I've been posting these threads in the sales section, but thought I'd try it on the specific platform section today to see if gets more coments this way, this is also the first time any of the "Sales of the Day" threads/articles looked at a handheld game.

Change in Sales Game of the Day

(Article to be posted 11/14)

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl

For the first time since the series debuted on the original Gameboy eleven years ago, the newest edition of a mainline Pokémon game outsold its immediate predecessor. Even more impressive is that the Diamond/Pearl are still selling over 10,000 copies a week more than 3 years after their release, meaning the % increase from last generations game is continuing to go up. So what has allowed Pokémon Diamond/Pearl to break the trend and actually sell more than the games did last generation? Are the games better this generation than last generation, or is it just because of the massive install base of the DS, or is it something else? Vote in the poll then leave a comment letting us know what you think.

Previous Change in Sales threads

Ratchet and Clank (article link)

Need for Speed (article link)

Halo 3 (article link)

I need some more votes and comments please.

It got higher sales due to higher userbase. The GBA was replaced with the DS 3 years after launch. Ruby/sapphire launched a year before the DS. The DS stole attention from it. Lessing its sales. Though Diamond didn't have that problem thanks to no DS 2

The game is simply better, I remember when the DS hadnt beaten the GBA yet and Pokemon D/P had already outsold Pokemon R/S

Killeryoshis, thats an interesting reason. I think Ruby/Saphire had more like 18 months before the DS came out at least in America and more in Japan. But Diamond/Pearl have certainly been out longer than that without a followup console. I had forgotten how quickly the DS came out after the GBA, but I now remember that is why their had been the talk from Nintendo about the DS being the "third pillar" of their hardware, before the DS really caught on and they allowed the GBA to die off.

Pokemon just has a slightly larger fanbase now. I've seen some who enjoyed the GB games come back for with these games.

The addition of Wi-Fi Play and the DS's larger userbase doesn't hurt its appeal either.

Bigger userbase. Some would say marketing (Have only seen the R/S/E commercial for about 2 months) and an expanding fanbase, however, the userbase really did a big number to increase its sales numbers.

If there's one thing we've seen this generation, it's that major games have increased in sales, and minor games have decreased. Pokemon was, up until this generation, the most major of them all.

The actual Pokemon growth is far larger than this comparison shows.

This gen, we're looking at

Diamond/Pearl - 18 million

HeartGold/SoulSilver - 10 million + (?)

Platinum - 7 - 9 million

Spinoffs - 16 million

Last gen:

 Ruby - 15 million

FireRed/Leaf Green - 10 million

Emerald - 6 million

Spinoffs - 1 million

By the end of the generation, there should have been sold at least 25 million more Pokemon games this gen, than last gen. That's near a double in sales.

Good post Pineapple, I didn't realize how many Pokemon spinoffs and how successful they have been until I just checked. I wonder if so many spinoffs help the main series titles by extra publicity of the franchise, or if they dilute the sales of the main series games because Pokemon fans have so many games to choose from?