Pokémon Sword & Shield have just reached a huge milestone, as they are the first set of mainline Pokémon games to sell over twenty million copies since Pokémon Gold & Silver on the Game Boy. Pokémon Sword & Shield faced controversy upon release, as they didn’t feature all of the Pokémon from the history of the series.
There were a lot of misgivings about the quality of Pokémon Sword & Shield, but the games still reviewed well, and they shipped a ton of copies. The fact that these were the first mainline Pokémon games on a home console was a huge draw for some, and it quickly became a best-seller for Nintendo. The response to Pokémon Sword & Shield was staggering, but it only managed to crack the top five Switch games, as it has yet to match the sales power of Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Nintendo has released its latest financial report on its website, which includes the updated sales figures for Pokémon Sword & Shield. According to Nintendo, Pokémon Sword & Shield have sold a combined 20.35 million units around the world. This means that Pokémon Sword & Shield are the third set of mainline Pokémon games to sell over twenty million units. The only other games to do so are Pokémon Gold & Silver and Pokémon Red & Blue.
The only other Pokémon games to come close to this number are Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, which sold an accumulative 17.67 million units across their lifespan. This might explain why people want remakes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl so badly. The other mainline Pokémon games generally sell in the 15-16 million unit range, except for the third versions, sequels, and remakes, which usually sell fewer copies.
It bears mentioning that Pokémon Sword & Shield were only released in 2019, and there is still plenty of time for them to outsell the Game Boy Pokémon titles. Pokémon Gold & Silver sold 23.1 million units, and that is an achievable goal for Pokémon Sword & Shield, considering that the Switch is still only halfway through its current lifespan. What’s less likely is a victory over Pokémon Red & Blue, which sold over thirty million copies and was the best-selling game ever in Japan, until New Horizons broke its record. It’s unlikely that Pokémon Sword & Shield can ever compete with the numbers brought in during the original Pokémania boom, but these are still incredibly impressive figures, and they prove that love for the Pokémon video games is as strong as ever.
