We got another record-breaker on our hands
According to new Japanese data (shared by industry analyst David Gibson),Pokemon Legendssold over 1.4 million copies in just that region alone, not accounting for digital sales. To set the stage,Pokemon Brilliant DiamondandShiningPearlhave sold13.97 million units to date, combined, across the world, with both physical and digital sales included in that figure.
As Gibson points out, this is the second best-selling Switch gameof all time in that timeframewhen you just consider the first week of sales: coming behindAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, which clocked 1.88 million sold. By comparison, Pokemon Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearltogether pushed 1.39 million in that same period.
So it begs the question: ifLegendsends up outsellingSwordandShieldcombined, and paves a new path for the series,can we just dump the dual release thing?
That notion was running through my mind as I was playing throughLegendsthis past week. I kept thinking: “wait, do I need to trade to get X?” and second-guessing myself. Turns out, nope! The entire game is complete.
Previously, late-adopters could just wait on the “third” ultimate edition, likePlatinum, to sate that need, andessentiallyhave it all, with upgrades. But Nintendo and Game Freak stopped doing that a while ago, and the dual-release concept persisted.
ButLegends— whether it’s an experiment or a proof of concept for how the series will carry on going forward — has shown us that it’s not really necessary anymore.
