have done amazingly well, all controversies have had zero impact. I think it's better for everyone if you believe this.



miqdadi on 20 November 2019

Frankly I thought it will open with 1.5M physical, wonder if the double is counted separately here, anyway it gave a push to Switch and it's going to sell well with digital & legs but I expect it to reach at least 15M world wide before next release



Barkley on 20 November 2019
RenCutypoison said:
What are the digital ratios of other best-selling Nintendo first party games on Switch ?

Can't get singular digital sales, but we can get the average digital sales ratio of all retail/package games.

Last fiscal year Digital Sales including "A. downloadable versions of packaged software, B. Download-Only Software, C. Add-On Content and D. Nintendo Switch Online Subscriptions" accounted for 24.8% of sales to the total dedicated video game software sales.

Nintendo show that 67.6% of those digital sales are "downloadable versions of packaged software sales". So we get this:

Retail Games - 75.2%
Digital Versions of Retail Games - 16.8%
Download Only Titles, Add-On Content & Subscriptions - 8%

so (16.8/92)*100 - 18.2

So for last fiscal year the digital ratio for retail games was 18.2%.

This would put SW/SH FW sales including digital at 1.66m

But that's global data, revenue not units and average lifetime, not average FW. So how useful that actually is, is questionable.



Barkley on 20 November 2019
miqdadi said:
I expect it to reach at least 15M world wide before next release

I agree, I think it will do better globally than it has in Japan. Let's Go did.

Interestingly Let's Go week sold the same hardware as Sword/Shield.

Let's Go week Switch sold 180,585 in Japan.

Sword & Shield week Switch sold 180,136 in Japan.