It was 3m+, I think...

I remember that it topped Call of Duty ( black ops 1 )  in April's  March's npd 2011... So, de ja vu! ;)

From my experience at the holidays, that statement doesn't hold water on several points.  One, your soccer moms don't preorder, especially not at Gamestop.  They might lay away at K-Mart or do a similar thing at Walmart or maybe Best Buy but Gamestop?  No.  Two, your average parent or aunt or grandparent walking into Gamestop is clueless 50 to 60% of the time, meaning 1) they often will buy whatever game their kid has asked for, Call of Duty definitely included and 2) an alarming number I see are still buying freaking shovel ware titles for the original Wii cause they don't want to fork over 40 to 60 bucks for new, better games (shoot, some won't even pay the 25 dollars to get Super Mario Galaxy or some such), so your "CoD don't get that kind of sale" argument is undermined right there.  And lastly, I doubt the digital purchase shift for CoD *this* year is the main factor here because 1) the shere size of the download size is obscene and 2) they are saying it is the most preordered game in 5 years so unless you are making this argument for every CoD from 2011 onward, it doesn't hold water.  And lastly, you make it sound like buying CoD is hard to get at GameStop which is just flat out hilarious because CoD is easier to find physically than most crucial survival necessities.  You're more likely to see Walmart sell out of Coca-Cola than GameStop sell out of the latest CoD.  And finally, the current online user number estimates for CoD put the sales of Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered substantially bellow the norm for the franchise so no, it's not a shift to digital sales making Pokemon's physical copy triumph easier, CoD has just failed to light the world on fire this year.

You seem to have a very specific Parent type in mind who doesn't go into Gamestop to make sure their kid has a game they want for Christmas and will instead buy them "some shovel ware for the original wii" instead of the game they want for Christmas, damn that is some shit parent right there.

But to even suggest that CoD and Pokemon have a similar amount of digital sales is just mindblowing and I wasn't suggesting it was hard to get CoD at gamestop, I just mean it's a pain in comparison to buying it from the online stores of both consoles.

This game looks like it could be huge.

Where on earth did you get the idea I said Pokemon and CoD have similar digital sapes?  My point was there has not been a significant enough growth this year in digital over physical for CoD to somehow lessen the significance of what Pokemon has accomplished.  And it's not a "hassle" to get CoD at a Gamestop anymore than to get Pokemon or literally any other major release.  They have boatloads of copies.  The kdea that CoD of all games would be annoying enough to buy physically that a large chunk would suddenly shift to digital is absurd.

As for the parent comment, my point was simply that your idea of chirstmas parrent video game shopping is just plain unrepresentative.  Parents either buy what their kids actually want - be it CoD, Batman, Pokemon, or whatever - or buy what's cheap.  And yes, every year I will see numerous parents at numerous Gamestops picking up cheap old games for the 360, PS3, and definitely the Wii - normally shovelware - rather than buy newer, higher quality releases.  Cause they are clueless and think games have no real value anyway.  And let's be blunt, these days as many or more kids ask for CoD over Pokemon.  Pokemon is something a parent who knows what they're doing buys a kid, not the usual suspects who go to Gamestop twice a year and buy whatever their kid asked for or Gamestop has on sale.

Interesting. And here I was thinking that it would be slightly less than X & Y, with my reasoning being that interest in the 3DS is waning, with that somewhat offset by the popularity of Pokemon Go. Early indications from Japan seem to be inline with this, so I am curious if US sales will follow a different trend.

I will remain a pessimist, and just assume the pre-order numbers just mean it will be more front loaded than before.

Wow, just wow.

Yeah, but parents have been buying X/Y and ORAS as well and they never smashed previous five years of pre-order records. These games have some serious hype behind them. They are going to perform well.

amazing stats !!